Assiniboine Credit Union (ACU) President & CEO Kevin Sitka is pleased to announce the appointment of a new member of the credit union’s executive leadership team.
Esther Friesen has accepted the position of Chief Risk Officer. She will assume her duties July 7.
Esther has over 30 years of experience in commercial credit, enterprise risk management and organizational transformation in the credit union and banking sectors. She most recently served as Chief Risk Officer at Cambrian Credit Union, where she led a broad portfolio including credit risk, consumer and commercial lending adjudication, enterprise compliance, privacy, anti-money laundering (AML), business continuity, loss prevention, and centralized administration. She has strong experience in real estate lending, multi-unit residential, industrial, and syndicated lending portfolios and has led cultural change efforts to strengthen collaboration between credit risk and commercial lending teams.
She previously held leadership roles at Assiniboine and Steinbach Credit Union, where she gained diverse experience in consumer, commercial and agricultural adjudication, credit risk, loss prevention and compliance.
Her leadership style emphasizes operational discipline, risk alignment and business growth through sound governance and process standardization.
“We’re pleased to welcome Esther back into the ACU fold, and pleased to have found a leader with such leadership and professional experience,” Sitka said.
Media Contact:
Sylvie Laurencelle
Vice-President, Communications & French Language Services
Assiniboine Credit Union
slaurencelle@acu.ca