VMware Explore 2025 | Mark Fournier, United States Senate Federal Credit Union

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Mark Fournier

CIO

United States Senate Federal Credit Union

Credit unions take on big banks with AI-fueled digital transformation

The potential for artificial intelligence to revolutionize global finance has been met with cautious optimism, tempered by fears over the industry’s sensitivity. As such, institutions have been measured in their AI implementation approaches.USSFCU’s Mark Fournier discusses the institution’s digital transformation with theCUBE.Breaking from that mold, however, the United States Senate Federal Credit Union has opted to balance tradition with innovation, adopting VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 and embracing gen AI to drive meaningful digital transformation. The aim is to stay relevant in a world where speed and robust digital experiences supersede low rates and great customer service

play_circle_outline Mark Fornier introduces United States Senate Federal Credit Union's mission and membership eligibility.

play_circle_outline Navigating Resource Constraints and Legacy Challenges: Modernizing Technology in the Banking Sector to Compete with Tier-One Banks

play_circle_outline VCF 9.0 upgrade enhances ease of use and reduces complexity in technology management.

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Mark Fournier, United States Senate Federal Credit Union

Mark Fournier

CIO United States Senate Federal Credit Union

At VMware Explore 2025, Mark Fournier, CIO of United States Senate Federal Credit Union, joins theCUBE’s Paul Nashawaty and Rebecca Knight to discuss how a 90-year-old credit union is modernizing its tech stack and culture for the AI era. Fournier shares how the institution is navigating fierce competition with tier-one banks by adopting VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 and becoming an early adopter of VMware’s Private AI Foundation stack. He outlines how the organization balances legacy core systems with modern front-end experiences, investing in product manageme... Read more

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What anniversary is being celebrated by the credit union, and what is its primary focus? add

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What recent upgrades or advancements has the team made related to VCF 9.0 and how does it impact their operations? add

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Mark Fournier, United States Senate Federal Credit Union

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Rebecca Knight

>> Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to theCUBE's live coverage of VMware Explore here at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, sitting alongside my co-host and analyst, Paul Nashawaty. Paul, this is a great show, and you are back to back to back.

Paul Nashawaty

>> Absolutely. It's a fantastic show. Lots of buzz happening here. A lot of people were concerned about, "Well, what's happening with Explore? Is it going to be as exciting?" It really is exciting. Lots happening here.

Rebecca Knight

>> Okay, and a great segue to introduce our next guest. He is Mark Fornier, CIO of United States Senate Federal Credit Union. Thank you so much for coming on the show, Mark.

Mark Fournier

>> Hey guys. Yeah, pleasure to have me. Thanks. It's a pleasure that you guys are having me here. And you know what, actually, I'm so hung up on what you were just saying, the energy at VMware Explore this year, it's really palpable.

Paul Nashawaty

>> It really is.

Mark Fournier

>> And really seeing the turnout, it's been incredible.

Paul Nashawaty

>> It's good.

Rebecca Knight

>> Excellent. Why don't you start by telling our viewers a little bit about United States Senate Federal Credit Union, because it's not just for the Capitol Hill community, anyone could join, is that right?

Mark Fournier

>> That's true, that's true. We're actually this year celebrating our 90th year. For those that aren't familiar, credit union's a not-for-profit financial cooperative. So, basically we can serve all the same sort of retail banking functions that anyone might need, but we've got it as a focus to deliver that service and not just to deliver to shareholders. The members are customers who we refer to as members. They are the shareholders. And yeah, to your point, anyone can become a member. We have a core group, U.S. senators, the name implies, and their staff, but several different communities on Capitol Hill, which I won't go through a name. And we recently launched our own not-for-profit foundation focused on financial education within our communities. And really, that's a path for membership, quick donation and you're eligible.

Rebecca Knight

>> Why don't you set the table a little bit and talk about some of the biggest challenges that your institution faces? What are you wrestling with right now?

Mark Fournier

>> Well, okay, so some of the things that I'm wrestling with and that the team really wrestles with is this feeling of never enough time, never enough resources, but a ton of ambition. There's a lot that is happening on the marketplace, whether that's the immediate competition that we face, our credit union peers, or the greater competition that I think credit unions sometimes overlook. The tier one banks, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Capital One, to name a few. These are self-proclaimed tech companies that happen to do finance. And our members go to them probably more than we'd like them, and we want to learn from that and deliver just as great an experience at a wonderful cost point for the types of services that they're looking for. So yeah, delivering on that vision, it's tough.

Paul Nashawaty

>> Yeah, it really is. I mean, when you look at the business that you're in, you're in the business of banking, it's a very hyper-competitive market. And the tech stack that goes along with it is equally competitive, right?

Mark Fournier

>> Absolutely.

Paul Nashawaty

>> When I work, in my practice I talk about past, present, and future, and we're always looking at the heritage applications and how they become modernized. Can you talk a little bit about your tech stack and what you're offering, especially with regards to say VMware, like we're here.

