Meet our Senior Leadership Team
Member Feedback
We appreciate your loyalty and value your input. Please submit your feedback.
Mike Valentine, Chief Executive Officer
With more than 40 years of sales and service experience, Mike brings unique insight and magnetic energy to his position. His credit union career began in 1984, when he joined BCU as manager of lending & collections. After a decade of cultivating strong sales and service culture, Mike was appointed President & CEO in 1994, and serving as CEO in 2026. With a humble and approachable style, Mike sees himself as a coach. He believes in the development of employees and encourages his leadership team to treat BCU as a learning organization. This collaborative, team-based management style has led BCU to unparalleled success. Mike received his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
James Block, President
Jim was named President of BCU in 2026, having previously served as Executive Vice President and COO for much of the past decade. Since joining BCU in 1995, Jim has championed BCU's member service levels, product superiority, and technology investments leading to the CU’s growth over the last two decades. Jim is active on industry advisory boards, is past chairman of CUNA’s (America’s Credit Unions) Lending Council and currently serves as board chairman of CU Servnet. Jim holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a master’s from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Lisa Baron, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
Lisa began her career with BCU in 1994. A leader in organizational development, Lisa is responsible for the strategic direction of the human resource and talent management function. She is tasked with driving high employee engagement, cultivating BCU’s unique culture and employee brand, developing staff and increasing employee retention. Lisa is a member of BCU’s Charitable Giving Committee and serves on the Board of Directors for Member Loyalty Group (MLG). She holds a bachelor's degree from Eastern Illinois University and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Dave Blum, Executive Vice President, Relationships & Service Delivery
Dave is responsible for BCU branches and leverages company partner relationships to maximize member and eligible non-member value. His experience in fostering partnerships makes him key in corporate relationship management, business development and marketing. Dave is also responsible for BCU’s new member engagement focused on creating seamless onboarding experiences and building long-term member relationships from day one. Dave holds a bachelor’s degree from North Park University and an Executive MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
Kerriann Mills, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Kerriann joined BCU in 2020. She was appointed to the role of Chief Legal Officer in 2023. In this role, Kerriann’s responsibilities include leading BCU’s legal affairs, overseeing BCU’s compliance function, and providing guidance regarding corporate governance matters. Previously, Kerriann served as BCU’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel. Prior to joining BCU, Kerriann was a partner at a global law firm, where she spent well over a decade representing companies, secured lenders, and other parties in connection with commercial transactions, corporate restructurings, and workout matters. Kerriann earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Miami.
CJ Presto, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
CJ leads the finance, accounting, treasury, and risk management functions at BCU. Since joining BCU in 2001, CJ has held leadership roles in the accounting and finance areas and has led multiple merger and acquisition efforts, with previous leadership of strategic planning and deposit operations. CJ’s teams have been instrumental in introducing sophisticated liquidity risk, interest rate risk, profitability, budgeting, auditing, and enterprise risk management solutions. CJ received his bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from DePaul University.
Jill Sammons, Executive Vice President, Chief Experience and Strategy Officer
Jill Sammons serves as Chief Experience and Strategy Officer at BCU, where she leads organizational strategy, enterprise brand, communications, and member experience to create clarity, alignment, and momentum across the organization. A champion of BCU’s people- and member-centric culture for more than 35 years, she ensures the organization’s purpose and shared values are consistently reflected in how employees engage, communicate, and deliver for members. She partners closely with the CEO and executive team to shape strategic messaging, strengthen leadership alignment, and support clear, compelling storytelling for the board and key stakeholders. A seasoned marketing, relationship, and growth leader, Jill brings deep expertise in financial services, a strong track record in building meaningful partnerships, and a focus on outcomes and strong engagement. She has led nationally recognized CUSOs, including Life. Money. You.® and BCU Wealth Advisors, LLC. Jill earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
David Brydun, Senior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer
David began his career with BCU in 2007. Appointed in 2021 to the role of Chief Lending Officer, David is responsible for the strategic direction, growth, and performance of BCU’s consumer, real estate, and business lending portfolios. He oversees the full lending lifecycle, including product development, sales and portfolio growth, underwriting and credit administration, loan operations, servicing, and collections. Under his leadership, the lending organization focuses on delivering operational excellence, leveraging technology to improve efficiency, and optimizing processes to improve the member experience. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.
