Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Melissa Santora is a product strategist in card services for Fiserv

Brian is a Vice President at The Members Group (TMG). In his role, he leads a nationwide sales team that works with credit unions to create competitive payment card programs for their members. Since starting with the company in 1994, he has created profitability and portfolio growth modeling tools to help credit unions determine the impact of marketing campaigns and promotions. Brian regularly is consulted for his views on the future of payments and how to grow profitability in the payments channel. He is a regular speaker at industry tradeshows, conventions and board planning sessions as well as writing numerous articles for magazines and trade journals.

John Tippets holds a B.A. and Master�s Degree in Business, with an emphasis in Finance, from UCLA. Mr. Tippets spent 42 years in the airline industry, 17 plus of those years as the President/CEO of the American Airlines Federal Credit Union in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. The AA Credit Union grew from $1.0 Billion to $5.0 Billion over that period serving members worldwide and with branches from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Honolulu, Hawaii. Mr. Tippets retired from there in 2008. Mr. Tippets has been active in the credit union community; serving frequently as a speaker/panelist and on many trade associations, forums and committees. He served terms with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Thrift Institutions Advisory Council, the Fannie Mae's National Advisory Council; the NAFCU Board of Directors and the PULSE Network Board of Directors. Upon retirement in 2008, he authored and published �Hearts of Courage,� a book about the miraculous 29-day survival story of his father Joseph Tippets, a former CAA/FAA employee, who was on a plane that went down in Alaska in January 1943. He has enjoyed opportunities to do presentations of his Dad�s story to numerous groups and conferences. �There are lessons for everyone in a story of this nature, particularly about perseverance in times of adversity� said John Tippets. In late 2009, coming out of retirement, Mr. Tippets became the President/CEO of North Island Credit Union in San Diego, California. With the support of a very talented North Island Credit Union leadership team there was a significant North Island recovery over the next three years from lows (measured as a net worth ratio below 4%) to a net worth ratio exceeding 8%. �On what was in our control we did quite well�, but with caution Mr. Tippets pointed out that �many factors in the economy are beyond the Credit Union�s control and those have remained very troubling and challenging. North Island is however now viable and has options that they didn�t have at all three years before.� With the ship now righted, John has recently retired again; and has passed the baton at North Island to a new CEO. Mr. Tippets has been a frequent speaker for credit union groups and credit union conferences describing the North Island Credit Union turnaround in a time of turmoil. He was also recognized at the 2012 Annual Conference of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions as the �CEO of the Year�.

Stephanie Christensen is a direct sales specialist for Loan Generation Marketing for CUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis. In this role, she is responsible for the sale of Loan Generation Marketing programs that help credit unions drive auto, real estate and unsecured loan growth. Christensen accepted her current role in July 2008. She joined CUNA Mutual Group in 2000 as an executive assistant in the Legal department. She has served in several executive support capacities throughout CUNA Mutual Group’s product organization, most recently having served as the senior executive assistant to the vice president of Consumer Products. Prior to joining CUNA Mutual Group, Christensen worked in various lobbying and legislative positions with the Wisconsin Counties Association and the Wisconsin State Legislature. In 1997, Christensen earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in political science and international relations.

Sue has been in the Credit Union industry for 9 years overseeing both Marketing and Business Development during her tenure at Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU) � asset-size $625 million.� Sue is a 2009 graduate of CUNA Management School.� Under Sue�s leadership, GLCU has won the Dora Maxwell, Louise Herring and Desjardins Youth Financial Literacy awards for multiple years. ��Prior to joining GLCU, Sue demonstrated proven success in marketing, sales and business development, public relations, and training and development in high performing Fortune 500 corporate and start-up financial services environments.

Steve Schmidle is chief strategy & performance officer at Elevations Credit Union, a $1.7 billion CU in Boulder, Colo.

Gregg Loubier is a partner in Alston & Bird's Finance Practice. He works in the firm's Los Angeles office.

Eric Richard is a principal in the Washington law firm of CU Counsel PLLC and formerly served as executive vice president and general counsel of the Credit Union National Association from 1997-2015.

Graham Currin is a writer and researcher focusing on financial branch products and services at FTSI, Inc. For more information please visit www.ftsius.com.

Daniel Kuzmanovich is a senior analyst at Advisory Board.