Board of Directors

Bill Maurin was appointed to the position of President and CEO of Meridian Credit Union in May 2014. Mr. Maurin serves as a Director on the Central 1, CUMIS Group, and the CUCO Co-operative Association boards.  He is past director of Credential Securities and Central 1 Trust Company.

Mr. Maurin holds a CA Designation, and an Honours Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University.

Paul Kelly was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Connect First Credit Union, created through the merger of First Calgary and Chinook credit unions in 2014.  Paul had been the CEO of First Calgary Credit Union since 2009.

Mr. Kelly currently is a member of the boards of Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures, the Canadian Mental Health Association (Calgary Region) and is Vice Chair of Alberta Central.

Mr.  Kelly holds a Master of Business Administration, Finance from York University and an Honours Business Administration from University of Western Ontario – Richard Ivey School of Business.

Stephen started his career at Libro 1988 and became President & CEO and Head Coach in 2012. He spearheaded the combination with United Communities Credit Union in 2013 while focusing on economic development in southwestern Ontario, and enabling and ensuring outstanding customer satisfaction levels.

Stephen holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Windsor, and an Executive MBA from the Ivey School of Business. He is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors Program through the Rotman School of Management, an Associate of the Credit Union Institute of Canada, a graduate of the Queen’s Executive Program, and holds certificates from the Canadian Securities Institute.

Stephen is the Chair of the national credit union industry organization; the Chair of the Credit Unions of Ontario; and a director on the London Chamber of Commerce Board. He previously served nine years on the Credential Financial Services Board.

Stephen and his wife, Betty, live on a farm near Poplar Hill, and have two children, Kyle and Elise. He is an avid reader, a lifelong learner, enjoys coaching, travelling, and is active on social media. He stays active by running and biking.

As President and CEO of Alberta Central, Ian leads the organization in establishing current and long-range objectives under the direction of the Board of Directors. This includes ensuring that strategic goals and operational objectives are attained and that the organization’s vision is realized. He represents the company with major customers, shareholders, the financial community and the public, and represents the provincial credit union system within Alberta and nationally.

A critical part of his role is about ensuring excellence in member service, effective member engagement and an ongoing commitment to evolve and improve the value Alberta Central offers its member credit unions. To be effective in this includes collaborating with the executive management team, employees and the Board of Directors as well as with other credit union Centrals and affiliates.

In his most recent role, Ian served as CEO of the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA), where he focused on revitalizing the mandate and strategic direction of the association. In the role, he worked closely with the Board of Directors, employees, members and related industry groups. With the majority of his career spent in regulated industries (telecommunications, banking and retail finance) and as the leader for two insurance companies, Ian has a strong portfolio of governance and regulatory work to go along with his corporate operational experience.

Ian also holds an MBA from the University of Regina and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Calgary.

Allison Chaytor-Loveys is the CEO and Treasurer of Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union. Allison was inducted into the Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEOs Atlantic Canada Hall of Fame in 2010, having been named a Top 50 CEO in Atlantic Canada for five consecutive years.

Allison is a Fellow of the Credit Union Institute of Canada.

As chief operating officer of First West Credit Union, Shelley Besse is responsible for leading regional operations across all of First West’s regional brands including Envision Financial, Valley First, Enderby & District Financial and Island Savings.

Shelley is a highly respected leader with extensive knowledge and experience in financial services. Creating excellence in the member experience has been a primary driver throughout her longstanding career with the credit union and extending the organization’s promise of being trusted advisors to its members and clients remains a top priority. In her role as chief operating officer, she remains committed to seeing things from the perspectives of First West Credit Union members, local businesses and communities.

Since joining Envision Financial in 1984, Shelley has held a number of increasingly senior in-branch and leadership roles including branch manager; vice-president, branch operations; vice-president, sales and service and vice-president, risk management and operations. She was appointed to lead First West’s merger transition plan in 2009 and successfully delivered against a three-year strategy to create a high—performing operations team within First West’s new operating model.

Following this role, Shelley was appointed senior vice-president of operations, sales and member experience where she focused on providing employees with operations support and for developing and implementing an enterprise-wide continuous improvement strategy known as Lean. In January 2012, Shelley became president of the Envision Financial, a division of First West Credit Union and in January 2016 she was appointed as chief operating officer of First West.

