Leadership

The Alliant executive leadership team is committed to providing our members with best-in-class financial solutions.

Dennis Devine
President and Chief Executive Officer

Dennis Devine serves as the President & Chief Executive Officer of Alliant Credit Union, a national digital financial institution and one of the largest and fastest-growing credit unions in the U.S. with over $18 billion in assets.

Under Dennis’ leadership, Alliant has focused on delivering value in ways that banks can’t. In 2023, through high savings rates, lower loan rates, and the elimination of overdraft fees, he helped Alliant members see over $450 million in financial returns over national bank averages. Recently, Alliant was named Best Credit Union of 2024 by the Wall Street Journal, Bankrate, CNBC, and NerdWallet, in addition to the New York Post naming Alliant among the best five banks and credit unions for mobile banking. Built In also recognized Alliant as a three-time winner of its 2024 Best Places to Work awards.

With decades of experience in financial services, Dennis brings a rich background and knows the distinct advantage that Alliant offers as a national digital credit union. Prior to Alliant, Dennis held senior leadership roles at KeyBank, Citizens Financial Group and PNC Bank. Earlier in his career, Dennis was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Michigan.

Dennis is active in the financial services industry and his community, including serving as a board trustee for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, board director for PSCU/Co-op Solutions, member of the Strategic Advisory Board for FTV Capital and board chair for the Alliant Foundation.

Sumeet Grover
Senior Vice President and Chief Digital & Marketing Officer

Sumeet leads digital, marketing and member care functions. He is responsible for enterprise-wide digital and marketing strategies, digital product management, digital innovation and transformation, relationship expansion, marketing, acquisitions, brand, public relations, communications, banking operations, contact center, digital care, and member services. Prior to joining Alliant as CDMO, Sumeet held several leadership roles at Citi. He has a Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, Master’s in business management, and has extensive experience in marketing, digital, analytics, client experience, operations and technology. 

Diane Hughes
Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer

Diane is Chief People Officer for Alliant, leading the human capital and training and development teams.  In this role, Diane partners with leaders across Alliant to create an expectational workplace experience for all Alliant team members.

Prior to joining Alliant in 2021, Diane was Chief Talent Officer for Northern Trust where her responsibilities included leading the end-to-end talent lifecycle across talent acquisition, learning and development, talent and succession planning, workforce analytics and HR strategic planning. Diane held several leadership roles across Human Resources serving as Head of HR Strategy, Head of HR for Enterprise Enablement and Global Head of Talent Acquisition. Before joining Northern Trust, Diane spent 10 years in Commercial Banking Human Resources with JP Morgan Chase.

Diane is a seasoned HR professional with progressive experience across multiple disciplines including recruiting, organization design, diversity and inclusion, compensation, development and employee relations.

Diane has a B.A. in Human Resources Management from DePaul University and holds certifications as Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP).  Diane is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management and the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago.

Charles Krawitz
Senior Vice President and Chief Capital Markets Officer

A 30+ year financing industry veteran, Charles’s career commenced in 1987 and includes leadership positions with highly regarded financial institutions including ABN AMRO, KeyBank and Fifth Third Bank.

In January of 2017, Charles joined Alliant Credit Union in charge of commercial lending. Subsequently, he was selected to additionally oversee Alliant’s loan trading operation and its FinTech partnership development activities as Alliant’s Senior Vice President, Chief Capital Markets Officer and Head of Commercial Lending. Under his guidance, Alliant strategically purchases and sells residential, consumer and commercial loans and diversifies its balance sheet through the identification and cultivation of fintech relationships across divergent asset classes. 

Charles served on the board of a large CDC, where he was named Director of the Year in 2011. In 2020, he was inducted into the Midwest Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame, and in in 2021 was selected as a Manager of the Year finalist by Gallup. In addition, Charles headed a team that won CUNA’s Excellence in Lending Award in 2018, was selected as a Lender Influencer by GlobeSt.com in 2020 and a Top Mortgage Lender in 2021 by Connect Media.  

Charles earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and a Master of Science in regional and urban planning from the London School of Economics. Ever the learner, Mr. Krawitz obtained an Executive Scholar designation from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2019.

Mark Lau
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Mark leads several teams including accounting, asset/liability management, financial planning and analysis, procurement and treasury. In this role, Mark’s primary responsibilities include reporting and forecasting the credit union’s current and future financial standing based on financial and operational data provided by the finance and accounting teams. In addition, he also provides strategic recommendations to the CEO and members of the Executive Management team to enhance performance while maintaining the safety and soundness of our institution.

Mark has worked for Alliant since 2013 in multiple roles focused on finance, data analytics and execution of strategic enterprise initiatives. Prior to joining Alliant, he worked for other financial institutions in finance, treasury and accounting roles. Mark has a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University (Go Huskies!), MBA from DePaul University and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A.) designation.

Meredith Ritchie
Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Ethics & Government Affairs Officer

Meredith is SVP, General Counsel and Chief Ethics & Government Affairs Officer for Alliant overseeing the Legal and Audit functions as well as the Ethics  and Government Affairs Programs.  She supports all departments at Alliant including the Board of Directors.

Meredith, a Chicago native, graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and obtained her JD from DePaul College of Law in Chicago.  Meredith has had a diverse legal career in Chicago starting out in private practice where she litigated tort actions. A large portion of her litigation included defending a Fortune 100 petroleum company.  Meredith then served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Cook County, Illinois in both the civil and criminal divisions. She then took her experience to the State of Illinois where she contributed to the Illinois Department of Public Aid and then served as Deputy General Counsel to the Department of Central Management Services. Meredith then served as in-house counsel for Accenture, an international technology consulting firm.

Meredith chaired the Standing Committee on Women and the Law of the Illinois State Bar Association as well as the Young Lawyers Division. She served on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association. Currently, Meredith is on the Board of Directors of the Alliant Credit Union Foundation and is Co-Chair of the Governance Sub-committee of the American Bar Association Credit Union Committee. She serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of DePaul University College of Law where she is on the Diversity Committee. She has been recognized by the legal profession by receiving a number of awards including Crain’s, Chicago Lawyer, Best Lawyers, Women’s Bar Association of Illinois and The Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law. 

Ken Schaafsma
Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer

Ken is Chief Risk Officer at Alliant, leading the credit risk, operational risk, compliance, and business controls teams. In this role, Ken ensures focus and visibility for enterprise risk management and maintains relationships with Alliant’s regulators.

Before joining Alliant in 2017, Ken spent 18 years at the Northern Trust Company in a variety of operational and risk management roles. Prior to that, he managed a number of retail branches at St. Paul Federal Bank.  Ken has a bachelor’s degree from Calvin University and is pursuing an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Stephani Foss
Senior Vice President, Member Care and Operations

Stephani joined Alliant in April of 2018 and has held multiple roles, including the Director of Business Risk and Control and Vice President of Consumer Lending. In Stephani’s current role as senior Vice President of Consumer Lending, Member Care and Operations, she is responsible for the delivery of Alliant’s best in class products and experience through Direct and Indirect Lending, Loan and Deposit Servicing and Operations, and Member Contact Channels. Stephani has over 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles in financial services, primarily focused in Consumer Banking, Default Mortgage Servicing and Risk Management. Prior to Alliant, Stephani spent most of her career at Bank of America and HSBC.