Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union (Affinity Plus) announces today two key additions to the leadership team, Mahesh Marepalli and Jake Kuester. Both appointments bring extensive expertise in business intelligence and financial services and join at a time of accelerated growth for the financial cooperative.
Marepalli joins Affinity Plus assuming the position and duties of vice president of data strategy, governance and analytics. In this role he will guide Affinity Plus’ larger business decisions by utilizing data analysis.
Kuester joins Affinity Plus as director of business services. In this role he will help businesses stay adaptable and innovative through commercial and small business lending, deposit services and business development strategies and tools. He also oversees all of Affinity Plus’ new member acquisition.
“Mahesh and Jake join the Affinity Plus management team at a pivotal time,” said Dave Larson, CEO, Affinity Plus. “We’re in an exciting period of growth—not just for our team but for the services and quality of support we bring to our members and local business communities across Minnesota. Mahesh’s background in artificial and business intelligence and Jake’s experience working directly with business owners will be great resources to our members as we grow together. I’m delighted to say both have already become invaluable team members.”
Marepalli brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise resource planning, business intelligence implementations and large-scale financial transformations to the team. Before joining Affinity Plus, he worked at the Maryland Department of Health, AmerisourceBergen and Deloitte in similar senior roles. He graduated from the University of Hyderabad with a Masters of Science in Statistics, and later from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with a Doctorate in Mathematics and Computer Science.
Kuester has spent his entire career working in financial services. Before joining the Affinity Plus team, Kuester worked at Community Reinvestment Fund, Wells Fargo and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He later attended the University of St. Thomas where he graduated with a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Management.
To learn more about the Affinity Plus senior management team, please visit affinityplus.org.