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Speaker Bios

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:

Keynote Presenter & Motivational Speaker

A police officer trapped inside a burning vehicle, Jason suffered extreme burns to over 40% of his body, dramatically altering his appearance.

His incredible story of survival is now his calling, sharing a new perspective on life, rebirth and transformation in an event you’ll never forget.

MEET JASON

SESSION SPEAKERS & MODERATORS: 

Heather Balley, Director of Participant Communications
AllianceBernstein

Heather Balley is Director of Participant Communications for AB’s Defined Contribution business. In this role, she provides defined contribution investment content, focused on plan participants, to the firm’s Institutional and Retail clients. She is also responsible for AB’s proprietary research that’s focused on plan sponsor and participant behaviors, with special attention to target-date funds, retirement income, financial wellness, participant engagement and confidence, and financial literacy. She joined AB in 2014 and has 25 years of experience in financial-services marketing, communications and consulting. Prior to joining the firm, she held various roles in defined contribution marketing and communications, including positions at PIMCO, Lincoln Financial and Mercer Consulting. She has a BS in marketing and economics from Lehigh University, and holds FINRA securities registrations 6, 26 and 63.

Rob Boehmer, Executive Officer
State of Nevada

Rob Boehmer currently serves as the appointed Executive Officer of the Nevada Public Employees’ Deferred Compensation Program (NDC). Mr. Boehmer serves the State of Nevada with over 18 years of experience in the Estate Planning/Retirement Planning/Employee Benefits Management business primarily working in the Health Insurance Industry and managing 457(b) Deferred Compensation, 403(b) Tax Sheltered Programs throughout multiple western states. He has worked with associations like Institutional Investors Association for Government Plan Sponsors, Nevada League of Cities Municipalities, Nevada Association of Counties, and a multitude of Firefighters and Police Associations, School Districts, and Teachers Associations in assisting their members with Benefits management and 457(b) Deferred Compensation/403(b) management and administration.

Mr. Boehmer additionally serves as a Certified Senior Advisor through the Society of Senior Advisors (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). Rob is a Nevada Native, and he holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from the University of Southern California, as well as two Associates degrees from local Junior colleges. In addition to his position as Executive Officer at NDC, Mr. Boehmer volunteers as a Hunter and Angler Education Instructor through the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s Conservation Education Division.

Additionally, Rob has been appointed and serves as the President of the Nevada Operation Game Thief Citizens Board, a non-profit organization organized in partnership with the Nevada Department of Wildlife to bring public awareness of the prevention of wildlife violations and crimes, and to promote ethical outdoor use and activities throughout the State of Nevada. Furthermore, Mr. Boehmer was appointed to serve as a Board member of the Carson City County Wildlife Advisory Board in 2015 by the Carson City Board of Supervisors where he continues to serve as the Board Chairman. He is a life-long resident of Carson City with his sweet wife Kristi and six children, and actively participates in the community, his Church, and with the Boy Scouts of America.

Yolie Briseño, DCP Program Coordinator
City of Phoenix

Yolanda “Yolie” Briseño is the Deferred Compensation Plan Program Coordinator for the City of Phoenix with 25 years of experience in employee benefits.  She has worked in the City of Phoenix Human Resources Benefits and Wellness division for 19 years with 5 of those years overseeing the day-to-day administration of the City’s DCP program. Yolie resides in the Phoenix metropolitan area and enjoys the hot summers in her swimming pool.

Rob Capone, Head of Defined Contribution
LGIM America

Rob Capone is the Head of Defined Contribution (DC) at LGIM America. In his role, he leads the US Defined Contribution business and helps grow the firm’s footprint and capabilities within the industry. He owns the DC strategic planning efforts, focusing upon both market-based and outcome-oriented solutions.

Prior to joining LGIM America, Rob has had a nearly 30-year career within the Defined Contribution industry. He built, led, and grew three different Defined Contribution businesses at three different assets management firms – Great West Investments, AQR Capital Management, and BNY Mellon Investment Management. He was formerly a Managing Director of Participant Services at Putnam Investments. He began his career at Fidelity Investments.

Rob is a published industry thought leader and a member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. He earned an AB in Economics and an MBA from Dartmouth College. He holds FINRA Series 6, 7, 24, 26 and 63.

