Conference Speakers

In this role, Bob works to enhance business and compliance strategies for supporting employers and helping to meet the needs of their retirement plans. He is also instrumental in developing key educational content, including articles and white papers, to assist plan sponsors and their counsel navigate through often complicated rules and regulations.

Bob is a recognized expert in the 403(b) industry, responsible for drafting recent 403(b) regulations as well as a number of guidance pieces affecting the 403(b) marketplace. From 1975 – 2009, he served as Senior Tax Law Specialist with the Employee Plans Division of the Internal Revenue Service. Since 1978, his specialty was in the area of 403(b) tax-sheltered plans. In addition, since 2000, he was involved in governmental and tax-exempt 457 plans and most recently had been working on regulations under section 457(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. Bob was also actively involved in the IRS's examination efforts concerning these plans, which included organizing and leading national 403(b) and 457 training sessions for IRS field examiners. Additionally, he spearheaded the IRS's public outreach and educational efforts in this area, having made well over 200 presentations and numerous webcasts.

Prior to joining the IRS, Bob served in the Armed Forces as a Captain in the Army. He received his J.D. degree from Brooklyn Law School and his LL.M. from the New York University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State and District of Columbia Bar Associations.

Alexander G. Assaley is the lead Adviser for Retirement Plans with AFS Financial Group. He specializes in providing advice for the design, implementation, and management of retirement plans for mid-sized corporations, organizations and associations.

Alex has expertise in helping retirement plan trustees and fiduciaries meet their responsibilities as directed by ERISA and the Department of Labor. He delivers investment due diligence analysis, fiduciary and strategic retirement plan reviews, and updates on financial and ERISA regulations. He also provides corporate retirement plan communications, including educational workshops, investment guidance, and one-on-one advice to retirement plan participants.

Alex was selected to the 2010 inaugural list of America's "300 Most Influential Advisors in Defined Contribution." The list is sponsored by the Boston Research Group, 401kExchange, and 401kwire.com, the retirement plan industry's leading research, publication, and resource groups. The list was published by the 401kwire.com and stands as the preeminent source for top retirement plan advisers.

Alex received his bachelor's degree in Economics from West Virginia University and holds FINRA Series 7 (General Securities Representative), Series 63 (Uniform State Law Agent), and Series 66 (Combined Uniform State and Investment Advisory Agent) securities registrations as an Investment Adviser Representative with Commonwealth Financial Network. Alex also has earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) professional designation, awarded by the Center for Fiduciary Studies, which is associated with the University of Pittsburgh.

Alex is a member of the 2011 ASPPA (American Society of Pension Professional and Actuaries) Agenda Committee, helping to shape and present the top retirement topics for the organization's national programs. He is an active member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce, serving as co-chair on the Chamber's young professionals committee. He also volunteers as a mentor/teacher for Junior Achievement Montgomery County, instructing courses in Economics and Financial Literacy

Michele has over 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industry. Prior to joining Lincoln, she spent time in the public accounting field. Throughout her career with Lincoln, Michele has worked in many different business units including Defined Contributions, Individual Annuities and Life Insurance. Over the years, she has worked closely with business controls and risk management, assisted with mergers and acquisitions, strategic and financial planning. Most of her tenure and focus has been in the Defined Contribution business unit where she has sponsored and led projects focused on process improvement and strategic initiatives. Michele holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration majoring in accounting and finance from Western Michigan University. She also holds a number of professional designations including CPA, Six Sigma Greenbelt certification and NASD Series 6 and 26. She is an active member of the LOMA/LIMRA Retirement Services Committee

John Carl is the founder and president of the Retirement Learning Center, LLC and executive director of the PLANSPONSOR Institute, the education and training arm of PLANSPONSOR. A frequent speaker at industry events, Mr. Carl is a 20-year veteran of the industry who has been seen on or quoted in CNBC, CNNfn, Forbes, Research Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and PLANSPONSOR magazine.

Mr. Carl ran Alliance Capital's defined contribution program, as well as created and ran the Alliance 529 plan. Ultimately, Mr. Carl ran global product management for the firm. He was a successful branch and regional sales manager for Prudential Securities and was an independent financial advisor. In 2010, the 401kWire identified Mr. Carl was as one of most influential individuals in the 401(k) industry for the fourth consecutive year. He also released his first book in 2009,Retirement Resource Guide: Essential ERISA Education & Best Practices for Financial Advisors, available exclusively through Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc.

Mr. Carl graduated from Lehigh University and has completed executive continuing education coursework at Columbia University.

