Mark Lynch, CUDE
Mark Lynch is the Co-Founder of CU Difference, an independent consulting company formed in 2018 with the mission of helping credit unions identify ways in which "the credit union difference" can be used to better serve their members, communities, and overall business prosperity.
Mark has been a credit union member for 44 years and was a credit union board director for 22 years. Prior to moving to the US from Australia, Mark was the Deputy Chairman of the Australian National Credit Union, then Australia's largest credit union and the Volunteer & Resources Manager with the Australian Credit Union Foundation. Mark also served on the boards of two other cooperatives and the academic council of a business college.
Since moving to the US 16 years ago, he has delivered more than 750 presentations to credit union events in 49 states, predominantly on issues relating to growth strategies, optimizing the credit union difference, serving the underserved, and the importance of retaining the credit union tax status. His passion for cooperatives and the credit union movement launched him into working with credit union organizations.
For 8 years, Mark worked as a Field Coach with the National Credit Union Foundation's REAL Solutions Program to help credit unions develop programs and services aimed at low wealth households, as well as the non-prime auto lending pilot, and experiential learning programs. The REAL Solutions program has since retired, but many of its products and services are still helping members today.
Prior to co-founding CU Difference, Mark was the Senior Program Manager with the Foundation. In his work with the Foundation, he focused on teaching credit union staff through the Enhanced FiCEP Program, created the interactive Retirement Fair for credit unions, spearheaded two pilot programs designed to help credit unions provide auto loans to members with low credit scores, and was heavily involved in the Credit Union Development Education (CUDE) Program.