In 2012, Shelley received international recognition for her leadership and business acumen when she was awarded a Silver Stevie Award in the category of Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services –11 to 2,500 Employees and a Bronze Stevie Award in the category of Female Executive of the Year in Canada.

Among her many credentials, Shelley holds an MBA from Royal Roads University, a certificate in financial planning, is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program, specializing in strategy and organizational design and has received an Operational Risk Management professional designation from the International Council for Operational Risk Management. Shelley currently serves on the Board of CCUA and Aviso.

Glenn has more than 36 years of Credit Union system experience, specializing in strategic planning, tactical implementation, membership relations and membership business development. He joined Synergy in 1997 as Branch Manager of the Lloydminster location and held this position until July 2003, when he was promoted to Executive Manager of Retail Services (now Chief Operating Officer). Synergy’s Board voted unanimously to appoint Glenn as the new CEO in 2013. Glenn believes in lifelong learning and in 2015 completed an extensive 3-year program in order to obtain his Certified Chief Executive (CCE) Designation via CUES (Credit Union Executive Society) and is currently enrolled in the professional director education program through Governance Solutions Inc. and plans to achieve a professional board certification by December 31, 2018.

Being involved in the community is an important value at Synergy. Away from work, Glenn has coached hockey for 17 years, was a Kinsmen for 25 years and continues to be an active K40 member, was an inaugural board member/chair for KidSport Lloydminster for 5 years, Lloydminster Economic Development chair for 4 years, Lloydminster Interval Home chair for 5 years, Streetscapes for 5 years, Wheatland Regional Centre chair for 4 years and participated on the Chamber of Commerce political action committee for 5 years.

Glenn currently serves on the Celero Management Committee and was Chair of CEAMS in Saskatchewan for 5 years until is dissolution in December 2017.

José Gallant was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Alterna Savings and its subsidiary, Alterna Bank in July 2013. She previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Alterna group from 1997 to 2013 and also served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer from January to April 2013.

José began her career with Alterna in 1989, as Manager Internal Audit, progressed to the role of Controller in 1994 and was appointed to Chief Financial Officer in 1997. Her role was expanded in 2004 and elevated to Senior Vice President. During her career, José has provided leadership to various functional areas. As Chief Administrative Officer, she currently oversees human resources, corporate affairs, compliance, risk management, and facilities.

José is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Ottawa. She was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group 2015 and currently serves as Chair of their Finance and Audit committees.

She was previously a member of the board of Bruyère Continuing Care for 5 years, where she served as Treasurer and Chair of the Resources Management Committee until 2008. José also served as an alternate director on the board of the Canadian Payments Association from 2003 to 2005, and is a Past President of the Ottawa Chapter of the Financial Executives International (FEI).

Ken Shea is the President & CEO of East Coast Credit Union, the largest credit union in Atlantic Canada. Ken began his career in financial services in 1983 with the Bank of Montreal, and progressed through various senior management positions until he left the position of Personal Banking Area Manager to join the Credit Union system in 2004.

Ken was inducted into Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEOs in 2015, and has been named a Top 50 CEO in Atlantic Canada for 3 consecutive years. Ken was also named 2018 Canada’s Clean 50 Award Honoree, and under his leadership, ECCU was awarded the 2018 Canadian Credit Union Association National Corporate Social Responsibility Award.

Ken holds an MBA, Marketing and Finance, from the University of New Brunswick, and a Bachelor of Commerce, Finance from Dalhousie University. He completed the Canadian Securities Course and has both Certified Financial Planning and Personal Financial Planning designations. Ken completed the CUDA training program, including Accreditation as a Director, through Dalhousie University.

At present, Ken serves as a Director with League Savings and Mortgage, a Director with Healthwise Cooperative and Connecting People for Health, and Chair of the Canadian Chapter of the Credit Union Executives Society. Ken lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia with his wife Lori, two girls Hillary and Claire, and their dog Penny.

Mike Leonard was appointed to the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Central and League Savings and Mortgage Company on March 2013.

During his career with Atlantic Central and League Savings Mike has served in a variety of corporate roles. He also served on several national committees including the Canadian Business Strategy National Steering committee and National Lenders Committee.