Richard N. Carpenter, CPC, CEBS - President and Founder of USVI Pensions and Consulting. Richard is the founder of the Technical Answer Group, Inc (TAGdata.com), now owned by Wolters Kluwer Law and Business. In the 10 years he operated TAG, he developed over 2,000 customer relationships with accounting firms, law firms, insurance companies, mutual fund companies and more than 1,500 third party administration (TPA) firms.

Prior to founding TAGdata.com, Richard was formerly the Senior Manager in charge of the Florida employee benefits consulting practice for Deloitte & Touche. He has an MBA with an emphasis in Finance from the University of South Florida. He earned the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) from the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) and Certified Pension Consultant (CPC) from the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA). Richard was an instructor for the CEBS program and is a frequent national speaker on the design and administration of 401(k), 403(b) and other qualified deferred compensation arrangements. He has also spoken on pending legislation affecting the qualified retirement plan industry as well as preparing small to medium size businesses for acquisition.

Richard entered the pension business in 1978. Richard drafted a white paper describing the opportunities available with the pending legislation of section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. When section 401(k) was added as part of the Revenue Act of 1978, the firm was in a strategic position to be one of the first in the 401(k) marketplace. He installed his first 401(k) plan in November of 1981, two weeks after the issuance of the first proposed 401(k) regulations. His clients have included Price Waterhouse, Office Depot and Alamo Rent A Car.

Mr. Castille's current service with the firm dates back to 2007, including his years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. At BGI, he was head of US Defined Contribution Product Development and Research. Prior to joining BGI in 2007, he was a Managing Director at Wilshire Associates and Chief Investment Officer for Wilshire Funds Management.

During an earlier stint with BGI, from 1993 to 1999, Mr. Castille assisted with development of the industry's first target date fund, LifePath Portfolios, in 1993.

Mr. Castille's investment management experience includes expertise in solving asset allocation, manager selection, and structure problems. He co-authored "Optimizing Manager Structure and Budgeting Manager Risk" (Journal of Portfolio Management) with John Pirone and Duane Whitney, which received the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy award for outstanding article in 2000.

Mr. Castille earned a BA degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in 1987 and an MBA degree from Loyola University in 1989.

Kevin Crain is Managing Director of Institutional Client Relationships for Bank of America Merrill Lynch Retirement Services. In this role, Crain is responsible for client relationship management, employee communications, participant marketing, institutional business development, and legislative and public policy areas of the business.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch provides retirement services through corporate benefit plan offerings to more than 4 million employees and 1,500 institutional clients.

Prior to this role, he led the Merrill Lynch Integrated Benefits Product organization and Plan Participant Solutions.

Crain has more than 25 years of retirement services industry experience. Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he held senior management roles in client relationship management and operations with Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments and Bankers Trust Company.

Crain is Series 7, 66 and 24 registered, a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He is a member of The SPARK Institute and SPARK Steering Committee.

Steve is the National Sales Director for Ascensus, a 1,000+ employee administration and recordkeeping firm with over 26,000 401(k) plans, making it one of the industries' largest independent providers. As National Sales Director, Steve is responsible for a team of twelve (12) regional wholesalers who distribute commission and fee-based, open fund architecture products through RIAs, B/Ds, Wire-Houses, Independents, RIAs, IO Mutual Fund Firms and Third-Party Administrators (TPAs). Steve has nearly 30 years of retirement plan industry sales and servicing experience. Prior to joining Ascensus, Steve was practice leader for a retirement consulting firm and was head of retirement sales and administration for some of the industry's leading financial services providers.

As a director for BlackRock DC, Dick focuses on providing value added support for retirement plan focused advisors and third party manager investment firms. This includes assisting advisors with transitioning their business models to a fee based/outcome focused value proposition, as well as assisting third party managers with retirement product and distribution strategy.

Dick began his career at Mutual Benefit Life in 1983 where he led the development and distribution of one of the nation's first 401(k) products. He joined NYC based benefit consulting firm Williams, Thacher and Rand (WTR) in 1986 to build and manage the firm's institutional retirement plan consulting operation. After WTR was sold to ADP in 1995, Dick spent 10 years working in senior management positions at two providers. At ING/ReliaStar Financial he helped develop, manage and distribute an early generation open architecture full service retirement product. At MFS Investment Management he managed retirement sales and was the director of corporate plan services.

In 2006, DIck joined National Retirement Partners (NRP) as EVP, managing recruiting; advisor practice management; and marketing. Prior to selling the firm to LPL Financial in 2010, NRP grew into one of the largest distributors of 401k plans in the nation.

