Inside Campus Partners

Charles Parker
June 2005

Comptroller

Charles Parker will be celebrating one of life’s milestones next month. He is not turning 100 or celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary. What he is doing is celebrating his fortieth anniversary with the company during the month of June. Although the company has changed ownership and locations several times, Charles has remained a stalwart force within the company. His knowledge of student loan processing is legendary and his willingness to help a customer or staff member resolve an issue is without limits. Almost every staff member here has a story about how Charles has helped them satisfy a customer’s need.

Charles originally worked in bank operations, but transferred to the student loan division in 1979 to help develop an automated reporting system that would reconcile bank accounts and create audit trails. He had gained expertise in helping design a check clearing system for the bank and developing online systems for reconciliation. When he first started working with student loans, it could take up to a week to manually process new loans and advances, while today they can be processed overnight. Although Charles is too modest to directly admit it, much of our current technology is built on his work. In fact, he was a major contributor to the design of our processing system, which today remains the only system in the industry that completely reprocesses backdated transactions without any manual intervention.

Charles’ extensive knowledge of system issues is built on the basics. “You have to know how every check is processed to know how to correct and build systems. It was easy for me to pick up how systems could be designed. I just had an aptitude for it,” Charles explained modestly.

Today, Charles still plays an integral role with Campus Partners and in the industry. He recently was appointed Comptroller for the company. In this capacity, Charles is responsible for overseeing accounting functions, account reconciliation, accounts receivable, budget oversight, bank account reconciliation, and table changes for Winston-Salem based operations. He also oversees the Servicing Support area, which includes the payment processing and imaging areas, the vault, mailroom, and facilities management. In addition, he handles vendor relations with our distribution center, our eXpressReports and annual CD vendor, lockbox provider, auditors, and manages the Audit and Compliance area.

Even after all this time, he still takes care of the basics. “My goal is to bring my best to the job everyday so that I can make a difference to our customers and staff. I am enjoying my company-wide responsibility to create and monitor our budget,” Charles added with genuine enthusiasm.

Away from work, Charles is very much a family man. He and his wife, Carol, have been married for 38 years. They have two adult children, a 17-year old son, and two grandsons. They also are expecting a granddaughter in September. Their 17-year old son is following in Charles’ footsteps. Like his father, he enjoys math and science, and will graduate next year with high honors just as his father did years ago. Both served as junior marshals, and—like his son—Charles was a member of the National Honor Society. Besides being involved with his son’s sports and school activities, Charles enjoys playing golf and recently undertook a home remodeling project.

Despite being a close-knit family, Charles and his wife and children all cheer for different basketball teams. Charles is a die-hard Carolina fan, his wife roots for Wake Forest, his younger son likes North Carolina State, and his other son and daughter prefer UNC-Charlotte, their alma mater. With characteristic charm, Charles related his families’ favorite teams, and added with a smile, “I guess we could be considered a dysfunctional family.”

Please join with us in congratulating Charles on his longevity, but more importantly, on his ongoing contributions to the student loan industry.