Hope Mehlman
Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer
Hope Mehlman joined Ally as the chief legal and corporate affairs officer in December 2024. She was also named corporate secretary in January 2026. In her role, Mehlman is responsible for all regulatory, governance and legal matters and oversees the organization's legal, compliance, corporate affairs, government relations, environmental sustainability and corporate secretarial teams and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) program. She reports to Ally’s CEO.
Mehlman has more than 20 years of leadership experience in retail and commercial banking. Before joining Ally, she was Discover Financial Services’ chief legal officer, general counsel and corporate secretary. Earlier, she served as general counsel and corporate secretary at Bank of the West, corporate secretary of BNP Paribas USA, and executive vice president, corporate secretary, chief governance officer, and deputy general counsel of Regions Financial, where she also served as senior compliance officer. Prior to Regions, Mehlman practiced law as a partner at Adams and Reese LLP with a focus on various issues affecting financial institutions’ operations.
Governance Intelligence has honored Mehlman multiple times, including the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award; she was also inducted into the Corporate Governance Hall of Fame in 2023. In 2024, Mehlman was named General Counsel of the Year by Women, Influence, and Power in Law. That same year, she was also named to the NACD Directorship 100 list. She was also the recipient of the 2023 "William H. Avery Award for Equal Access to Justice" presented by the Legal Aid Society, Metropolitan Family Services, Chicago.
Mehlman serves on the board of directors of SmartBiz Bancshares, as well as on the board of the Society for Corporate Governance where she is the chair of the policy advisory committee. Mehlman is also a member of the oversight committee of the Best Practice Principles Group for Shareholder Voting Research Providers and is the chair of its nominating and governance committee.
Mehlman holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, a juris doctorate from Seton Hall University Law School, and a Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University School of Law. She is a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford University and a contributing author of several whitepapers.