Dick joined BlackRock in September of 2010.

Jamie DeRubertis is the Vice President and National Sales Manager of Matrix Financial Solutions, a Broadridge Financial Solutions company. He is responsible for overseeing the long-term vision and strategy for sales and marketing initiatives.

Prior to joining Matrix, Mr. DeRubertis was Vice President in the Mutual Fund Services Division of the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC). At NSCC, he served as Director of Bank Marketing, focusing on growing the use of NSCC's automated mutual fund services. Mr. DeRubertis also managed the product marketing and rollout of NSCC's Defined Contribution Clearance & Settlement (DCC&S) service, which has become the industry's standard platform for retirement plan processing. Mr. DeRubertis also served on the American Bankers Association's Mutual Fund Processing Committee, which assisted in developing NSCC's Mutual Fund Processing Guidelines for banks. While at NSCC, he was a member of the Investment Company Institute's Bank/Trust Advisory Committee.

Mr. DeRubertis received a B.A. from Manhattan College and an M.B.A. from Fordham University. He holds Series 6, 7 and 24 licenses.

Mary Dineen is the Manager of Global Employee Benefits Design and Strategy for the DuPont Company. In this role she has responsibility for establishing the overall strategy and philosophy for benefit programs globally as well as oversight of corporate governance for potential benefit plan changes.

Mary has worked for DuPont for over 30 years starting in the Finance function. For over 25 of those years she has been involved in the design and administration of employee compensation and benefit programs. This included leadership of implementation of a global all-employee stock option program and significant Benefit outsourcing projects in the U.S. Since entering her current role in 2006 she has been involved with major changes in the DuPont retirement and benefit plans in the U. S. including a transition from a Define Benefit to a Define Contribution retirement plan for both current employees as well as new hires.

Mary has a Bachelors degree in Accounting from the University of Delaware and is a Certified Management Accountant.

Céline Dufétel specializes in Wealth Management and Asset Management, and in particular retirement topics. She has extensive experience in strategy, distribution, organization and operations efforts for asset managers, retirement services players, and life insurers in North America and globally. Celine is the co-author of "Restoring American Retirement Security: A Shared Responsibility" and co-leader of Retirement Security work in the U.S., including the creation of McKinsey's Retirement Readiness Index, as well as the co-author of "Winning in the Defined Contribution Market of 2015".

Céline's recent engagement experience includes developing a Defined Contribution sales and marketing strategy for a leading U.S. asset manager, assisting a leading U.S. record keeper in assessing cost optimization and service delivery model redesign opportunities, and developing and implementing a go-to-market retirement strategy for employer-sponsored retirement plans and individual retirement solutions for a U.S. insurance company.

Céline earned her Master in Finance from Princeton University. She also holds a Diplome d'Ingenieur from Ecole Polytechnique in France.

With almost 20 years experience in the retirement plan industry, Wade brings invaluable knowledge to clients and the Alerus team alike. Whether its developing relationships with plan sponsors, brokers, and investment advisors, or managing Alerus' national account manager team, Wade is always focused on helping others meet their objectives and is genuinely concerned about their success.

Wade joined Alerus Retirement Solutions in 2007 when Alerus purchased the retirement record keeping services of Acclaim Benefits, Inc in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In his current director role, Wade oversees all aspects of Alerus' national client retirement plans—including everything from successful implementation of new clients, to coordinating training and development opportunities for the service staff, and monitoring plan profitability through revenue and expense management. Additionally, he focuses on establishing ongoing relationships with pension clients, brokers, and investment advisors to provide clients with exceptional service, and ultimately resulting in high retention rates for Alerus Retirement Solutions.

Wade received a Bachelor of Science degree from Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where he majored in business administration, with concentrations in finance and accounting. In his free time, Wade enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors—camping, hiking, boating, and riding snowmobiles. Originally from Aberdeen, SD, Wade and his wife, Melissa, now make their home in Maple Grove, MN with their two daughters.

Rita focuses on employee benefit plans and assisting plan sponsors with the selection and monitoring of their administrative service providers, creating a formalized investment review process, and assisting clients in meeting their fiduciary responsibilities.

She is widely recognized throughout the 401(k) community and has been a guest speaker at events for the Chicago Bar Association, the Valley Industrial Association CFO Council, and the Midwest Great Lakes conference. Rita has also been recognized by 401(k) wire as one of the industries top 300 most influential advisors in the defined contribution marketplace. Plan Sponsor and Plan Advisor magazine recently named Rita as one of the top 5 Plan Advisers of the year.