Mark Fournier

>> Yes. Yes, absolutely. No, and it's great. Our team recently completed our initial upgrade to VCF 9.0, which I think is a big buzz here at Explore.

Paul Nashawaty

>> It is.

Mark Fournier

>> We are early adopters of the VMware private AI foundation stack, which brilliantly is now included in VCF 9.0, and I hope everyone is able to take advantage of that as an accelerator. Beyond that we've got a lot of the same kind of legacy challenges too. Our core banking stack is in line with a lot of other financial institutions. You talk about mainframes, and modernizing those, that's not really a direct easy task. And so, a lot of what our team works on is what can we build as an envelope around that? We are not going to get that out of the way today, tomorrow, but we can create a more seamless experience at the front end and do a good job for the internal users that are supporting customers as well as the customers directly.

Paul Nashawaty

>> I love talking to practitioners, because practitioners actually talk about what they're doing. We're talking to vendors that say, "This is great. It's all high in the sky, it's awesome." But I really love to hear what you're talking about. VCF 9.0 really offered that kind of ease of use, reduce the complexity. When we talk about the stack and we talk about the heritage applications that you may have, a lot of organizations are looking at modernizing by building new front-end applications, like maybe a React application or a mobile application, and they'll attach to existing systems of record. And when they do so, that's how they modernize. But keeping the bridging the gap between the old and new, is that something similar in your environment?

Mark Fournier

>> No, that's absolutely something that we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. So, we're very fortunate to have an incredibly talented, I almost said cast, but team that not just in the technology arm but across our enterprise. But most recently, about a year and a half ago the organization made a really strategic decision to say, "Okay, let's bring in and invest in product management. Let's bring in and invest in software engineering. Let's unlock that capability internally so that we can deliver things that aren't just great for credit unions as an industry, but that are great for our vision and the membership that we have." And some of is just bridging the gap and creating some front ends. Most recently for the new membership, anyone can join, but right now it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. In a month from now we think it's going to be one of the best experiences out there for any institution, and that's our starting point to do some even bigger and better things.

Rebecca Knight

>> What has that done to your culture of innovation in terms of bringing in product managers and bringing in different kinds of people to the credit union, doing different kinds of work, I imagine, than what you're accustomed to be doing?

Mark Fournier

>> Absolutely, absolutely. And that's a really, really cool question, because there is a balance. Credit unions have a long tradition and a long history of focusing on a low rate. We want to give a low rate, because we're not concerned about a great margin. We want to just deliver the best competitive product. And however that gets done, whether it's really manual or not, doesn't matter. And that has allowed for a focus of customer service, which we excel at, and that bottom line rate. So, when we start talking about innovating and new products, it takes a little bit of transition. There's a question that I think naturally comes up of, "But everything's great right now. We already have great rates. Why do we need to put a bunch of money into something else and why do we need to split our focus into something else?" And it's more than just doing some really cool stuff with some really cool people. It's about delivering a great experience and staying relevant in the face of key-

Paul Nashawaty

>> That's key.

Mark Fournier

>> The relevant part is yeah, because we can have a great rate, we can be a full percentage point lower or two percentage points lower, whatever that difference is. But if it takes weeks to do it, in today's age there's attrition there with who's going to put up with that?

Paul Nashawaty

>> Yeah. I make the comment often that the days of submitting a help desk ticket and waiting three days for something to get resolve are long since gone. What we're finding in our research is applications in most organizations, most organizations are looking to deliver those applications on an hourly basis. 24% of organizations responding in a recent survey that they want to deliver on an hourly basis. So, that means you have to have a very dynamic environment in order to do that.

Mark Fournier

>> And so, that's also something we've kept in mind. Hourly basis, what a vision, what a dream. And we're quite confident that VCF is going to be key for our own efforts in that regard. We, earlier this year investigated cloud as ... Taking a cloud-native approach to app development, something very familiar to the software engineering team and the product team. But what we found was that we really weren't getting the speed that we expected. That's the line is that, "Oh, you should be going fast, you should be going." And we just weren't there.

Paul Nashawaty

>> The reality of it is, not all applications need to be refactored. You can really utilize your existing environment to meet today's modern standards. You don't need to refactor everything.

Mark Fournier

>> And we are able to do that with VCF a lot faster than I think most of the team expected, so it's been great.

Rebecca Knight

>> How also in terms of bringing in new different kinds of workers with different job titles do you think about hiring for your particular team too? And are there skills gaps with your existing employees? And in terms of the kinds of people that you're trying to bring in, are you trying to up-skill them, or are you saying, "Stay in your lane, you're actually good at what you do. I need to bring in some new blood to move our agenda forward."