Mike is currently a member of the board of Canadian Credit Union Association, the National Council on Canadian Financial Cooperatives and League Data. Mike is an alumni of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

Garth Manness is Chief Executive Officer of Credit Union Central of Manitoba, a position he has held since April 1999. Mr. Manness served as Chair of Canadian Credit Union Association from 2008 to 2011 and as a director from 2001 until 2014.

Mr. Manness currently serves on the Celero Management Committee and the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba.

He was president of the Ontario Lottery Corporation (1994-1999), the Western Canada Lottery Corporation (1990-1994) and as general manager of the Manitoba Lotteries Foundation (1980-1989).

Mr. Manness is a graduate of the University of Manitoba, where he earned his undergraduate and MBA degrees.

Robert Moreau has a wealth of experience of more than 20 years, with 15 of those years being in senior management positions. He joined the UNI Financial Cooperation’s team in 2015 as Vice-President, Corporate Services. In January 2017, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer. During his career, M. Moreau has acquired a diverse background in senior leadership positions spanning through the financial, insurance and privately owned manufacturing industries.

Prior to joining UNI, M. Moreau was the Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer for Assumption Life. His privately owned business and executive leadership experience was expanded with the role of Chief Financial Officer for Imperial Manufacturing Group. Both organization are doing business nationally.

Throughout his career, he has been involved in numerous boards of directors and related committees. He was recently the Chair of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, the largest francophone business association in the province representing its various stakeholders with government.

Robert Moreau holds a Business Administration degree from Université Laval, as well as CPA, CGA accounting designation. He has completed two professional development programs at Queen’s School of Business, the Executive Development Program and the Sales Management Program, and he also holds the ICD.D title from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Keith Nixon was appointed Chief Executive Officer, SaskCentral in 2012. Mr. Nixon began his credit union career more than 30 years ago and has had the privilege of serving credit union members, management and boards of directors in all corners of Saskatchewan.

Mr. Nixon is a director of the Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation and is a member of the operating committees of a number of organizations within the credit union system.  Keith also serves on volunteer boards of the Ignite Adult Learning Corporation Foundation and Sherwood Co-operative Association Limited.

Keith has achieved various professional development, technical and administrative courses, seminars and programs including a Certificate in Administration from the University of Regina and a Fellows designation from the Credit Union Institute of Canada.

Kevin Sitka was appointed President and CEO in 2014 at Assiniboine Credit Union. Mr. Sitka is a Member of the Business Council of Manitoba, Asper School Associates and Windsor Park United Church Finance Council.

Mr. Sitka holds a Bachelor and Master of Arts from the University of Manitoba, a Master of Business Administration from I.H. Asper School of Business.  In 2008 he earned the Chartered Managerial Accountant from CMA Canada.

As President and CEO of Westminster Savings, Gavin leads a progressive and dynamic leadership team to help shape and guide the credit union’s strategic direction. Gavin joined Westminster Savings in 2011 as Senior Vice President and CFO, and was appointed President and CEO in 2012. Prior to Westminster Savings, Gavin held a number of executive level positions with the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA), another prominent B.C. member-based organization. Most recently he was Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer and had responsibility for all customer-facing operations. Spanning a 16-year career at BCAA, other roles included Vice President Business Development, Director of Finance and Corporate Treasurer.

Gavin is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) by training and a KPMG alumnus. He is a graduate of the Queen’s University Executive Leadership program, holds a business degree from Simon Fraser University and is a certified corporate director (ICD.D).

Gavin is board chair at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and is on the board of Credential Financial Inc. Gavin also chairs an industry forum responsible for unlocking strategic value for Canadian small business owners, and has previously chaired the boards of two national finance companies.

Mark joined as Central 1’s President and CEO in January 2018. He has had a successful career spanning more than 30 years in executive leadership roles including extensive experience in financial services across three countries. Prior to joining Central 1, Mark spent 5 years as the President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the second largest Insurance company in Canada. Prior to this he spent 12 years in a number of executive positions at the Suncorp Group, a diversified Top 20 ASX listed financial services conglomerate in Australia.

In addition to his professional roles, Mark holds volunteer positions with a number of community organizations, including Vice Chair of St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation, Chair of the United Way of the Lower Mainland, and Governor of the Business Council of B.C.

Mark is an Associate of FINSIA and a graduate of the Advanced Management Programme at Insead.