Rita holds her Series 7, 65 and 66 securities licenses and is also a Chartered Retirement Plans SpecialistSM.

Rita earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in finance from the University of South Florida and her Master of Science degree in Business Administration from the Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business in Chicago.

Evan's practice focuses on benefit plan issues of tax exempt organizations. He and his firm specializes in retirement plans under IRC sections 403(b) and 457, including plan design, compliance, and fiduciary issues. His also advises on the development and operation of financial products used by retirement plans and on the state regulation of annuity and life insurance products. Evan is a frequent speaker on topics relating to retirement plans and is a contributor to the 403(b) Answer Book.

Evan received his law degree from the University at Buffalo Law School, and is admitted to practice in New York. He is a member of the New York City Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

Prior to becoming a founding partner of Giller & Calhoun, Evan was an attorney for the financial services company, TIAA-CREF, serving in various legal capacities, including General Counsel, Institutional Client Services.

Larry is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The SPARK Institute and RG Wuelfing & Associates. As Chairman of The Institute's Government Relations Committee, Larry provides significant leadership on critical retirement industry issues, including fee disclosure, fiduciary matters, lifetime income solutions, 12b-1 fees, target date funds, in-plan Roth conversions, among others. Larry also led the development of widely adopted industry best practices for the 403(b) plans and lifetime income solutions in retirement plans, and led the Institute's efforts on developing the Universal Small Employer Retirement Savings Program, a proposal to help solve the retirement plan coverage gap for American workers at small companies. He also has prepared numerous comment letters regarding proposed rules and regulations and provided testimony to the Department of Labor and United States Congress in order to help shape the outcome of rulemaking efforts.

Larry has received recognition in the "Leadership" category of Money Management Executive's Fund Operations Awards and The 401(k) Wire also named Larry as one of the 401(k) plan industry's 100 most influential people multiple times.

Larry formerly served as Chief Risk Officer and Senior Vice President of Wachovia Retirement Services, and has over 23 years of experience in the retirement plan industry, including six years of private practice specializing in ERISA matters. He also has served on the American Bankers Association Council on Retirement and Employee Benefits.

Larry is a frequent speaker at retirement plan industry conferences and is often quoted in industry media. He received his law degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University and is a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar.

Kenneth Hanson is a Partner with SunGard's Wealth Management Global Services Practice where he is responsible for business and technology solutions in the benefits administration sector. These solutions include implementation services involving the Omni suite of products as well as broader services including custom application development, business intelligence and business process management.

His recent engagement experience includes assisting a U.S. record-keeper develop an application portfolio modernization blueprint and roadmap, designing a contribution and census solution for a major benefits administration provider, and creating next generation participant and plan sponsor portal strategies for multiple clients.

Kenneth has 25 years of experience in providing systems integration, application development and outsourcing services to clients. Prior to joining SunGard, Kenneth was a Partner at Ernst & Young Consulting and Cap Gemini in its technology practice and the Senior Vice President of Consulting for North America at Amdocs.

Kenneth earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Computer Science from Oral Roberts University and a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University. He currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Patricia Harris is an assistant vice president and director of Product Management in the Retirement Plans Group within the U.S. Wealth Management division of Hartford Life. Harris is responsible for the development and management of Hartford's retirement plan products serving the 401k, 403(b) and 457 markets as well as development of lifetime income products. Current lifetime income products providing guaranteed retirement income for retirement plan participants include Hartford Lifetime Income and Hartford Maturity Funding.

Harris joined The Hartford in 1995 and has also worked in the product development department within the individual life division (ILD) in both pricing and product management roles. Most recently, she was an assistant vice president and director of product management in ILD where she was responsible for the product management of the entire ILD portfolio, including term, whole life, universal life and variable universal life products. Prior to joining The Hartford, Harris worked as an actuary at Connecticut Mutual.

Harris earned her B.S. in mathematics from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn. and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Mark Iwry (pronounced "Eevry") is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and is the Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary for Retirement and Health Policy. Mr. Iwry is also a Research Professor at Georgetown University and was previously a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Of Counsel to the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, a Principal of the Retirement Security Project, and, from 1995 to 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department's Benefits Tax Counsel.

