Speaker Profiles

Mary Balogun

President and CEO

Cyfendry Consulting

Mary is the President and CEO of Cyfendry, a cybersecurity consulting firm based in Dallas, TX, serving small-medium sized businesses and providing specialized training for professionals with an interest in cybersecurity.

For the past seven years, Mary has served in security assessments and risk advisory roles. Most recently, she served as a Security Risk and Audit Manager as well as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) focusing on IT governance and policy compliance. Throughout her management tenure, Mary facilitated several high level projects for both public and private organizations across the United States.

In addition to her passion for cybersecurity, Mary served on the ISACA Exam Quality Assurance Committee as a SME, who developed and analyzed examination materials for the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) professional certification. All in all, Mary is committed to advocating for the improvement of lives through personal mentorship, educational training, and career support. She is the founding executive member and chapter leader for the Women’s Society of Cybersecurity – Cyberjutsu (WSC) in Dallas, TX.

Rob Boehmer

Executive Officer

Nevada Department of Administration Public Employees’ Deferred Compensation Program (NDC)

Rob Boehmer currently serves as the appointed Executive Officer of the Nevada Department of Administration Public Employees’ Deferred Compensation Program (NDC).

Mr. Boehmer serves the State of Nevada with over 19years of experience in the Estate Planning/Retirement Planning/Employee Benefits Management business primarily working in the Health Insurance Industry and managing 457(b) and 403(b) Defined Contribution Plans throughout multiple western states. He has worked with a multitude of associations such as Institutional Investors, Nevada League of Cities Municipalities, Nevada Association of Counties, and a multitude of Firefighter and Police Associations, School Districts, and Teachers Associations in assisting their members with benefits management and 457(b)Deferred Compensation/403(b) Plan management and administration.

Mr. Boehmer represents Nevada as a member of the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Plan Administrators (NAGDCA) where in 2018 he was nominated and elected to serve on the NAGDCA Executive Board. Additionally, Mr. Boehmer serves as a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA),and a Certified Master Estate Planning Professional (CMEPP),assisting and advising those in the accumulation phase of their lives, as well as those entering or actively in the Preservation stage of their life.Recently, Mr. Boehmer has been certified as a Certified Retirement Plan Administrator (CRPA).

Eric Brickman

EVP & Chief Solutions Officer

Newport Group

Eric Brickman leads Newport’s Global Solutions and Innovation Group. In this capacity, he is responsible for the firm’s strategic roadmap, global product platform and digital experiences. Eric is also responsible for global innovation, product and platform productization and monetization, research and development, financial technology (fintech) strategy, strategic partnerships, outsourcing and alliances.

He has more than 29 years of experience leading strategic planning, e-business and technology in the financial services industry. He began his career helming key strategic initiatives within Prudential Financial’s U.S. consumer, global operations and institutional divisions. Eric led e-business and digital experience for the company’s 40 million customers, as well as service delivery strategy and product management for the firm’s personal wealth management, employee benefits and corporate services groups. Eric earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and economics from Muhlenberg College, his master’s degree in business administration from Seton Hall University and completed Executive International Studies programs at Seton Hall University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Philip Chao

Principal & CIO

Experiential Wealth

Philip Chao founded Experiential Wealth, Inc. in 1992 as a financial consulting and investment management firm. As the Chief Investment Officer, Philip designs and manages investment portfolios in the best interest of his private and institutional clients. By emphasizing risk as well as return, each portfolio is calibrated in an attempt to align the long term expected outcome with each client’s criteria and expectations.

Philip serves as an ERISA investment consultant or discretionary manager in a fiduciary capacity so that plan sponsors can rely on his advice with full confidence. For retirement plan sponsors, he implements a prudent process to advocate with loyalty and due care.

Philip is a founding member of The Institute for the Fiduciary Standard. His opinions and thoughts appear in InvestmentNews, CNBC, IRIS.xyz, and other industry news outlets. His public comments to the DOL and SEC can be found on the DOL and SEC websites. He also serves as a consultant to insurance carriers and asset managers.

Philip is a member of a number of investment advisory committees and has been a featured speaker and moderator on numerous panels on topics as varied as CITs, revenue sharing, retirement income, managed accounts and target date investments at national conferences.

Sherwin Chapman

Senior Analyst

GAO

During his 12 years at GAO, Sherwin has led and contributed to a variety projects in the areas of aviation security, tax policy and administration, retirement security, and workforce-related issues, among other areas. Sherwin has also played a key role in helping to develop new GAO analysts by serving in a leadership role for a GAO program that focuses on onboarding new staff.

Jeff Cimini

Senior Vice President

Voya’s Retirement and Retail Wealth Management Solutions and Experience Group

Jeff Cimini is Senior Vice President of Voya’s Retirement and Retail Wealth Management Solutions and Experience Group.

In his role, Jeff oversees the team responsible for all aspects of the centralized retirement product functions, including product management, product development, retirement strategy, plan pricing, competitive intelligence, advice and guidance services, fixed and stable value products, digital properties as well as overseeing Voya Institutional Trust Company.

Mr. Cimini has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and is a collaborative leader who excels in building high-performing businesses. Prior to joining Voya Financial, Mr. Cimini was head of strategy for TIAA’s Institutional Financial Services division, and also served as head of sales and client services for TIAA’s select institutional clients. Previously, he was Managing Director, Head of Personal Retirement for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. His background also includes more than 20 years with Fidelity Investments, where he held roles of increasing responsibility and leadership across their asset management, retirement, insurance and retail divisions. Jeff’s experience includes stable value portfolio management, fund analysis, investment consulting and sales, consultant relations, defined contribution investment only (DCIO) and investment consulting services. In addition to retirement, Cimini managed sales and distribution for the Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company division prior to serving as its President.

Mr. Cimini also serves on several industry boards and committees including The SPARK Institute, LOMA Retirement Plans Committee and the Retirement Leadership Forum.

Mr. Cimini holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master of Science in Finance degree from The Wallace E. Carroll School of Business at Boston College.

Michael Daniel

President & CEO

Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA)

Michael Daniel currently serves as the President & CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA). CTA is a not-for-profit that improves the cybersecurity of our global digital ecosystem by enabling high-quality cyber threat information sharing among companies and organizations in the cybersecurity field.

Prior to joining CTA in February 2017, Michael served from June 2012 to January 2017 as Special Assistant to President Obama and Cybersecurity Coordinator on the National Security Council Staff. In this role, Michael led the development of national cybersecurity strategy and policy and ensured that the US government effectively partnered with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other nations. From 1995 to 2012, Michael worked for the Office of Management and Budget, overseeing the budgets for the U.S. Intelligence Community and other national security programs.

Outside of CTA, Michael serves as a member of the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity Group and participates in numerous cybersecurity working groups. Michael lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Karen and two sons, James and Joshua. In his spare time, he enjoys running and martial arts.

Steve Daugherty

Retirement Solutions, Relationship Management

SS&C Technologies

Over 20 years of experience within the financial services industry. Throughout my career I have focused on Financial Wellness, Business Development and Relationship Management within the retirement services industry. My current role allows me to leverage my extensive experience and expertise to deliver a high-level client experience through technology and relationships.

Kevin Dillon

Associate Director, Strategic Relations

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Kevin Dillon serves as Associate Director, Strategic Relations for the Stakeholder Engagement Division of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Kevin’s team works with stakeholders in industry, government, and academia as force multipliers to enhance CISA’s strategic objectives.

Prior to joining CISA, Kevin spent several years in consulting and the financial services sector. Kevin has over 20 years of experience across the public and private sector.

Sergio DuBois

Partner and Solution Architect

Enterprise Iron Financial Industry Solutions, Inc.

Sergio DuBois is a Partner and Solution Architect at Enterprise Iron. With several decades of consulting experience for Fortune 100 Financial Services, Life Sciences and Government industries. Sergio brings a broad experience set to his advisory services to CTOs and Enterprise Architecture teams involved in large scale transformations. Recently Sergio has focused extensively on Cybersecurity, Cloud migration of legacy platforms, and the Agile transformation and DevSecOps retooling of classic waterfall engineering teams.

