The Board of Directors for Lakeland Credit Union has announced a change in the organization’s top leadership post. Pierre Amyotte, who has served as Lakeland’s Chief Executive Officer for the past seven years, is retiring at the end of June. Amyotte’s successor, Brian Thorne, brings 20 years’ of leadership experience from his previous posts with credit unions in BC and Ontario.

“I’ve been privileged to work with very talented and hard working professionals throughout my career and feel extremely fortunate to have led this team and complete my banking career at Lakeland Credit Union; a credit union with a strong history of growth, member satisfaction and award-worthy financial performance,” said Amyotte, who led Lakeland Credit Union to prominence in the credit union system and local communities. “I will continue to cheer for the ongoing success of Lakeland Credit Union from the sidelines.”

Amyotte, who has enjoyed 38 years of credit union experience, joined LCU in 2010. During this time, he inspired visionary thinking into action and co-created the innovative subsidiary company, InStride Resources Ltd, with two other Alberta credit unions to support the back office functions. InStride Resources supports the three credit unions through IT and Compliance departments, sharing 13 staff. In addition, Amyotte was instrumental in the shared partnership of CUSO Wealth, a financial planning division across Alberta and BC credit unions as well as the Western Canadian Back Office Collaborative (BOC) relationship. A steadfast credit union ambassador, Amyotte joined the Board of CCUA, a national trade association for credit unions to ensure rural and medium sized credit unions had strong representation at the national level.

Brian Thorne, MBA, will begin his role as Chief Executive Officer effective July 3, 2017. Thorne has over 20 years’ of experience driving growth and leading teams through transformational change. He has held a wide range of senior leadership roles in large credit unions in BC and Ontario and demonstrated ongoing community involvement, through volunteer leadership, executive sponsorship and spokesperson roles with organizations such as Feed the Valley, The Pledge to End Bullying, and Farms to Foodbanks.

Thorne adds "I look forward to partnering with this team of professional and dedicated staff to build on their success of providing an exceptional advice and service experience for every member, every time."

Lakeland Credit Union was founded in 1940 and has become ‘Alberta’s Credit Union of the Year’ six times in 11 years. As Alberta’s fifth largest credit union, LCU has reached $500 million in assets and serves nearly 10,000 members in Bonnyville and Cold Lake.