Maggie Garcia, Senior Vice President, Chief Payments & Operations Officer
Maggie began her career with BCU in 2007. She brings deep expertise in modernizing platforms, optimizing end-to-end processes, and driving growth in complex operational environments. She leads a multifunctional organization covering money movement, deposit operations, card operations, debit card portfolio management, fraud management, quality assurance, and member service call center ensuring alignment between BCU’s strategy and execution at scale. Maggie is recognized for aligning strategy with execution and partnering across functions to drive innovation with operational discipline. Maggie holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and Executive Scholar Certification from Kellogg Executive Education, Northwestern.
Bhavna Guglani, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer
Bhavna leads the Digital Services group responsible for developing and deploying BCU’s authenticated digital product experiences. She brings a digital-first perspective to the organizational-wide strategy, informed by her extensive knowledge of the financial industry, emerging technologies, market trends, and user research. Bhavna has an MBA from INSEAD, France, and BA in Mathematics (Hons) from St. Stephens College, India.
Daniel Parsons, Senior Vice President, Retail Branches
Daniel began his career with BCU in 2004. Appointed in January 2022 to the role of Senior Vice President, Retail Growth, Daniel currently leads the growth strategy of BCU’s Community and Puerto Rico Branch initiatives as well as shaping their longer-term evolution. He and his team are focused on a best-in-class service experience, delivering financial well-being to our members. His previous roles at BCU included various positions in Business Development, Branch Management, and Consumer Sales Leadership. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia College, Missouri and earned a certificate from the CUES CEO Institute at Wharton, Cornell, and Darden.
John Sahagian, Senior Vice President and Chief Data Officer
John began his career with BCU in 1993. Throughout his tenure, he has led multiple areas of BCU to success across enterprise technology platforms, analytics, marketing, sales, service, and operations. Appointed Chief Data Officer in 2018, John set out to establish and evolve an enterprise data and analytics vision to maximize value for BCU members. He provides thoughtful leadership and utilization of data-driven engagement systems including BCU’s enterprise customer relationship management platform. John holds a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management.
Chuck Smith, Senior Vice President, Controller
Chuck has been responsible for the accounting, planning function and facilities management for BCU since 2008. Previously, he managed the financial processes around the planning, analysis, reporting and decision making for a $3.9 billion private label credit card portfolio at Citibank. Before that, Chuck spent 15 years at Baxter International in various finance and accounting functions, including managing 50 finance professionals who were responsible for providing financial shared services to the North America region and Puerto Rico. He began his career with the public accounting firm of KPMG in Chicago in the auditing department. Chuck received a bachelor’s degree in accounting with minor in business administration from Illinois State University and is a CPA.
Stephenie Southard, Senior Vice President, Chief Risk & Security Officer
Stephenie began her career with BCU in 2019. She oversees the Cybersecurity, Fraud, Operational Risk, Business Resiliency and Vendor Management programs at BCU. With over thirty years’ experience she has championed several initiatives in Information Technology and Cybersecurity, she also has written and taught several curriculums for IT and Business courses while working in the educational sector. Stephenie has held the position of CISO/CSO for government, manufacturing, and financial organizations which has given her extensive knowledge in NIST, SOC, PCI, ISO, HIPAA, and FFIEC. Stephenie received a master’s degree in business management from Indiana Wesleyan and is very active in the Cybersecurity and IT communities. She holds three advisory board positions and has been recognized with the following recent awards: 2020 Chicago CISO of the Year Nominee, 10 Best CISOs of 2021 from Tech Magazine, 2021 CUNA Technology Council Professional of the Year, 2022 IT Wonderous Women Award, and 2023 OPCON Top 10 IT Processionals. She also enjoys mentoring and recruiting individuals into the IT and Security fields.
Scott Zulpo, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
Scott provides leadership for strategic planning, solution delivery, process improvement, and operational excellence of BCU’s Informational Technology Group. He brings a strong history of delivering business results by creating high performing teams focused on using technology to create member value. Before joining BCU, Scott held executive positions in multiple industries. He received his bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.