Melinda Emerson

“SmallBizLady” & author of Fix Your Business

Melinda F. Emerson, “SmallBizLady” is America’s #1 Small Business Expert. She is an internationally renowned keynote speaker on small business development, social media and content marketing. Melinda is also the president of the Quintessence Group, an award-winning marketing consulting firm based in Philadelphia, PA, serving Fortune 500 brands who target small business market. LinkedIn named her a Top Voice for 2019 in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In addition to being a former NY Times columnist, she is frequently quoted by media organizations including The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, MSNBC, CNBC and Fox News. She is the host of #Smallbizchat LIVE and The SmallBizChat Podcast.

A prolific writer, Melinda has published more than 5000 articles on her blog www.succeedasyourownboss.com. Her small business advice is widely read reaching more than 3 million entrepreneurs each week online. She is the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, 2nd Edition and her latest book is Fix Your Business, a 90 Day Plan to Get Back Your Life and Reduce Chaos in Your Business.

Anthony Estell

Director

Michigan Office of Retirement Services

Anthony Estell is the Executive Director of the State of Michigan’s Office of Retirement Services (ORS) in the Department of Technology, Management and Budget. He is responsible for administering Michigan’s award-winning defined benefit, defined contribution, hybrid, and retiree health care plans for approximately 580,000 Michigan citizens who are part of 5 different retirement systems. Anthony leads an integrated, process-based organization with a culture of employee growth, excellent customer service and positive change. He also developed and facilitated the “Power of Perspectives,” a course on diversity and inclusion. Anthony has over 23 years of experience in project management, leadership, change management, business process reengineering, technology development, and strategic planning. He has a BS in zoology from Michigan State University and holds the Retirement Plan Associate and Certified Retirement Counselor designations.

Russell Fernandez

Managing Director

Deloitte Consulting

Russell is a Managing Director in Deloitte Consulting’s Financial Services practice specializing in Retirement Services. Russell has more than 20 years of experience in Defined Contribution administration & retirement consulting, focusing on operations and technology transformation. Russell advises Clients on strategic operating models, business process design, large-scale system implementation, technology rationalization, and digital transformation. Russell is also leading Intelligent Automation for Deloitte’s Retirement & Wealth practice.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Russell worked at a large retirement provider holding a variety of roles across operations and client service delivery.

Rick Fulford

Executive Vice President

PIMCO

Mr. Fulford is an executive vice president in the Newport Beach office, an account manager and head of PIMCO’s U.S. defined contribution business. He previously served as the head of PIMCO’s public pension channel. He spent six years, from 2003-2009, in PIMCO’s London office servicing institutional clients.

Prior to joining PIMCO in 2000, he worked on the municipal desk at Wells Capital Management and before that, as a civil engineer. He has 22 years of investment experience and holds an MBA from the University of California, Irvine and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Chris Gaston

Senior Policy Director

Davis & Harman LLP

Chris Gaston is Senior Policy Director of Davis & Harman LLP. Chris has more than a dozen years of Capitol Hill experience and he represents clients on a wide range of issues before Congress, particularly retirement and savings policy.

Prior to joining Davis & Harman LLP, Chris served as Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) who was a senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

After growing up in Central New Jersey, Chris initially started with Rep. Holt as an intern and over the next twelve years, worked for Rep. Holt in a number of congressional and political positions. For more than five years Chris served as Rep. Holt’s Legislative Director where he helped establish an ambitious legislative agenda and advised him on a diverse range of legislative issues. In that capacity, Chris was responsible for all of Rep. Holt’s work on the Education and the Workforce Committee, including his legislative initiatives to promote retirement savings. Chris also led Rep. Holt’s efforts to raise concerns about the Department of Labor’s fiduciary proposal.

Chris graduated with a B.A. in Political Science with a Public Policy Focus from The George Washington University and received a M.A. in International Law and Politics from Georgetown University. He and his wife, Molly, have two active kids, Max and Clare, and one hyper active Border collie, Ace.

Brian Gattoni

Chief Technology Officer

DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

Brian R. Gattoni is the Chief Technology Officer for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Mr. Gattoni is responsible for the technical vision and strategic alignment of CISA data and mission services to manage risk to federal networks and critical infrastructure. CISA is the Nation’s risk advisor, working with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborating to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future.

Previously, Mr. Gattoni was the Chief of Mission Engineering & Technology responsible for developing innovative analytic techniques and new approaches to technology insertion to increase the value of DHS Cyber mission capabilities. In 2015, Mr. Gattoni was named the DHS Systems Engineer of the Year. Prior to joining DHS in 2010, Mr. Gattoni served in various positions at the Defense Information Systems Agency and the United States Army Test & Evaluation Command.

Mr. Gattoni holds a Master of Science Degree in Cyber Systems & Operations Planning from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Sherrie Grabot

Founder/Chief Executive Officer

GuidedChoice

Sherrie’s vision for GuidedChoice began long before the rise of the Internet. After building some of the earliest 401(k) systems in the 1980s, she was the first to automate a 401(k) plan on a computer desktop. This led to a role at Apple as Manager of HR Systems and Financial Programs, where she spearheaded the automation of their 401(k) plan, followed by executive positions at T. Rowe Price and Trust Company of the West.

In 1999, she decided to bring that same digital intelligence to everyone working to save for their future, and helped to create a $500 billion industry in the process.

Based on a belief that online technology could unlock greater financial freedom and transparency for everyone, Sherrie created GuidedChoice as the world’s first digital retirement advisor. Her focus on elevating consumer choice and control led to her working at the highest levels of industry and government, including chairmanship of the ERISA Advisory Council, frequent Congressional testimony on fiduciary rules, and lobbying for improved practices in the financial, technology and healthcare fields.

Today, as our highly active CEO and steward of our company values, Sherrie continues to drive us forward in our mission to help every investor, large and small, achieve their personal retirement goals. Always with a firm belief that independence is the only way to maintain the trust of those we assist.

Matt Gray

Assistant Vice President, Worksite & Middle Markets

Allianz Life

With more than 20 years in the financial services industry, Gray has broad experience in guaranteed solutions that can help consumers protect and improve their retirement outcomes. Since 2019, Gray has led the company’s expansion into employer markets to serve a broader range of consumers.

Mike Hadley

Partner

Davis & Harman LLP

Mike Hadley is a partner in the law firm Davis & Harman LLP. He practices in the area of employee benefits, advising clients on the full range of tax, ERISA, and other laws affecting benefit plans. He has a particular focus on helping financial institutions that sell products to defined contribution and defined benefit plans, IRAs and similar plans navigate the special rules that govern those plans. He also provides clients with strategic advice, plan design, counseling, and compliance assistance for qualified plans, 403(b) and 457 plans, non-qualified executive compensation, employment agreements, and health and other welfare plans.

Mike was formerly Associate Counsel for Pension Regulation at the Investment Company Institute, the national association of U.S. investment companies. His responsibilities included advocating for the Institute’s membership before Congress, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury, and the Securities Exchange Commission on retirement security issues and assisting ICI members and staff in understanding tax and ERISA rules. Among other duties he managed ICI’s work implementing the Pension Protection Act and responding to 401(k) fee, investment advice, and fiduciary developments in Congress, DOL, and the courts.

Prior to joining ICI, Mike was an associate with Covington & Burling LLP, where he advised clients on employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements, provided advice on ERISA litigation, and assisted with pension and benefits issues in mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions.

Mike is a frequent speaker on the latest retirement savings policy developments coming out of Congress and the regulatory agencies and has testified before Treasury, IRS, and Department of Labor. A sampling of articles he has authored or co-authored: ERISA Compliance for Investment Advisers: A Q&A Guide To DOL’s 408(b)(2) Disclosure Regulation, Investment Lawyer, Vol. 20, No. 7 (July 2013); The Economics of Providing 401(k) Plans: Services, Fees, and Expenses, 2010 ICI Research Perspective, Vol. 17, No. 4 (June 2011); and 401 (k) Plans: A 25-Year Retrospective, ICI Research Perspective, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Nov. 2006).

Mike was a law clerk for the Honorable Gerald Tjoflat, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was Notes Editor of the Virginia Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his B.A., cum laude, from the College of William and Mary.

Timothy Hauser

Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Office Operations

Department of Labor

Timothy D. Hauser is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Office Operations and as such is the chief operating officer of the agency. Mr. Hauser closely coordinates with the Assistant Secretary, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regional Office Operations in the formulation and development of EBSA policies, objectives, and goals to ensure comprehensive, integrated, and effective regulatory, compliance assistance, education, reporting, and enforcement programs.

