MSUFCU Leadership Profile: Member-Elected Board & Executive Team
MSUFCU governance runs through a member-elected volunteer board, an executive leadership team, and a supervisory committee responsible for internal audit oversight. This MSUFCU leadership reference walks through how the board is chosen, what the executive team does, the annual meeting cadence, and the formal channels through which members provide input on cooperative direction.
Bottom Line
MSUFCU is governed by a volunteer board elected by members at the annual meeting, with one-member-one-vote regardless of deposit size. Day-to-day operations run through an executive team led by senior officers across lending, deposits, technology, finance, compliance, and member experience. A supervisory committee handles internal audit. Member input flows through the annual vote, surveys, and the supervisory complaint channel.
How the MSUFCU member-elected board works
The MSUFCU board of directors is a volunteer body elected by the credit union's members under the rules in the federal credit union charter and the MSUFCU bylaws. Nominations open in advance of the annual meeting, candidates submit a brief member statement, and the membership votes in person at the annual meeting or by mail-in ballot. Each member account holder of voting age has equal voting weight regardless of deposit balance — a college student with a five-dollar opening deposit in a regular savings share carries the same vote as a long-tenured member with multiple loan and deposit accounts. Board terms are staggered so that only a fraction of the seats turn over in any given year, which preserves continuity across the multi-year strategic planning cycle.
Board responsibilities include approving the annual budget, setting the broad strategic direction, hiring and overseeing the chief executive, reviewing quarterly financial reports, and ensuring compliance with federal credit union regulation enforced through the National Credit Union Administration. The board does not run day-to-day operations; that responsibility sits with the executive team. The board also does not set individual interest rates on loans or deposits — pricing decisions sit inside the asset-liability management discipline run by the executive finance leadership and reviewed at quarterly board meetings.
MSUFCU executive team structure
The executive team reports to the board through the chief executive. Senior officers typically cover lending, deposits, technology, member experience, finance, compliance, human resources, and marketing. Each officer leads a function with several departments underneath, and the executive team meets weekly for operational coordination and monthly for strategic review. Quarterly board reports summarize performance against budget, member-growth metrics, lending and deposit trends, technology project status, and compliance exam findings.
MSUFCU role and selection matrix
The matrix below summarizes the major MSUFCU governance roles, the responsibilities attached to each role, and the process used to fill the role.
| Role | Responsibility | Selection method |
|---|---|---|
| Board chair | Leads board meetings, signs bylaws, represents board to members | Elected by board after annual member election |
| Board director | Sets strategic direction, approves annual budget, oversees CEO | Elected by membership at annual meeting |
| Chief executive officer | Runs day-to-day operations, reports to board quarterly | Hired by board through executive search |
| Chief financial officer | Owns balance sheet, asset-liability management, financial reporting | Hired by CEO with board confirmation |
| Chief technology officer | Owns digital banking platform, security architecture, app and online banking | Hired by CEO with board confirmation |
| Chief member experience officer | Owns member service channels, branch operations, accessibility | Hired by CEO with board confirmation |
| Chief lending officer | Owns auto, mortgage, equity, and consumer lending portfolios | Hired by CEO with board confirmation |
| Chief compliance officer | Owns regulatory compliance, BSA program, NCUA exam coordination | Hired by CEO with board confirmation |
| Supervisory committee member | Oversees internal audit, escalated member complaints | Appointed under bylaws from membership |
| Member education lead | Designs and runs financial education programs across branches | Hired by member experience officer |
Featured MSUFCU member education lead
Marisol K. Tassopoulos serves as the MSUFCU member education lead, a role responsible for designing and running the credit union's financial education programs across the Greater Lansing branch network and the digital banking footprint. The member education lead reports into the chief member experience officer and works with the lending, deposits, and member service teams to translate complex banking topics — mortgage qualification, retirement-account rollovers, credit-builder products, fraud recognition — into plain-language workshops and on-demand member resources. Tassopoulos has spent her career inside the credit union cooperative movement and has held member-facing roles at three Michigan-area cooperatives prior to joining MSUFCU.
The member education function runs free workshops at branches, partner workplaces, and Michigan campus communities. Topics rotate through a published quarterly calendar and frequently include first-time homebuyer sessions, auto-loan refinance walkthroughs, fraud-awareness briefings, and college-graduate budgeting clinics. Members can register through the events panel inside the MSUFCU app, by phone, or at any branch lobby front desk.