Mark Fournier

>> We absolutely want to up-skill. Upskilling is one of the most critical pieces of this entire innovation journey that we're on. And I think that's probably true for everybody else here. That's taken some different ... It's come together in some different ways, I should say. So, in the technology group, that means a focus on some generalization, while also ensuring people have some protected time to explore GenAI or other aspects of large language models. While at the same time in an area of our business it's very traditional, like lending or the front end of customer service it's giving them a safe space to explore on their own time and also engage with them pretty directly to say, "Hey, look, we're not just doing this because IT has a great idea, or we think we have a great idea. We're doing it because we're working for you and we know you have great ideas." We, about a year ago did an educational effort across the entire enterprise, the start of this year actually, and we ended it with a submission run of, "Hey, give us your ideas. Let's see." And we had a thought, maybe we'll get 100 ideas, 150 ideas. And 500 plus. Now, there's some duplicates. But even after consolidating that, it was well above what my dreams were. And so, I know that there is this culture in our org of people that want to do more. They want to do bigger, they want to do better for the membership and for the longevity of who we are.

Paul Nashawaty

>> I can't believe we got this far into the interview when we started just talking about AI.

Rebecca Knight

>> I was going to say, I think that's a record. 10 minutes in. 10 minutes in.

Mark Fournier

>> Yeah. Should I have lied with it at the very beginning?

Paul Nashawaty

>> No, it's okay, it's good.

Rebecca Knight

>> How are you thinking about Gen AI and agentic AI in terms of helping people do their jobs and derive more satisfaction from their jobs and automate certain tasks? How are you thinking about AI right now?

Mark Fournier

>> Well, so the first thing I want to say is that we're very, very clear internally, and I'm just trying to make sure I say this in the right way. It doesn't shock anybody or come across negatively. Our CEO has been very explicit and prescriptive with this, that AI is not a means to eliminate staff. It's not a means to eliminate purpose. It's a means to let us do way more than we've ever done before and to make our work life, quite frankly, a lot better. That is the intention from the top.

Paul Nashawaty

>> It's a tool, it's a production tool.

Mark Fournier

>> Yes. And our journey beginning as an early adopter private AI about a year ago now was really just we came off of a small event. There were tier one banks, the big investment houses, and they were all talking about AI and how complex it was. But they were tackling it and all the resources they were going to dedicate. And I remember speaking with the team and thought, "Is it really that hard, or can we do this? What if we just try? Let's get a few things together. Let's not spend, we don't have budget. We're the end of the year, what can we achieve? Let's get with Broadcom." And I think from concept to VMware Explore of last year we delivered our first internal GenAI POC, which over the course of the first 90 days achieved roughly 30% daily active user versus monthly active user. So, it's pretty well adopted and then routinely used, which has been maintained and grown. Today that's evolved into a whole slew of POCs and use cases. We could get into agentic AI, but it's running the gamut right now, which is fantastic.

Paul Nashawaty

>> It's an interesting kind of direction that you're going, because I just fielded a study that showed that in the next two years we're seeing that the growth at the Edge locations alone for organizations of growth of 500 to 1,000 production workloads that are using AI, but production workloads and new applications being developed at the Edge locations alone. I imagine with the branches and the such that you're working with, you have application development going on and you have this going on. AI is only going to help accelerate that, wouldn't it?

Mark Fournier

>> Yes. And so, I hate to give just a one word confirmation, but the color with it is we think that for our work particularly there's a huge opportunity leveraging AI for that acceleration in development. I heard a comment recently by someone that said, "Well, AI coding, it's cool. It feels nice, but there's no real ROI, unless you start cutting staff." And it made me think, "Well, we don't have that much staff to begin with, and so if we can get a 30% accelerator on our small team and then level up even further from there as these models continue to improve and we gain more confidence and understanding, I mean, sky's the limit for us."

Paul Nashawaty

>> Productivity a booster, right?

Mark Fournier

>> Exactly.

Paul Nashawaty

>> I'm going to ask a little bit of a interesting question. What we're seeing in the app dev space is the developers, because AI is in place, developers now are expanding outside the professional developer world. So, we're seeing that the citizen developers with the lines of businesses are starting to be developers, because they have the ability to do work. How are you putting governance regulations and controls in place? I mean, being in a financial institution, that's a really important place.

Mark Fournier

>> It is, and one of the key things for us is working very closely with our risk and compliance and legal partner. We routinely involve from the top down, starting with my peer, the chief risk officer on down through his team, enabling our staff. There's a tier one bank that I won't name-drop, but they're a bit of a beacon. They have certainly gone that journey to enable everyone across the org to have that capability and to find the things in their business day to day that they can agentify, for lack of a better term. We share that vision. We want to see that kind of results, and I think we're going to get there. Maybe a year from now we can give another update.

Rebecca Knight

>> Well, we will have you back a year from now at the next VMware Explore, and you'll tell us all about the success.

Mark Fournier

>> Sounds great.

Rebecca Knight

>> Mark, thank you so much for coming on theCUBE, real pleasure having you.

Mark Fournier

>> Thanks for having me.

Rebecca Knight

>> I'm Rebecca Knight for Paul Nashawaty. Stay tuned for more of theCUBE's live coverage of VMware Explore. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in enterprise tech news and analysis.