Mr. Hauser joined the Department of Labor in 1991 as a trial attorney for the Plan Benefits Security Division (PBSD), where he represented the Department in federal district court and appellate litigation. From November 2000 until November 2013, Mr. Hauser was the Associate Solicitor of the Division. As the head of PBSD, he was responsible for all of the Department’s legal work under ERISA.

Before joining the Department of Labor, Mr. Hauser worked as a trial attorney for six years at Legal Aid of Western Missouri. As a Legal Aid attorney, he represented indigent clients in civil litigation in ten rural counties in Missouri. Mr. Hauser graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985. He is also a graduate of the University of Illinois.

Cynthia Hayes

President

Oculus Partners, LLC

Cynthia Hayes is a nationally recognized leader in retirement related policy, business management, product strategy, marketing, and client management. She formed Oculus Partners, LLC in July, 2008. Oculus has helped financial services companies, both large and small, in designing new products, new distribution and marketing strategies, new delivery channels (including call centers, web, and branch-based delivery), and has developed strong marketing and practice management programs in the retirement arena and more broadly in the wealth management arena.

Prior to forming Oculus, she retired from Merrill Lynch as a Managing Director of their Retirement Group where she held senior positions in business line management, sales, marketing, operations and strategy. Cynthia served as a driver of business, product, and marketing strategies for all retirement related businesses including Employer Plans, and Individual Retirement. As business line executive, she was responsible for the Retirement Investment Platforms, Institutional Integrated Benefits, Equity Award Services, and Small Business Retirement. She also served as Senior Marketing and Strategy Officer for Merrill Lynch Trust Company and the Merrill Lynch Financial Advisory Center.

Prior to Merrill Lynch, Cynthia was Senior Vice President of NationsBank (now Bank of America) responsible for Institutional Trust Operations and launching the daily 401(k) business. Other roles include Senior Marketing Officer for a national portfolio management software firm, Portfolio Manager for a boutique investment management firm, and Pension Consultant for a national broker/dealer.

Cynthia was named as one of 5 finalists in “Most Important Women in the 401(k) Industry” in 2007, and has been in the top 100 “Most Important People in the 401(k) Industry” for multiple years. She carries the CFA and CEBS designations. Cynthia and her husband David have 4 children and eight grandchildren and live in Atlanta, GA.

Jarrott Heath

Director of Investments

Comperio Retirement Consulting

Jarrott serves as Director of Investments and Co-Chairman of the Investment Committee, overseeing investment research and manager due diligence for equities, fixed income, real assets, and multi-asset strategies across open-end funds, separate accounts, and collective trusts. He also leads economic research and is involved in strategic and tactical asset allocation, portfolio construction and risk management.

Prior to joining Comperio, Jarrott was a consultant to firms serving the construction industry, providing financial and transaction advisory services. He has an undergraduate degree in Finance, an MBA, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Jenny Holt

Customer Savings & Investments Director

Phoenix Group

Jenny has worked for Standard Life for 14 years across a number of roles. A qualified actuary, she started her career doing Jenny has more than 15 years’ financial services experience across a number of roles. A qualified actuary, she started her career doing more traditional roles in Finance but has spent the last 10 years in proposition roles and is passionate about developing commercially sustainable solutions that deliver improved outcomes for customers. In her current role as Customer Savings & Investments Director for Phoenix Group her focus is on using data and insight to understand customer needs and behaviors and using this to develop relevant and engaging propositions that support customers with their financial decision making to and through retirement.

Angie Jacobs

Senior Analyst

GAO

At GAO, Angie has led research on a variety of retirement savings topics including 401(k) rollovers, forced transfers and automatic rollover IRAs, eligibility and vesting rules, unclaimed retirement savings and transfers to states, and the funding levels for state and local government retirement benefits. Currently, she’s leading work looking at 401(k) participant-level fee disclosures.

Balaraman Jayaraman

Co-founder and President

Congruent Solutions

Bala has over three decades of experience in the high-tech industry. As a Co-Founder and President of Congruent Solutions since 1999, he has steered Congruent through diversification and growth to emerge as one of the pioneers in the retirement technology solutions and outsourced retirement administration services. Congruent also launched CORE Retirement Solutions, a suite of Enterprise Technology Solutions for Pension Providers in the US.

He is a Charter Member and a past member of the Governing Council of TiE, Chennai, and an active Rotarian. He is a member of the Regional Council of NASSCOM and is currently the President of the IIM Calcutta Alumni Association Chennai Chapter. He is on the Board of Trustees of Relief Foundation, an NGO focused on transforming education to the underprivileged children.

Bala received the Pathfinder 2013 award from The Economic Times, recognizing his contribution to the IT & ITES industry.He is a visiting faculty at the Department of Management Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is regularly invited to offer guest lectures and workshops at Great Lakes Institute of Management and his alma mater, IIM Calcutta. Bala has a Master’s from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Warren Jennings

Head, Retirement Product Strategy

FIS

Warren Jennings leads product strategy for retirement at FIS. In his current role, Warren is responsible for planning and strategy, go-to-market delivery, as well as integration and partner relationships for retirement. Warren has extensive experience leading teams, both internally and externally, to launch key product initiatives and bring solutions to market.

As Head of Product Strategy, Warren combines his unique understanding of client needs with an evolving market landscape to develop and deliver forward thinking technology solutions. Warren has over 20 years of experience in the retirement and health benefits industry. As a frequent speaker at industry conferences, Warren applies his knowledge on several retirement solutions and services. He earned an MBA from Florida International University and bachelor’s degree with a major in Finance and Marketing from Florida State University.

Jenny Johnson

President, Chief Executive Officer

Franklin Resources, Inc.

Jenny Johnson is president and chief executive officer of Franklin Resources, Inc. She is also a member of the company’s board of directors. Ms. Johnson is responsible for developing the company’s overall strategic direction,executing on its strategy, and advancing Franklin Templeton’s client-centric culture. Ms. Johnson joined the company in 1988 and previously held the role of president and chief operating officer.

Over the past three decades, she has managed all major aspects of the business, including investment management, distribution, customer service, fund administration, technology, and the company’s high-net-worth business. She serves as a director of Fiduciary Trust Company International and several other subsidiaries of Franklin Resources, Inc.In 2020, Ms. Johnson was named to Barron’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance. She has been named one of Money Management Executive’s Top Women in Asset Management and was chosen by her peers as one of Ignites’ Most Influential Women in Fund Management. Ms. Johnson is a recipient of the Robert L. Gould Award presented by global investment management association NICSA, which recognizes outstanding achievement in helping the mutual fund industry better serve investors through customer service, thought leadership and technology. She has also been recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.

Ms. Johnson is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, notably on the topics of leadership, technology and innovation.Ms. Johnson earned her B.A. in economics from the University of California at Davis. She is a trustee at Crystal Springs Uplands School and a board member of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. Ms. Johnson also serves as an advisor to Shatter Fund LLC, a venture capital firm focused on investing in technology companies led and founded by female entrepreneurs. In addition, she is a member of the NYSE Board Advisory Council, which identifies and connects diverse board candidates to NYSE-listed companies seeking new directors.

Kristin Judge

CEO/President

Cybercrime Support Network

Kristin founded nonprofit Cybercrime Support Network to be a voice for cybercrime victims. She’s been seen on the C-SPAN Network, local news outlets and called on by technology publications like SC Magazine and Government Technology, to share best practices for online safety. Kristin was an SC Media “Women in IT Security Influencer” in 2017. At MS-ISAC and National Cyber Security Alliance she worked as a “technology interpreter” helping nontechnical people become more secure.

She’s a national speaker, sharing cybersecurity best practices with elected officials, businesses and consumers, and authored the LinkedIn course, “Cybersecurity for Small and Medium Businesses: Essential Training.”

Peter Kocmond

Executive Director, Defined Contribution Manager

JP Morgan Asset Management

Peter is a financial Industry executive with over 24 years of experience focused on product development, retirement services, distribution strategy and strategic analysis.

