MADISON, Wis. –Filene Research Institute has hired Joshua Sledge as the senior director of incubation, a role dedicated to developing Filene’s incubation initiatives and arming industry leaders with innovative ideas, early stage concepts and promising technologies that solve the real-world problems credit unions and their members face.
“As a nationally recognized expert on building household financial capability, Josh’s specific areas of expertise and passion for exploring emerging opportunities enhances the credit union industry’s capacity to adapt to an ever changing and unpredictable world,” said Mark Meyer, Filene’s President and CEO. “At Filene we know that incubation is symbiotic with, necessary to, and ultimately an indispensable form of research—and we are thrilled to have Josh’s leadership and vision drive these efforts forward.”
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Sledge received a master’s degree from Northwestern University. He spent four years as a Senior Investment Analyst at Prudential Financial before moving to Financial Health Network (formerly the Center for Financial Services Innovation), a national nonprofit think tank working to improve the financial health of Americans. It is here that Sledge first became connected with Filene. From 2013 to 2014, the Financial Health Network helped fund the testing of LIFT (Lower Interest for Timeliness), a concept idea from Filene’s i3 program, within five credit unions.
“Incubation is not new to Filene yet the opportunity to accelerate it based on the existing framework and the incredible work that has been done to date is truly exciting,” Sledge said. “Given this extraordinary opportunity to drive change, especially considering the thousands of credit unions across the country as potential partners in this change, I know that together we will produce significant impact for those who need it most.”