He has been recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance (Treasury and Risk Magazine, 2009, 2010) (one of 5 in the field of Retirement and Benefits); one of the "Investment News 20 for 2010" (20 individuals expected to have a major influence on the financial services industry); and one of the 100 Most Influential People in the 401(k) Industry (401(k) Wire, 2009, 2010, 2011). He has advised numerous Senators, Members of Congress and staffs on both sides of the aisle, as well as five Presidential campaigns (in 2004 and 2008), and has often testified before congressional committees – representing the Treasury and Executive Branch or, while in the private sector, testifying as an independent expert – as well as State legislatures.

Formerly a partner in the law firm of Covington & Burling, a member of the White House Health Reform Task Force in 1993-94, and chair of the D.C. Bar Employee Benefits Committee, Mr. Iwry's books and articles include the co-edited volume (with Wm. Gale and Peter Orszag), Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (Century Fdn Press).

A principal architect of the Saver's Credit to expand 401(k) and IRA coverage (claimed annually on nearly 6 million tax returns) and the "SIMPLE" 401(k)-type plan (covering an estimated 3 to 4 million workers), Mr. Iwry co-authored (with David John) President Obama's legislative proposal to expand coverage through automatic IRAs. In the 1990s, he formulated and directed Treasury's strategy to increase retirement saving by defining, approving and promoting 401(k) automatic enrollment (as well as automatic rollover to curtail pension leakage). He also has been centrally involved in developing or orchestrating many other significant improvements and simplifications of the nation's pension and health care systems, including IRS direct deposit of split income tax refunds into IRAs and US saving bonds, the "Universal Savings Accounts" proposal (1999-2000), payroll deduction IRAs, and the small employer new plan tax credit.

Mr. Iwry is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, received a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School, and is listed in Who's Who, Best Lawyers in America, and Washington DC Super Lawyers.

Bob's responsibilities include web cast and live training for ING Retirement Services personnel, as well as members of the TPA and Broker community. He has 30 years of experience in retirement plan services, including plan design, administration, sales and consulting.

Bob is a former member for the Board of Managers of the American Institute of Retirement Education (AIRE) and a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Institute of Pension Administrators (NIPA). In 2009, he was presented with NIPA's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the retirement plan industry. He is currently a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA's) Government Affairs Executive Management Committee. He is a graduate of the State University at Albany, NY and has a graduate degree from William Paterson University in New Jersey.

Bob is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events and has provided testimony before the Treasury department on 401(k) issues and other retirement plan issues.

With more than 30 years in the retirement plan industry, Ellen brings our clients a wealth of knowledge and experience. Prior to joining RBA, Ellen was the Managing Director in New York City for a major retirement plan provider. In this role, Ellen worked with Plan Sponsors in areas such as plan design, compliance, investment due-diligence and employee education. She also assisted in the design and pricing of various retirement plan products for the Company. Her background provides our clients with a powerful insight into their retirement program. Ellen's responsibilities at RBA include consulting with our ERISA clients in all a spects of their plans, including compliance, fiduciary management, plan design, analytic benchmarking, Vendor negotiations, employee education and investment due diligence. Ellen has earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) designation and the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Professional (PRP) designation demonstrating her attainment of the highest level of experience, expertise and commitment to the retirement plan business and investment fiduciary responsibility standards. In 2011, Ellen was named as one of the "Top 60 Retirement Plan Advisors" by the 401k Wire.

Frank is responsible for IT direction and client implementations for DST Retirement Solutions and has been with DST since July of 2008. Frank has over 25 years experience within financial services with a significant focus on acquisition and integration efforts. Prior to joining DST, Frank was CIO for the Prudential Retirement business, responsible for IT direction for Prudential's Defined Contribution, Defined Benefit, Lifetime Income and Guaranteed Product business's. He has also held leadership positions at Merrill Lynch where he made the transition from operations to IT. Frank majored in Business Administration at Bernard B Baruch CCNY

Alison Cooke Mintzer is Executive Editor of PLANADVISER, and is responsible for adviser publications under that brand at Asset International. PLANADVISER, via its magazine, PLANADVISER.com Web site, and PLANADVISERdash e-mail newsletter provides comprehensive industry news, regulatory and investment information to financial advisers who specialize in the sales, design, and administration of institutional qualified and nonqualified retirement plans and executive compensation plans.

Prior to the launch of PLANADVISER in 2006, she was Senior Editor for PLANSPONSOR magazine and editor of the PLANSPONSOR AdviserDash e-newsletter. Alison has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Boston University.

Clint has been with OppenheimerFunds for 10 years and is the Director of Retirement Sales, covering western United States. Prior to OppenheimerFunds, Clint worked for MassMutual Retirement Services in Springfield, MA. Clint also spent 10 years in the automotive industry based in Detroit, MI.