Peter currently leads retirement plan product development at JPM Chase. He previously was head of Retail, RIA, and Retirement Business Management and Strategy at AllianzGI. Prior to this role Peter was a senior consultant for leading financial services firms, founded a robo-advisory firm, and was an executive at Merrill Lynch where he led financial advisory product development, retirement plan distribution through third party providers, strategic business planning and acquisitions. Peter has also developed an institutional business unit at Credit Suisse which delivered brokerage and IRA solutions and services to over 30 third party institutions and led retirement product and organizational development at Prudential.

Peter currently lives in Alpharetta, GA with his wife (Jill), 2 children (Tyler and Liah), and 2 dogs (Charlie and Copper).

Mark Koeppen

Senior Vice President of Strategic Rollovers

FPS Trust

Mark has over 25 years of experience with retirement plan management, consulting and compliance. He worked for 15 years with Great-West Life; five of which were in recordkeeping operations, the last ten were in institutional management, product design and developing system enhancements. Then Mark moved to MetLife and spent another seven years managing retirement plans, consulting on plan design, funds management and simplifying administrative compliance. Since 2014 Mark has been focused on addressing retirement plan leakage and plan sponsor best practices for managing missing participants with frequent contributions to industry articles and conference speaking engagements.

Since joining FPS Trust in 2017, Mark has led our IRA market solutions, focusing on auto-rollover IRAs for missing participants, uncashed checks, and plan cash-outs. He has developed a comprehensive package of services to assist consultants, advisors, and plan sponsors successfully eliminate the risk associated with having missing participants in the plan.

Mark serves as the Chairman of the Finance Committee and is on the Board of Directors for Sandstone Creek Club to ensure the club is successful and allows the owners to continue to experience the beauty of its surroundings in Vail Colorado. Being a Colorado native, he enjoys taking his family to the mountains to enjoy golf, fishing, hiking, and historic small towns. While four of his five children are grown and away at school, he and his wife of 29 years still enjoy the antics of their 11-year old.

Todd Kossow

Director, Midwest Region

Federal Trade Commission

Todd M. Kossow is the Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Midwest Region in Chicago, which is responsible for eleven midwestern states.

Todd joined the FTC in 1998 and served as the Midwest Region’s Assistant Director from May 2008 to January 2016, when he became the office’s Director. During his tenure, Todd has litigated and supervised consumer protection cases in federal district court against companies and individuals involved in the deceptive marketing and sale of a variety of products and services, including money transfer services, tax relief services, mortgage relief services, and buyer’s and travel club memberships.

Before joining the FTC, Todd clerked for Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner on the federal district court in Chicago and then on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Todd graduated with honors from Northwestern University School of Law and from Wittenberg University.

Jim Langevin

U.S. House of Representatives, (D-RI)

Committees on Armed Services & Homeland Security

Congressman Jim Langevin (LAN’-jih-vin) is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is the Chairman of the Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, and of the House Committee on Homeland Security. A national leader on securing our nation’s technology infrastructure against cyber threats, Langevin co-founded the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus to increase awareness around the issue and co-chaired the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, which made policy recommendations to President Obama.

As co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus, Langevin advocates to improve and increase access to training that gives students and workers the skills that best fit the needs of expanding industries. He has successfully fought for strong CTE funding under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and, in Rhode Island, has worked to foster employer-educator partnerships and career training programs across a variety of career fields.

A voice for those facing serious challenges, Langevin championed passage of a bipartisan bill to expand services for families caring for their elderly and disabled loved ones and authored a breakthrough law to protect foster youth. He is a strong advocate for inclusion and independence for people with disabilities, and helped pass the ADA Amendments Act that strengthened the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Langevin was inspired to enter public service by the tremendous outpouring of support he received during the most challenging time of his life, after a gun accident paralyzed him at age 16 and left him a quadriplegic. He is driven by a belief that everyone deserves a fair opportunity to make the most of their talents.

After serving as secretary for the state’s Constitutional Convention in 1986, Langevin won election to the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and in 1994, became the nation’s youngest Secretary of State. His leadership resulted in reforms to Rhode Island’s outdated election system and a landmark report documenting widespread violations of the state’s Open Meetings Law. He served in that role until winning election to Congress in 2000.

Matt LaVigna

President & CEO

National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance

Matt is the President and CEO of the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance (NCFTA), a nonprofit organization founded in Pittsburgh, PA in 2002 to support and enable the sharing of cyber threat information between private industry and government partners. With offices in Pittsburgh, New York, and Los Angeles, the NCFTA serves as a global model for cross-sector industry and law enforcement collaboration to identify, mitigate, and disrupt some of the most impactful cyber-based threats.

Prior to joining the NCFTA management team in March 2015, Matt spent over 26 years in the United States Secret Service where he led criminal investigations in Pittsburgh, New York City, and at Secret Service Headquarters in Washington, DC. In Washington, he also held several high profile positions to include the Presidential Protection Detail, Investigative Fellow for the United States Senate, and was an original staff member during the foundation of the Department of Homeland Security.

Jason Lenardson

Vice President, Head of Retirement Plan Services IT

Lincoln Financial Group

As the Vice President and Head of Retirement Plan Services (RPS) IT, Jason Lenardson provides leadership to a large IT development organization and serves as a liaison supporting operational business areas. Jason supports several of Lincoln Financial Group’s client and back office initiatives.

Jason is a thought leader, providing innovative solutions to deliver maximum value to both his IT and Business partners. One key initiative Jason is currently leading is transforming teams to: increase throughput, improve quality, and be nimbler by instilling Agile/Lean principles, DevOps capabilities, and forming cross functional teams.

Jason brings more than 30 years of software delivery experience including leading significant strategic multi-year initiatives. His vast experience ranges from transforming Lincoln’s web experience/website to serving as the head of IT for Lincoln’s distribution channel Lincoln Financial Distributors. Prior to Lincoln, Jason was a Delivery Project Executive at IBM Global Services in the Financial Services Sector managing a large application portfolio for Fortune 500 company. He has experience in leading teams focused on enterprise architecture, strategic planning, web hosting, and innovation.

Jason is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University, and lives in the Fort Wayne area with his wife Erin and children.

Todd Levy

Chief Investment Officer

Ingham Retirement Group

As the Chief Investment Officer at Ingham Retirement Group, Todd Levy has over twenty-three years of industry experience. For the past nineteen years he has been pursuing his passion working with plan sponsors to create successful retirement plans with the singular focus on helping plan participants accumulate enough money to live a dignified lifestyle in retirement. Throughout his career, Todd has been an active advocate within various fiduciary circles and keenly focused on outcome oriented plan design strategies and technological innovations.

In his role at Ingham, a Miami based producing TPA firm, Todd is responsible for the design, oversight and implementation of the firm’s asset allocation views. Todd’s unique experience working for a Recordkeeping, TPA and Actuarial firm affords the firm’s clients a true and measurable value. This perspective regularly affords Todd the ability to problem solve or develop real solutions for his clients in real time, often before plan sponsors recognize a concern. Todd takes pride as a consultant to the firm’s diverse group of plan sponsor clients whereby he enjoys the challenge of humanizing “401(K) speak” and investment jargon into real world communication to empower plan sponsors’ active role in decision making on behalf and in the best interest of their plan participants.

Todd holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Syracuse University and has achieved ASPPA’s Qualified 401(k) Administrator (QKA) designation and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst (AIFA®) designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies.

Rich Linton

EVP, Group Distribution and Operations

Empower Retirement

Rich Linton is Executive Vice President of Group Distribution and Operations for Empower Retirement. In his role, he oversees Empower’s segment distribution, which includes core, government, large, mega and not-for-profit markets. He also manages all aspects of recordkeeping and plan administration operations, including the Plan Service Center, the participant services center, compliance, conversion and implementation services, client services, processing operations, and financial controls. Additionally, he has responsibility for Great West Global operations in India.

Rich joined the organization in 2016 and has 28 years of industry experience, managing all aspects of the defined contribution business.

Before joining Empower, he served as President of large corporate markets and retail wealth management for Voya Financial. There, he oversaw sales and marketing, relationship management, product development, platform management, field representative service, brokerage operations and strategic planning. Rich has also served at Bank of America, where he was Managing Director of the business retirement solutions group, and at Fidelity Investments, where he gained deep experience running a major part of the operations organization. At Fidelity he served in a variety of leadership roles in operations, sales, product, marketing and client services before becoming Executive Vice President in the advisor retirement business.

