AJ Schalk, AVP of AuditLink
AJ Schalk began his professional career in 2013 where he co-founded a printing company out of his parents’ garage. In a few short years AJ developed a strategy to develop contracts with other print shops to complete their overflow work which helped the business grow exponentially. Using his skills as a great communicator and marketer the business was able to expand into a warehouse and hire employees to complete the work. In 2021 AJ decided he wanted to depart from the printing industry and get into the Credit Union industry. AJ joined the CU*Answers Network originally in Client Services where he got an excellent education on the foundation principles of CU*Answers and the functionality of CU*BASE our flagship software. Within six months he was promoted to Account Executive on the SettleMINT EFT team where he oversaw the implementation of debit card and bill pay data conversions. Also gaining a greater understanding of the risk assessment necessary within the world of EFT. In 2023 AJ joined the Auditlink team as AVP where he works with alongside Jim Vilker providing crucial Risk Management Services to clients daily. Using his skills as an effective communicator to train credit unions on BSA and high-risk management.
Patrick Sickels, Internal Auditor
Patrick Sickels began his career as an attorney, and quickly branched out into the technological services industry, where he used his legal skills to help companies manage their compliance requirements. Patrick used these skills to develop into a classically trained auditor and risk manager. At CU*Answers, Patrick’s background of law and technology make him uniquely suited to assist credit union clients in managing their risk requirements with a minimum of cost.Patrick is a licensed Certification Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and is pursuing the Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) designation. Patrick has done extensive work in designing risk models and control frameworks for a vast array of commercial, manufacturing, and financial firms. Patrick’s specialty is the design of compliance models which meet legal standards at the lowest possible cost for the organization.