Clint is a graduate of the University of Michigan with an M.B.A. and a B.Sc. in Engineering from Kettering University. Clint is a CFA charterholder and currently resides in Denver, CO with his wife and two children.

Billy Morris is responsible for the strategic alignment and helping to determine business opportunities within the benefit administration space, specifically for SunGard's Omni and Relius products. Mr. Morris joined SunGard in 1990 as a record keeper for SunGard's Omni product. Since then, he has served in multiple roles, including: customer support, implementation project manager and e commerce product manager. In 2004, Billy migrated over to STN (the SunGard Transactional Network) where he served in new business development, consulting, sales and account management.

Prior to joining SunGard, Mr. Morris held other jobs within the pension industry serving at AmSouth Bank in the Personal Trust Department. Mr. Morris is an affiliate with several trade associations within the pension market, such as ASPPA and SPARK. His key focus is to stay abreast on the legislative issues impacting the industry. He has also been a keynote speaker at SPARK.

Billy attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he received a Bachelor of Science in Business Management. He currently resides in Trussville, AL with his wife and son.

Pete started NEWKIRK in 1972, with three of his brothers. His main responsibilities in the company are sales, marketing and product development. Over the past thirty-nine years, hundreds of financial institutions, TPA's, estate planners, investment advisors and accounting firms have utilized NEWKIRK's syndicated, customized and data-base driven publications to communicate with customers, prospects, and plan participants.

Pete is a frequent speaker at industry trade associations, user groups and national conferences. In 2003, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Defined Contribution News.

Pete received his BA from Hamilton College and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Chris O'Neill is the Chief Investment Officer and Director of Research for the Investment Strategies Group of Mesirow Financial. Investment Strategies is an independent, third party consultant that provides robust asset allocation strategies and fund selection to insurance companies, 401(k) providers, broker/dealers and mutual fund companies.

With over twenty years of experience in finance and scientific research, Dr. O'Neill has expertise in the areas of quantitative investment manager selection, Monte Carlo simulation and quantitative finance. At Mesirow Financial, he has been responsible for developing innovative manager selection and portfolio construction methodologies, as well as a retirement income framework that optimizes both the product allocation and asset allocation for traditional investment products and advanced retirement income products.

Prior to joining Mesirow Financial, Dr. O'Neill was a research consultant for Ibbotson Associates, where he applied quantitative analysis and product development experience to support the efforts of the Investment Management Services, Fund of Funds and Financial Communications groups. Earlier, he offered quantitative investment advice and methodology to other financial advisors as president and founder of Quantalent Investment Consulting, LLC, an independent Registered Investment Advisor. Also during his accomplished career, Dr. O'Neill spent five years dedicated to financial planning, which culminated in a senior product management role developing an online investment advice tool for a major mutual fund company.

Dr. O'Neill earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in theoretical physics from Cornell University and an A.B. degree in physics magna cum laude from Princeton University. He is a CFA charter holder, a Certified Financial Planner™ Professional, and holds Financial Risk Manager (FRM) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designations. In addition, he has published a variety of papers and academic reports in theoretical particle, accelerator, and gravitational physics.

Jamie Ohl is President of Wilshire Funds Management, a division of Wilshire Associates. She is responsible for all aspects of the business which has $71 billion in assets under management. Wilshire Funds Management ("WFM"), the global investment management business unit of Wilshire, is dedicated to helping financial institutions distinguish themselves in today's highly competitive financial services industry. WFM services leverage Wilshire's 30+ years of institutional consulting excellence. As a result, clients gain access to market-tested investment strategies and programs that have a solid foundation in industry best practices.

Immediately prior to joining Wilshire in September 2010, Ms. Ohl served as head of the Retirement Division for The Hartford Financial Services Ms. Ohl was recognized as one of the Top 100 most influential players in the 401(k) market by The 401kWire in 2008 and 2009. Ms. Ohl also received the 2009 Women in Insurance Leadership Award from Insurance Networking News and was named one of Business Insurance's Women to Watch in 2009.

Ms. Ohl is on the board of directors for the SPARK (Society of Professional Asset-Managers and Record Keepers) Institute. She is also a regular speaker for Pensions and Investments, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators.

She has more than twenty years of experience in the financial services industry and previously served in various management and consulting roles at VALIC and Hewitt Associates. Ms. Ohl earned her B.S. in Business Management at LeTourneau University in Texas and her MBA at the University of Nebraska.