Rich holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Boston University. He is board chairman and president of the Society of Professional Asset-Managers and Recordkeepers (SPARK), and he serves on the board of trustees of Colorado Succeeds, an organization of business leaders who are working to improve Colorado’s schools.

Philip T. Maffei II

Managing Director, Product Development and Actuarial

TIAA Financial Solutions Product Group

Phil leads TIAA’s Guaranteed Income Solutions team. He and his team are responsible for designing, manufacturing and managing spread-based and fee-based guaranteed annuity, funding agreement, and other lifetime income and stable value products across multiple product types, distribution channels and end user clients.

He has 26 years of experience with general account and separate account products that preserve principal and provide stable returns, both with and without lifetime income options. He joined TIAA in 2007 and has developed and/or managed a range of products, including TIAA’s off-platform guaranteed solutions for plan defaults, TIAA’s flagship TIAA Traditional Annuity, TIAA Stable Value, and separate account GIC product lines.

Previously he held a variety of managerial and individual contributor roles with Prudential Financial supporting guaranteed income and stable value products issued to defined contribution, defined benefit and college savings plans.

Phil holds a B.S. in finance from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and an M.B.A in finance from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the Stable Value Investment Association (SVIA), the Institutional Retirement Income Council (IRIC), has published industry collateral in partnership with industry associations and peers, and has represented TIAA on industry working groups to help shape regulations and policy. He holds national insurance licenses and is a former member of the Board of Directors of a local volunteer fire department.

Virginia Maguire

Wealth Product Strategy Lead

Alight Solutions

Virginia leads strategy and product development for Alight Solutions’ retirement outsourcing business. Using her expertise and knowledge of the retirement marketplace, she leads a team that develops and implements unique financial solutions – ultimately supporting clients’ in their efforts to help their employees achieve financial success.

Her role includes designing innovative solutions both within Alight Solutions as well as via partnerships with companies sharing Alight Solutions’ unbiased, objective approach to better retirement outcomes. Virginia also works closely with Alight’s Retirement Research Team, leveraging Alight Solutions’ data on millions of retirement plan participants and hundreds of plan sponsors to identify and understand trends and opportunities in retirement programs.

Steve McCoy

Chief Executive Officer

iJoin

Steve has more than 30 years of executive and sales-management experience in a variety of industries, including financial services and health care. His particular expertise is in leading organizations through periods of rapid growth, managing large sales and marketing organizations, and capital formation to deploy both organic and inorganic growth strategies.

Prior to joining LDI-MAP (iJoin), Steve was CEO of 3D Asset Management, an independent RIA providing ETF model portfolios, technology and practice-management solutions to fee-based financial advisers. During his tenure as CEO, he led efforts to strengthen and reposition the business, develop an innovative financial technology platform and prepare the firm for a sale.

Previously, Steve was Owner and EVP of Accounting Resources, a regional provider of accounting, payroll and insurance services. Having developed and sold the payroll and insurance segments of the business to ADP, Steve currently serves as Board Director capacity for the firm.

As Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Byram Healthcare, Steve’s team created the largest direct sales organization in the industry and completed more than 30 acquisitions to drive revenue growth from $20MM to $160MM over a nine-year period. Before working at Byram, Steve served as sales executive for a number of firms in the financial services industry,consulting with large institutions in areas of corporate finance, asset/liability management, specific securities transactions and investment banking. Steve also served as Principal for a Western branch office of Wall Street-based R.C. Government Securities and was Vice President for five years for Prudential Securities, where his team administered an institutional advisory practice for its Pacific South region.

Doug McIntosh

Vice President – Investments

Prudential Retirement

Douglas S. McIntosh, Jr. is vice president of Investments for Prudential Retirement. In this role, Doug supports the investment product function, working across the enterprise to source best-in-class investment & guaranteed solutions for retirement investors on Prudential’s recordkeeping platform and beyond. His team also oversees third-party asset managers that deliver on the promise to help Americans retire with dignity. Along with product development responsibilities, he works closely with the firm’s Regulatory and Legislative Affairs groups to promote understanding and use of investments and guaranteed outcome vehicles within DC plans. This work has taken him to the Department of Labor and both houses of Congress, and he is a frequent speaker at industry conferences (eg Institutional Investor, Pensions & Investments, SPARK).

Prior to his current role, Doug held the position of vice president, Investments within Prudential Annuities, in which he led all aspects of sales support and strategic direction for that division’s investment platform. Doug previously held the position of vice president, Distribution for Prudential International Investments, creating custom principle-protected and lifelong income products for the world’s largest asset aggregators. Earlier in his career in the United States, Doug held the role of vice president, Distribution for Prudential IncomeFlex within Prudential Retirement.

Prior to working for Prudential Retirement, Doug was Director, International Sales for Mentor Ophthalmics, a specialty medical manufacturer, where he ran distribution in Europe, Asia and Latin America. This work was an outgrowth of his time working hands-on with patients in a large, international vitreoretinal medical and surgical practice (Retina Associates). As a result, he sat in on ophthalmic surgeries on six continents (if we include Australia). Direct interaction with patients and practitioners, in both the office and surgical suite, gave Doug a deep understanding of ocular anatomy, pathology and surgical technique, an interest which he maintains until the present.

Doug holds an MBA with Distinction in International Management & Finance from Cornell University, and received a B.A. in English & Communications from Fairfield University. Doug is currently a board member of both the Connecticut Secure Retirement Authority Board, and the Center for Latino Progress, and was formerly the chairman of the Pension Board for the Town of West Hartford CT. He speaks Spanish, French and Italian in addition to English, plus a little Portuguese.

Adam McMahon

Associate

Davis & Harman LLP

Adam R. McMahon is an associate with Davis & Harman LLP. Adam advises clients on a wide range of employee benefit plan issues, particularly focusing on the design and administration of retirement plans, welfare benefit plans, and IRAs. Adam also keeps clients up-to-date on the latest legislative and regulatory developments affecting employee benefit plans.

Lavina Mehta

Retirement Plans Manager

Bechtel Global Corporation

Ms. Mehta is the retirement plans manager for Bechtel’s retirement plans group. Her primary responsibilities include the oversight of various retirement plans including 401(k), non-qualified and international plans with over $6 Bil in assets. She provides investment and administrative support for the Bechtel Group Foundation, VEBAs and all other non-U.S. Bechtel retirement plans and sits on various fiduciary committees of Bechtel affiliate companies. She also volunteers on the Asset Management Committee of the Chevron Federal Credit Union.

Ms. Mehta was hired by Bechtel in Singapore as the deputy regional treasury manager responsible for Treasury activities in the Asia Pacific Region, covering North Asia, South East Asia and Australia/ New Zealand. She subsequently re-located to San Francisco as the Treasury Manager responsible for Treasury issues pertaining to the Power and Telecoms Global Business units and North America Region. Bechtel Global Corporation is a premier global engineering, construction, and project management firm with over 50,000 employees worldwide. Ms. Mehta has been with Bechtel Global Corporation for 19 years and with the Retirement Plans Group overseeing retirement plans for more than 15 of those.

Prior to joining Bechtel, Ms. Mehta worked in Treasury at Singapore Airlines in Singapore. Ms. Mehta has her B.Sc. in Management Science from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), in the U.K. and has received the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) designations.

John Mitchem

Principal

JM3 Projects

John Mitchem, Principal of California-based JM3 Projects, has worked in journalism, public policy, industry strategy, executive communications and content development worldwide. After two decades with the United Nations and the State Street Corporation, he founded JM3 Projects to provide strategy development and thought leadership projects for a variety of technology and financial firms, trade associations, government agencies, universities and nongovernmental organizations around the world.

His focus is on economic development, emerging technologies, global capital markets and innovations in financial services, including the evolution of private workplace savings plans worldwide. John collaborated with Bob Reynolds and the team from Great West/Empower/Putnam on the book “From Here to Security: How Workplace Savings Can Keep America’s Promise” (McGraw-Hill Professional).