Annual meeting cadence and member input mechanism
The MSUFCU annual meeting is held once each year on a date and at a venue published in advance through member statements, the MSUFCU app, the online banking portal, and on-site branch notices. The meeting covers a financial report from the prior year, a strategic outlook for the current year, a question-and-answer session with the board and chief executive, and the formal director election vote. Members who cannot attend in person can submit a mail-in ballot during the published voting window. Outside the annual meeting cycle, member input flows through the member survey program, branch comment cards, secure messages in the MSUFCU app, and the supervisory committee's complaint review process.
Supervisory committee oversight
The supervisory committee is a separate volunteer body drawn from the membership and appointed under the credit union bylaws. The committee oversees internal audit, reviews escalated member complaints, and reports aggregate findings to the board. Its independence from the executive team is structural: the supervisory committee does not report through the chief executive, which is what gives the body the standing to escalate findings without management filtering. Members who believe a complaint has not been addressed satisfactorily through the standard member service channels can request supervisory committee review by secure message, by phone through the member contact line at (517) 481-6700, or by letter to the East Lansing headquarters at 3777 West Road, East Lansing, MI 48823.
Members elect the board; the board hires the CEO; the supervisory committee audits
The governance hierarchy at MSUFCU is straightforward. Members elect the board of directors through the annual meeting vote. The board hires and oversees the chief executive, who runs the executive team responsible for day-to-day operations. The supervisory committee sits independently of both, with appointment authority drawn from the bylaws rather than from the board or executive chain. That independence is what allows the committee to escalate audit findings or member complaints without management filtering.
Federal credit union regulation, enforced by the National Credit Union Administration at NCUA.gov, requires this governance structure for every federally chartered credit union. Consumer-protection rules administered by CFPB.gov apply to the day-to-day operations the executive team runs.
Once a year, the membership votes
The MSUFCU annual meeting is the formal venue for board director elections, the prior-year financial report, and the strategic outlook briefing. Members who cannot attend in person can submit mail-in ballots during the published voting window. The meeting also opens a question-and-answer block during which members can address the board and chief executive directly — on rate strategy, branch geography, technology investment, lending policy, or any other topic within the cooperative's responsibility.
Outside the annual meeting cycle, members can pose governance questions through the secure messaging channel, the member survey program, or branch comment cards. Topics that reach the supervisory committee threshold receive a written response within the timeframe defined by federal regulation.
Common questions about MSUFCU leadership
Plain answers about the board, executive team, supervisory committee, and member input.
How is the MSUFCU board of directors chosen?
The MSUFCU board is a volunteer body elected by the membership at the annual meeting. Nominations open in advance, members vote in person or by mail-in ballot, and each member account holder of voting age has equal voting weight regardless of deposit balance.
What does the MSUFCU executive team do?
The MSUFCU executive team runs day-to-day operations and reports to the board through the CEO. Senior officers cover lending, deposits, technology, member experience, finance, compliance, and human resources, with monthly strategic review and quarterly board reporting.
How can MSUFCU members provide input on governance?
Members can provide input through the annual meeting vote, member surveys, branch comment cards, secure messages in the MSUFCU app, and the supervisory committee complaint channel. Supervisory escalations receive a written response within the regulatory timeframe.
What does the MSUFCU supervisory committee do?
The supervisory committee is an independent volunteer body that oversees internal audit and member complaint escalation. Members are appointed under the bylaws and report aggregate findings to the board, separate from the executive chain.
References that pair with the MSUFCU leadership profile
Members who read this MSUFCU leadership profile commonly continue to a few related governance and member-service references. The about page covers the 1937 founding history, NCUA insurance, and the cooperative ownership model. The member support center documents the channels members use to ask questions or escalate concerns, the contact page lists the phone number and mailing address for supervisory committee correspondence, and the security center covers the account protections that complement the supervisory audit function. Members researching account-level identifiers can consult the MSUFCU routing number reference and the MSUFCU member number recovery guide. Day-to-day banking documentation lives in the checking accounts page, the savings accounts page, the auto loans page, and the mortgages page. Members who need sign-in help can review the login help reference.