Joe is responsible for business development and strategic initiatives. He works with our partners at DST Systems and Boston Financial Data Services to coordinate our efforts in sales, product development, public relations, marketing communications, market research, and competitive analysis. He has more than 20 years experience in the retirement, financial services and human resources outsourcing businesses with Fidelity, Mellon, and Scudder. Joe joined DST Retirement Solutions in February 2009.

Fred Reish is an ERISA attorney whose practice focuses on fiduciary responsibility and plan operational issues.

He was recognized as one of the "Legends" of the retirement industry by both PlanAdviser magazine and PlanSponsor magazine. Fred also received awards for: the 401(k) Industry's Most Influential Person by 401kWire; the Commissioner's Award and the District Director's Award by the IRS; the Eidson Founder's Award by the American Society of Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA); the Institutional Investor and the PlanSponsor magazine Lifetime Achievement Awards; and the ASPPA/Morningstar 401(k) Leadership Award.

He has written 350 articles and four books about retirement plans, including a monthly column on 401(k) fiduciary issues for PlanSponsor magazine.

Fred Co-Chaired the IRS Los Angeles Benefits Conference for over 10 years, served as a founding Co-Chair of the ASPPA 401(k) Summit, and has served on the Steering Committee for the DOL National Conference.

Mr. Rollins began his career in the insurance and employee benefits business in 1978 after completion of his education at Auburn University with a B.S in Business Administration. He cofounded TSA Consulting Group, Inc. (TSACG) with Stephen R. Banks in 1994 and is President and Chairman of the Board. TSACG currently ranks among the largest 403(b)/457(b) plan administration providers in the U.S. with over 550 plan sponsor clients in 19 states. Their Compliance Edge® program combines multiple service components including employee communications, recordkeeping and remittance services to deliver comprehensive plan compliance to plan sponsors.

Steve heads up the firm's special practice groups on pension plan investments and on 401(k) plan administrative and investment management matters. These groups focus on the ERISA, securities, banking, and tax issues that arise in connection with the offering of investment products to employee benefit plans. He works on a wide variety of administrative, litigation and legislative matters involving tax-exempt organizations and ERISA, specializing in matters relating to Title I of ERISA. Steve received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University and his law degree from Georgetown University Law School.

Ms. Scanlon manages the Large Market Product and Business Strategy for Lincoln's retirement business whose primary goal is to ensure that Lincoln has the best services to ensure successful outcomes for plan sponsors and participants. Her team is also involved in new business development and provides technical expertise for their counterparts in distribution and customer experience.

Ms. Scanlon has over 18 years of experience in the retirement industry. She has been with Lincoln Financial Group since 2010. Prior to joining Lincoln, Ms. Scanlon held senior positions in retirement and benefits outsourcing at Fidelity, Mercer, and Putnam Investments.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Northeastern University. She holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 6, and 63 registrations.

Dave Schuette is responsible for Knowledgent's financial services and insurance industry practice. An expert on information management and client-centric operating models, he provides overall strategic direction and thought leadership for business and technology solutions across the industry. For more than 20 years, Dave has worked with Fortune 1000 clients to develop proven methodologies for strategic and tactical deployments of front, middle and back office solutions. He assists organizations in realizing the value of client-centric relationships, product strategy, relationship management and knowledge management applications and has envisioned, planned and deployed these programs in the financial services, insurance, communications and pharmaceutical industries. Dave is a frequent speaker and writer on the topic of relationship and knowledge management strategy and implementation.

Susan E. Unvarsky, Senior Vice President of Operations, Institutional Income Innovations is responsible for the development and implementation of the service model, operations and technology connectivity to support Prudential IncomeFlex^® and other retirement income products for third party partnerships. Sue is also responsible for driving industry standardization efforts and simplifying broad retirement income product adoption across industry recordkeepers, intermediaries and product providers.

With Prudential for 22 years, Sue has held a variety of executive positions including oversight of service, relationship management, operations and financial control teams supporting our defined benefit, defined contribution and individual annuity businesses.

Sue has a B.S. degree in Business Administration, with a concentration in Computer Information Systems from King's College and an M.S. degree in Banking and Financial Services Management from Boston University. She holds FINRA Series 7, 63 and 24 licenses, in addition to a life insurance license. Sue oversees Scranton's community and university relations initiatives for the site, and is the Executive Sponsor for Prudential Retirement's Women's Leadership Forum. She also serves on numerous local Boards and Advisory Councils.

Sue was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of GAR High School and is proud to call Northeast Pennsylvania her home.