Chrisinda Mowrer

VP, Consumer Engagement and Loyalty

Voya Financial

Chrisinda Mowrer is vice president of Consumer Engagement and Loyalty at Voya Financial. In this role, she oversees the marketing strategy and execution of all participant and consumer facing marketing materials. Chrisinda is responsible for the consumer engagement group at Voya who manages all participant strategy and communications. This team is responsible for servicing Voya clients through marketing strategy and execution to employees.

At Voya she is a revenue focused marketer bringing ideas centered in business impact. She is leading marketing personalized messaging efforts for all participants enabling Voya to establish bench marks and success metrics while adjusting appropriate touch-points real-time to achieve desired results. In 2017 Chrisinda was selected as one of LIMRA’s 25 Rising Stars in Marketing and Communications.

Previously Chrisinda was a Director of Digital Marketing at ING U.S. She led in the development and management of ING’s core digital marketing strategy building content strategy framework to identify user flows and digital conversions. Chrisinda also developed strategies and ideas for digital marketing programs in support of business goals and thought leadership in the digital space including digital governance.

Chrisinda joined ING in 2011 coming from an extensive digital background. She has experience in implementing integrated marketing and communications strategies including content strategy, interactive marketing, brand advertising b2b and direct marketing in the financial space. She is a proven successful and effective team leader with interactive agency experience in global site builds social and mobile campaigns, display online media, content management systems, and internet strategy development for Fortune 500 clients such as Coca-Cola, BlueCross Blue Shield, McCormick Spices and Kimberly Clark.

Nick Nefouse

Co-Head of LifePath and Head of Retirement Group Investment Strategy

BlackRock

Nick Nefouse, CFA, Managing Director, is the Co-Head of BlackRock’s LifePath target date fund franchise and Head of Investment Strategy for BlackRock’s Retirement Group. In this capacity, he leads product strategy and platform development and is responsible for developing and delivering innovative retirement solutions to BlackRock’s clients.

Mr. Nefouse has spent the majority of his career in product and investment strategy roles across multi-asset, fixed income, and equities, previously leading product strategy for our Emerging Markets and Global Equities teams. He has been with the firm since 2003 in both New York and London, including his years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, which merged with BlackRock in 2006.

Mr. Nefouse earned a BA degree in economics from Michigan State University, and he is a board member on the Financial Markets Institute at Michigan State University. He is a CFA charter holder.

Judy Nelson

Head-US Retirement, Managing Partner

TCS Consultancy Services

Judy Nelson has over 30 years of financial services and industry experience with a focused concentration on Brokerage, Asset Management, Banking, Retirement and Insurance. Judy’s areas of expertise focus on business transformation and strategic initiatives which enable clients to achieve optimal results. Her vast background and expertise have been instrumental in driving transformative client experiences, revenue growth/profitability, organizational efficiencies and improved operating success.

As a consultant, Judy has created, designed and implemented organizational strategies which resulted in new business support models and increased revenue streams. Prior to consulting, Judy was responsible for creating Merrill Lynch’s global service infrastructure for retirement, retail private clients, wealth management and affluent clients. Under Judy’s direction, Merrill Lynch was awarded the J.D. Power award (four years) for outstanding client and participant service delivery.

Judy was the architect of the ML Online Platforms for participant and client trading, service delivery, client communication and e-delivery strategies. Earlier in her career, she was responsible for managing ML Mutual Fund Operations, providing support to domestic and international funds, proprietary and non-proprietary funds and internal transfer agency. Judy also facilitated the Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney merger, creating the blueprint for future state service/operations infrastructure. Additionally, she designed alternative channels of distribution for investing and retirement at PNC Investments, and implemented cross-sell initiatives to support multiple channels of distribution.

Matt Noyes

Strategy Director of the Office of Investigations

U.S. Secret Service

Matt Noyes is the Strategy Director of the Office of Investigations, where he is responsible for leading the development of policy, strategy, planning, and budget for the Secret Service’s over 160 field offices and over 3,100 agents and professional staff that execute the U.S. Secret Service’s integrated mission of safeguarding the integrity of financial systems and protecting of designated persons, location, and events. He joined the Secret Service in 2012, and served in several positions at the Secret Service focusing primarily on budget and policy for strengthening the Secret Service’s ability to counter risks posed transnational cyber crime.

Prior to the Secret Service, Mr. Noyes served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army assigned to brigade combat teams. His military awards include the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He continues to serve as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. Mr. Noyes regularly writes, teaches, and presents on subjects at the intersection of technology and security policy. His has a master in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, a master of military art and science from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and applied mathematics from the University of Washington.

James Olson

Managing Director

Financial Processing Solutions Group (FPS Group)

Mr.Olson has more than 25 years in the financial services industry, and possesses a range of experience specializing in marketing and product development arenas. Currently Mr.Olson is the Managing Director of Financial Processing Solutions Group (FPS Group)which provides technology platforms to the benefit and financial services marketplace.

As the lead executive in charge, Mr. Olson is responsible for the overall strategic direction and business lines. Prior to FPS Group, Mr. Olson was a Principal and Founder of Aspire Financial Services and contributed to the growth of the company into a nationally recognized leader in the retirement plan industry with more than $10 billion of recordkeeping assets and approximately 250,000 participants.

Prior to founding FPS Group and Aspire, Mr. Olson worked with Decimal, Inc., as Senior Vice President of Strategic Development and mPower as VP of Product Development. He began his career with Charles Schwab as a Senior Marketing Manager, focusing on developing retirement products for the small business market with over $30 billion in assets through these products.

Georgeann Peters

Partner

Baker & Hostetler LLP

Georgeann Peters has more than 30 years’ experience handling all aspects of employee benefits, executive compensation, and Employee Retirement Income Security Act and tax compliance for both large and small clients. She is intimately familiar with the intricacies involved in all types of employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements, and also has the ability to find creative solutions to the problems and challenges her clients face. Her knowledge further enables Georgeann to translate technical and often complex material regarding labor, employment and tax law into digestible information her clients can apply to accomplish their objectives, ensuring compliance with the appropriate legal regulations.

Georgeann is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation and is co-leader of Baker Hostetler’s national Employee Benefits team.

Samantha Petersen

Founder and CEO

The Petersen Group

Samantha has 25 years of diverse and dedicated unclaimed property experience and is a recognized authority and trusted business advisor for bringing companies into compliance with their unclaimed property reporting responsibilities. Samantha has represented many Fortune 500 companies with unclaimed property audit defense, quantifying unclaimed property exposures, identifying successor liabilities through M&A deals, voluntary settlements, training, and identifying planning opportunities and process improvements to address unclaimed property at the root cause.

Samantha began her career in industry at FedEx Corporation in Memphis, TN where she was instrumental in implementing the company’s unclaimed property reporting processes, as well as drafting comprehensive policies and procedures. In doing so, Samantha holds the distinction of being one of the first to fully implement and integrate unclaimed property reporting software applications with the company’s existing ERP systems. Samantha has extensive experience in the use and implementation of various unclaimed property reporting systems and the development of unclaimed property policies and procedures customized to meet a company’s needs.

With over 20 years in public accounting, Samantha has extensive experience in helping companies assess unclaimed property exposures related to ASC 450 contingencies, ASC 250 corrections and ASC 606 revenue recognition standards. Samantha has worked closely with both internal and external auditors of her clients for proper accruals and financial statement disclosures. Samantha has experience in many industries including healthcare, telecommunications, life insurance, manufacturing, entertainment, oil & gas, utilities, financial services, multi-level marketing, logistics, real estate and retail. Prior to founding The Petersen Group, Samantha served as the West Region Unclaimed Property Practice leader for KPMG LLP where she was responsible for strategic planning and overall practice growth and development.

Michael Ravey

Senior Executive

SS&C Technologies

Michael has more than 25 years of experience in retirement recordkeeping both managing 401(k) plans for clients and delivering enterprise-level technology solutions utilizing the Software-as-a-Service (Saas) model to implement strategic growth initiatives. Prior to joining SS&C, Michael spent more than 15 years at FIS where he served as a Principal of consulting services and also a National Sales Executive. Michael holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Pittsburgh.

Robert Reynolds

President & CEO

Putnam Investments

Mr. Reynolds is President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam Investments and President of The Putnam Funds. He is also a member of Putnam’s Operating Committee. Building upon a distinguished 30-year career, Mr. Reynolds has revitalized Putnam through strong, sustained investment performance, new products designed for today’s market challenges, and thought leadership on the future of retirement and workplace savings. Respected as an industry statesman, Mr. Reynolds is regarded as a driving force of innovation and progress in institutional and retail financial services.

