Community First Credit Union Appoints Ted Willich to Board

Local tech CEO joins governance
of one of Jacksonville’s largest credit unions

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 28, 2021 – Community First Credit Union announces it has appointed Ted Willich to serve as its newest board member. Willich replaces outgoing member Ellen Paige, who recently retired as director of insurance and risk management at Jacksonville University. Paige served on the board since 2006. Community First board members are volunteers and are responsible for the governance of the nonprofit financial institution. Willich previously served as a member of Community First’s Community Advisory Council.

Willich is Co-Founder and CEO of NLP Logix, an artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions company based in Jacksonville. NLP Logix provides automation solutions by training computers to do repetitive tasks done by humans. Since 2011 NLP Logix has grown from three employees to a team of more than 50 professionals in software engineering, mathematics and statistics, data analysts and machine learning. NLP Logix has been recognized as one of the leaders in computer vision, the practice of training computers to identify objects within images and was recently awarded four patents for the methods. NLP Logix has been recognized as one of the top 50 fastest-growing privately held companies in Northeast Florida as well as being recognized in the Inc5000 fastest growing privately held companies in the United States.  

Before NLP Logix, Ted was co-founder and COO of a start-up that grew from zero to over $100 million in annual revenues over 15 years. Prior to his business career, Willich served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps from 1988 until 1992. After active duty, Ted served in various command and staff assignments and retired from the Marine Corps as a Major in 2003. Ted earned a bachelor’s degree in history and leadership studies at Ripon College in Wisconsin. Ted and his wife Julie have lived in Northeast Florida for 18 years and have three grown children.

“We are honored to welcome Mr. Willich to our board,” said Community First Board Chair Elvia Williams. “His business and finance expertise are an asset to our team, and we are looking forward to his insightful governance as we continue to grow across Northeast Florida.”

Community First Credit Union of Florida is a state-chartered credit union based in Jacksonville serving anyone who lives or works on the First Coast. Community First is one of the 10 largest credit unions in the state, serving more than 153,000 members and with assets of $2.2 billion. Community First has 19 locations and 340 employees. A not-for-profit,Community First is a full-service financial institution offering banking, loans, mortgages and investments for consumers and businesses across the First Coast.