Ryan M. Verdery , AIF®, is the Managing Director of Insight Wealth Solution, LLC, is an LPL Financial Advisor and has 14 years of experience as a financial advisor and Defined Contribution/Defined Benefit consultant. Prior to establishing Insight Wealth Solutions, LLC, he served at UBS Financial Services and Merrill Lynch.

Ryan has developed a specialty in consulting qualified plan sponsors, Trustees, and investment committee members while helping them meet their fiduciary responsibilities with respect to plan operations and employee education. In most cases, Ryan, serves as an acknowledged ERISA 3(21) Fiduciary through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor, and provides plan sponsors the fiduciary support necessary to better manage their own fiduciary roles and responsibilities.

Ryan is proud to facilitate the development, and assist his clients in the implementation of their Investment Policy Statements. As an acknowledged ERISA 3(21) Fiduciary, Ryan develops, implements and follows a fiduciary process for; the benchmarking of service providers, identification of plan fees & expenses, investment selection criteria, making investment recommendations and providing ongoing investment monitoring.

Ryan studied Managerial Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, is proud to be an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) and holds his Series 7, 65, 66 and 31 securities registrations.

Ryan and his wife Melissa live in Cary, NC, with their 4 year old son.

George H. Walper Jr. is President of Spectrem Group, a research and consulting firm that specializes in the affluent and retirement investor markets. Spectrem is publisher of the monthly Spectrem Affluent Investor Confidence Index™ (SAICI) and Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index^™ (SMICI).

At Spectrem, Walper brings to clients more than 30 years of experience serving the high net worth and retirement services markets. His specific emphasis is product development, marketing, sales and client service. Prior to joining Spectrem, Walper was Senior Vice President at Harris Trust and Savings Bank, where he oversaw the bank's Institutional Trust business, and earlier was a Trust Officer at The Northern Trust.

Walper has a bachelor's degree in business from the State University of New York College at Buffalo and a master's degree in business administration from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Within the financial services industry, Walper is a well-known figure and frequent speaker at industry events, numerous Spectrem client events, has been quoted widely by the financial media, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Money, InvestmentNews, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg News and Worth, and has appeared as a guest on CNBC On the Money, CNBC Morning Call, CBS Radio, ABC Radio and FOX Business News.

Walper is also co-author with Spectrem Managing Director Catherine S. McBreen of the book "Get Rich, Stay Rich, Pass It On: The Wealth-Accumulation Secrets of America's Richest Families" (Portfolio, January 2008).

Mary Ellen Whiteman is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services, Inc. (RPS) and department manager of Employee Strategy & Program Development.

Mary Ellen provides strategic direction for the development and delivery of the RPS participant experience. She manages a team of project managers and communication consultants dedicated to these efforts and to servicing clients across the nation. Prior to joining the firm in 1998, she worked for Hollander, Cohen & McBride as an assistant project manager, providing market research services to a variety of national clients. Mary Ellen earned a B.A. in business with a concentration in marketing from Loyola University Maryland.

Fred Wong is a senior employee benefits law specialist in the Office of Regulations and Interpretations at the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration. He received a J.D. and LL.M. in taxation from the Boston University School of Law.

Bob is President of RG Wuelfing & Associates and The SPARK Institute. RG Wuelfing & Associates serves the retirement and investment management industries by providing strategic consulting, public relations, market research and M&A services. The SPARK Institute is the leading voice in Washington for the retirement services industry. Bob is also the founder and managing director of the Society of Professional Asset-Managers and Record Keepers (SPARK).

Bob has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut, an MBA from the University of Hartford and serves on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Council at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. Bob is a frequent speaker at industry trade association meetings.

Kim Zook is a retirement plan expert who gained her practical experience and broad understanding of the industry from a variety of vantage points including sales, service, marketing, training and operations during her 15 years with ING.

Kim currently leads ING's Strategic Sales Solutions Team as Vice President responsible for the development and execution of pre-sale marketing initiatives including an award-winning practice management program that helps advisors leverage ING tools to grow their businesses. Kim also is responsible for strategic communications and sales training for the Intermediary Corporate Markets division.

As Regional Director of Sales at ING, Kim was responsible for qualified plan sales in a variety of distribution channels throughout the San Francisco area. Kim was consistently a top performer and nationally recognized for her 401(k) sales efforts.

Kim attributes her success to a combination of practical industry experience and solid education. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Applied Behavioral Science, a Masters of Business Administration and is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) with a FINRA Series 7 and 63.