In addition to his Putnam responsibilities, Mr. Reynolds is Chair of Great-West Lifeco U.S., one of the nation’s top providers of retirement savings products and services, life insurance, annuities, and executive benefits products. Prior to joining Putnam in 2008, he was Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Fidelity Investments.

Mr. Reynolds’ accomplishments have earned multiple industry honors over time. He was named Fund Leader of the Year at the Mutual Fund Industry Awards in 2010 for the strategic improvements he initiated at Putnam. The following year, under the leadership of Mr. Reynolds, Putnam was honored as Retirement Leader of the Year for initiatives and innovative solutions in the workplace savings arena. Mr. Reynolds has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from PLANSPONSOR magazine for popularizing employer-sponsored 401(k) plans.

Mr. Reynolds currently serves on several not-for-profit boards, including those of the Concord Museum, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association Foundation. Additionally, he serves as Chairman of the Boston Advisory Board of the American Ireland Fund, Chairman of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, and National Council Co-Chairman of the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Reynolds also is an Executive Committee Member of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness; the President’s Council, Massachusetts General Hospital; Executive Committee, Massachusetts High Technology Council; and the Chief Executives Club of Boston. He previously served as Chairman of West Virginia University Foundation.

Mr. Reynolds earned a B.S. in Business Administration, Finance, from West Virginia University, where he also received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration and a Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition, Mr. Reynolds is a recipient of the Boston College President’s Medal of Excellence and the Manhattan College De La Salle Medal.

Tim Rouse

Executive Director

SPARK Institute

Tim has over thirty years of experience in the financial services industry mainly within retirement services of large mutual fund companies. For the past twenty-five years Tim has worked with major plan sponsors in state and local governments, corporations, Taft-Hartley plans, nonprofit hospitals, colleges and universities. Over his career Tim has worked with Voya Financial, Fidelity Investments, ICMA Retirement Corporation and The Vanguard Group.

Tim is a former President of the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators’ Industry Board and a graduate of Villanova University.

Tina Sanchez

Managing Director, U.S. & Canada Defined Contribution National Accounts team

BlackRock

Tina Sanchez, Managing Director, is head of BlackRock Retirement Group’s U.S. & Canada Defined Contribution National Accounts team. Her team is responsible for formulating and executing the home office strategy with BlackRock’s DC clients and for developing and maintaining relationships with all recordkeepers and insurers including investment placements, product development and distribution within the client’s retirement business.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Sanchez worked at Legg Mason in the Defined Contribution Group. At Legg, she was a senior member within relationship management in the DC and sub advised space. Prior to her time at Legg Mason, Tina worked at Pioneer Investments in numerous sales and relationship management roles within both retail and defined contribution. Ms. Sanchez graduated from Saint Michael’s College, cum laude, with a major in International Business Administration.

Calvin Schnure

Senior Vice President, Research & Economic Analysis

Nareit

Calvin Schnure is Senior Vice President, Research & Economic Analysis, and joined Nareit in March 2011. He analyzes developments in the macro economy and their impact on REITs and commercial property markets, and on financial returns to REITs. He monitors performance of mortgage REITs and conditions in the U.S. mortgage market. He also conducts original research on REITs’ stock market returns and economic fundamentals.

Calvin began his professional career in the 1990s as Economist at the Federal Reserve Board. While at the Fed he analyzed the non-bank financial sectors for the Flow of Funds Accounts, corporate profits and commercial paper markets in the Capital Markets group, and also analyzed business fixed investment, including capital spending on nonresidential structures, for the Fed’s economic forecast. Subsequently he was Vice President for US Economics at JPMorganChase, where he analyzed and forecast economic and financial market conditions, and advised senior management and clients. He was Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2002 through 2006, and Director of Economic Analysis at Freddie Mac from 2006 through 2011.

Calvin earned a B.A. in Economics from Williams College, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Tim Scott

Partner

Enterprise Iron Financial Industry Solutions, Inc.

Tim Scott has over 30 years of experience in the retirement plan services industry primarily serving banking, insurance, trust, technology and other asset management clients. He has extensive technology, operational, business development and client services background and has led multiple IT transformation efforts. Mr. Scott has also led the largest Professional Services unit of a major international IT Services organization.

Darlene Soderquist

Vice President

Empower Institutional

Darlene Soderquist is Vice President for Empower Institutional. In her role, she is responsible for the team that oversees relationships with our institutional recordkeeping clients and helps ensure Empower Institutional meets or exceeds its service commitments. Darlene’s relationship management team works closely with institutional partners to develop products, roll out new functionality and identify enhancement opportunities.

Darlene joined the organization in 1995 and has served in various management roles within the company, most recently as Vice President of Conversions. Prior to joining Empower, Darlene was employed at Deloitte & Touche as a Financial and Internal Control Auditor. She has 25 years of experience in the retirement services industry.

Darlene holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Colorado State University. She currently maintains FINRA Series 6, 26 and 99 securities registrations and is a certified public accountant (CPA).

Lucas Soucy

Head of North America

Congruent Solutions

Lucas Soucy has over 22 years of Operations and Plan Administration experience in the retirement services industry. During his career, Lucas’s responsibilities have included establishing and managing operations centers, consulting on process efficiencies, understanding client needs, plan implementations, transition strategies, and relationship management.

Lucas joined Congruent Solutions in 2005 to help set up a back-office delivery center for retirement services that focused on providing service providers support for transaction-based processing and compliance testing, 5500 preparation, and everything in between.

Today, Lucas runs North America for Congruent which includes oversight for all back-office operations onshore and offshore, sales, product support and relationship management. He has also provided guidance and support to the development of Congruent’s own recordkeeping platform, COREDC, which was launched recently. He also is a board member of The SPARK Institute.

Before joining Congruent, he spent his career at several service provider organizations like GoldK, Inc., Boston Financial Data Services, and Trustar Retirement Services, managing operations teams, providing customer support, managing implementations and conversions, and establishing reporting mechanisms.

Michele Steele

Vice President Customer Experience

OneAmerica Financial Partners

Michele joined OneAmerica in 2013. Since arriving at OneAmerica, Michele has played key roles in the creation of developing enterprise strategic plans, helping lead a large reorganization and the standup of the Transformation Management Office in IT, the roll out of OneAmerica’s organization change management framework, and developing new processes for evaluating major business projects. Her current roles are focused on creating a customer experience practice along with OneAmerica’s COVID-19 response for the entire organization.

Kara Suro

Vice President, Fraud Surveillance & Investigations

Charles Schwab

Kara Suro is Vice President and the Head of Charles Schwab’s External Fraud Surveillance & Investigations Organization within the Financial Crimes Risk Management Group. Kara’s teams include Fraud Investigations; Visa Fraud Investigations; Advisor Services Surveillance, Fraud and Investigations; and Senior & Vulnerable Investors Surveillance and Investigations, which provide enterprise-wide investigations coverage relating to financial and cyber fraud against clients as well as fraud and regulatory violations by Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) using Schwab’s Advisor Services platform.

Prior to returning to Schwab in her current capacity in 2015, Kara was a Managing Director with Schwab’s Compliance Regulatory Group from 2011 to 2012. Kara has a JD and was previously a securities attorney with Bingham McCutchen.

Lisa Tassara

Managing Director of Client Services

Charles Schwab

As Managing Director of Client Services within Schwab Retirement Business Services, Lisa oversees and is responsible for the Client Services teams. Lisa assumed responsibility for our Client Services team which includes on-boarding new clients and accounts, as well as the daily servicing of all of our Third Party Administrators, Plan Sponsor and Advisor clients. Charles Schwab Bank provides comprehensive and flexible trust and custody services that are specifically designed for qualified and non-qualified retirement plans. Lisa also acts as a spokesperson regarding retirement plan fraud and by helping to educate our clients on trends and best practices.

Lisa serves on the SPARK Data Security Oversight Board (DSOB) and Defeating Fraud Committee. Lisa is also a member of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) Bank, Trust and Retirement Advisory Committee(BTRAC).

Luke Tieman

CIO – Retirement, Investments & Human Capital Solutions

Aon

Luke Tieman is the senior executive responsible for the global technology needs of Aon’s Retirement, Investments & Human Capital Solutions business segments. Luke has over 25 years of experience partnering with financial services firms to create new capabilities, launch new products and improve operational efficiency. Luke’s experiences include forging technology and business partnerships, outlining vision, defining product roadmaps and executing strategy particularly in uncertain, high-change and entrepreneurial type environments. Luke is passionate about business alignment and value creation bringing a strong commercial view to solving complex challenges via technology, innovation and data-driven insights.

Luke joined Aon in February of 2016. His prior roles included Head of Fixed Income Technology, Global Head of Derivatives Technology, Head of Hedge Fund Technology and CTO at household names such as Barclays Global Investors, Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments.

Luke has an undergraduate degree in Management Information Systems from Cal State, Sacramento and an MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California.

Kiersten Todt

Managing Director

Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI)

Kiersten Todt currently serves as the Managing Director of the Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI), a non-profit initiative that convenes senior executives of global companies to develop free cybersecurity tools and resources for small businesses, worldwide. She founded CRI in 2017 with the CEOs of Mastercard, Microsoft, PSP Partners, and the retired CEO of IBM. She is also the Scholar in Washington, DC at the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.

Ms. Todt is also the CEO of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC (LGV). She develops risk and crisis management solutions for cybersecurity, infrastructure, homeland security, emergency management, and higher education clients in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Ms. Todt advises senior executives and Boards on cyber risk management, including the development and execution of tabletop exercises and relevant senior-level education and training programs. She also provides strategic advice and counsel to senior leaders in industry and government.

She most recently served as the Executive Director of President Obama’s independent, bipartisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

Prior to this role, she was the CEO of Liberty Group Ventures, LLC (LGV). She was a member of the team supporting the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the development of the Voluntary Cybersecurity Framework called for in President Obama’s 2013 Executive Order 13636 on cybersecurity.

Prior to LGV, Ms. Todt was a partner at Good Harbor Consulting and was responsible for building and managing the company’s North America crisis management practice. Before joining Good Harbor, she worked for Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and was responsible for integrating the private sector into state and local emergency management capabilities, following Hurricane Katrina; she also worked with the White House to develop the Federal Maritime Security Strategy. Prior to BENS, she was a consultant for Sandia National Laboratories and worked with the California Governor’s Office to develop the

homeland security preparedness plan for the Bay Area. Ms. Todt was an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University.

Ms. Todt served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. She worked for the Committee Chairman, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and was responsible for drafting the cybersecurity, infrastructure protection, emergency preparedness, bioterror, and science and technology directorates of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security.

Before working in the Senate, Ms. Todt served in the Office of the Vice President on domestic policy issues. She was also the senior advisor on demand-reduction issues to Director Barry R. McCaffrey at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Ms. Todt has commented on homeland security, cybersecurity, and sport security issues in multiple media outlets, including NBC, NPR, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Tech, Bloomberg Asia, CNN, FoxNews, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Business Insider. Her writing on cybersecurity, crisis management, and sport security has been published in relevant journals and news publications.

Ms. Todt graduated from Princeton University, with a degree in public policy from the School of Public and International Affairs and a certificate in African-American Studies. She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and a certificate in negotiation and conflict resolution from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Tony Tomich

Head of Pension Investments

Farmers Insurance Group

Tony Tomich manages Farmers’ retirement investments. He has a BBA and an MPP from The College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, VA. Tony began his career in NYC in the banking industry, then moved to the internet and telecom industries in the Silicon Valley in the early 2000s. He joined 21st Century Insurance in 2004 and held multiple positions during his tenure with the organization, ranging from Treasurer & Investment Relations Officer to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. 21st Century Insurance was purchased by AIG in 2007 and was subsequently sold to Farmers in 2009. Farmers AUM total approximately $20B, while the retirement investments total approximately $7B AUM.

Tony transitioned Farmers’ $3B DC plan to an open architecture, white-label structure in 2013. Tony also manages the company’s Socially Responsible Investments portfolio and has multiple leadership roles in the space. These range from a 3 term member of the California Insurance Commissioner’s COIN Advisory Board (inaugural chairperson) to an Investment Committee member for the California Fair Plan to the Chairman of Impact Community Capital, LLC, a for-profit entity that facilitates over $1B in SRI investments in California and beyond. Farmers Insurance provides P&C, specialty, life, commercial and other insurance and financial services products.

Eva Velasquez

President/CEO

Identity Theft Resource Center

Eva Velasquez is the President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization established to support victims of identity and cybercrimes. Velasquez previously served as the Vice President of Operations for the San Diego Better Business Bureau and spent 21 years at the San Diego District Attorney’s Office.

She is the author of numerous whitepapers, articles and research papers including a memoir: The Monster Inside, Architecting a Life of Resilience after Sexual Abuse. She is recognized as a nationwide expert on identity crimes and is a recipient of the following awards: the National Crime Victim Service Award from the Department of Justice and OVC and the National Consumer League’s Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award.

Cindy Volker

VP, Product Strategy, Marketing and Regulatory Communications

Broadridge

Cindy Volker is the Vice President of Product Strategy for marketing and regulatory communications with Broadridge’s Mutual Fund and Retirement business. In this role, she leads a team of experts who work with leading retirement providers to help them develop best-in-class digital marketing and regulatory experiences for their plan participants, advisors and sponsors.

Cindy has over 20 years of financial marketing experience and is a leading expert on marketing and regulatory trends in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Broadridge, Cindy held similar roles in strategy, digital marketing, business transformation and benefits management positions with fortune 500 firms.

Cindy is a frequent author, speaker and contributor to industry associations on the topic of digital transformation, customer experience design and regulatory strategy in financial firms.

Mike Westhoven

Product Leader

Micruity

Mike is the product leader for Micruity who is empowering employers to add lifetime income to their retirement plan through cutting-edge technology. Mike has been at the forefront of connecting lifetime income to retirement plans for over 15 years. His in-depth knowledge of lifetime income product design, risk and operation has been instrumental in an industry leading number of successful income launches across multiple institutional platforms.

Mike brings more than 25 years of operational, financial and insurance business experience to this role. Most recent to joining Micruity, he led DST Retirement’s Income Solutions and served as Vice President, Institutional Retirement Income Group, for Genworth Financial. Mike earned an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He currently resides in Richmond, VA with his wife and 0-3 children depending on the COVID lockdown status.

Joleen Workman

Vice President, Customer Care

Principal Financial Group

Joleen leads the customer care teams for our retirement plan customers. The customer-facing teams work together to serve and support our advisors, plan sponsors and participants throughout the life of a retirement plan. The teams also play an important role in continuing to evolve and streamline the experiences our customers receive.

A recognized industry expert, Joleen not only shares her insight with customers, but also with national media outlets. She frequently comments on topics and trends including retirement readiness, financial wellness and savings.

With more than 25 years of experience, Joleen has led several marketing and customer-facing teams where she uses her expertise to shape and transform customer experiences. She has a business administration degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

Cong-Rong Xie

VP, Technology for Group Customer

Canada Life

A seasoned leader with over 25 years of experience in financial services sector, Cong-Rong Xie, Vice President, Canada Life, leads the technology for Group Customer. She is responsible for building agile teams to accelerate digital journeys and drive business outcomes by leveraging the power of innovative technology, data & analytics.

She has led and championed large transformational programs, M&A integration and organizational change management. Prior to joining Canada Life, Cong-Rong was Vice President, Technology Solutions and Business Process at Economical Insurance.

She also serves on the Board of Trillium Mutual Insurance Company.

Andy Young

Head of Digital and Client Experience, Managing Director

Phoenix Group

Andy spent five years honing his skills in Chemistry and French at the University of St. Andrews and in Paris – a path that obviously leads to a career in Digital.

Joining Standard Life as a fresh-faced graduate, and then subsequently Phoenix Group, he has worked in marketing, strategy, product development, events and even a short time as a paraplanner in a Financial Adviser’s office.

However, he has focused most of his efforts on building cross-functional squads who create their own blend of Lean and Agile principles to deliver great user experiences, at pace, in a tightly regulated industry.

He now juggles the responsibility of growing this way of working for the whole Phoenix Group whilst taking a just-in-time agile approach to potty-training his toddler at home.