Beth Cleary, Executive Director
City of Milwaukee

Ms. Cleary has served as the Executive Director of the City of Milwaukee’s nearly $1 billion 457(b) Deferred Compensation Retirement Plan since 2017, following a six-month term as the Plan’s interim ED. Previously, she served for five years as the Deputy Director of the City of Milwaukee $5+ billion pension fund, the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS)—one of three public pension systems in the state of Wisconsin. Prior to that, Ms. Cleary was an Assistant City Attorney for Milwaukee, where she served as general counsel to the ERS for over five years.

Ms. Cleary earned her BA from Creighton University; her MA in Bioethics from the Medical College of WI; and her JD and Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Marquette University Law School, where she served as Editor in Chief of the Marquette Elder’s Advisor Law Journal.

Matthew Condos, Vice President, Product Management
Lincoln Financial Group

Matt Condos serves as Vice President within Lincoln Financial Group’s Retirement Plan Services business and is specifically responsible for product development and management. In this role, he leads efforts to develop and support Lincoln’s products and services for the Defined Contribution markets (including 401, 457, and 403(b) plan sponsors and their advisors).

Prior to joining Lincoln in 2017, Matt was Senior Vice President and leader of the Guaranteed Products segment for Voya Financial’s Retirement business. Additionally, Matt held several finance and product development/management roles within Voya and also previously at Keefe Bruyette and Woods, and Hartford Life Insurance Company.

Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bryant College. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, holds FINRA Series 7, 26, and 63 securities registrations, and holds state insurance licenses.

Natalie Daniels, Strategic Relationship Manager
Voya Financial

Natalie has over 17 years of account management experience within the retirement planning and financial services industries. Natalie partners with key client decision makers to understand the goals and needs of a program for all stakeholders and works with Voya teams and external business partners to execute accordingly. As a Strategic Relationship Manager, Natalie is primarily responsible for informing clients of updates to Voya products and services, regulatory impacts to client plans, and research on industry best practices. Prior to joining Voya in 2016, Natalie held account and relationship management roles with Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement & Trust, Empower Retirement, Sun Life, and Trust Company of America.

Amelia Dunlap, VP, Marketing
Nationwide

Amelia has over 15 years of experience in the financial services and insurance industry. She started her career at Weber Associates, a boutique consulting firm / marketing agency, where she was evolved from analyst, to project manager, to relationship manager to business development lead for many significant brands. The relationships she supported included: Nationwide Financial, Nationwide Insurance, MetLife, Prudential, The Hartford, Great-West Retirement Services, and JP Morgan.

After a decade in consulting, Amelia moved to Prudential Financial where she was a leader with the Customer Experience organization for the Life Insurance and Annuities businesses (Individual Solutions Group). During her time at Prudential she was responsible for the development of testing platforms including SimplyTerm and Guaranteed Income for Tomorrow (GIFT), which were both pioneering efforts for the digital, direct-to-consumer space.

Amelia joined Nationwide in 2020, where she leads the Marketing organization which is responsible for using data to communicate across all audiences (Intermediaries, Plans and Plan Participants) to help participants both plan for and live-in retirement.

Michelle Ell, Deferred Compensation Manager
City of Seattle

Michelle oversees city administrative staff, day-to-day processes, and implements initiatives set by City of Seattle Voluntary Deferred Compensation Plan Committee. She has over 16 years’ experience working in the retirement industry in a variety of roles such as an operations supervisor and relationship manger on the recordkeeping side or as an internal DC and DB retirement plan manager on the employer side.

Sheri Gilchrist, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer
MissionSquare Retirement

            • Sheri is considered an early architect of modernizing the marketing organization for leading financial companies in the private and public sector.
            • Prior to joining ICMA-RC (MissionSquare) she was the first CMO to join Prudential’s investment arm, scaled marketing globally and launch Prudential’s Financial Wellness Program to Employers.
            • Prior to Prudential, Sheri headed Marketing for BNY Mellon’s $1.6T investment management business to scale marketing globally.
            • Sheri successful transforming digital and data practices to better target audiences (such as aging populations and younger audiences- Millennials).
            • She Developed research targeting the retirement needs of the 30 year old Millennial.
            • Worked with the Social Security Administration and NBER on retirement planning and education programs to the workforce to improve savings rates.
            • Sheri is a sought after speaker and subject matter expert on the topic of digital and modern marketing, featured in NY Times, Barron’s, Financial Times, Fund Fire, 401kWire, Ignites, Forbes, among others.

Steve Gordon, Partner
AndCo Consulting

Steve is Partner at AndCo Consulting. He works with public plan sponsors, supporting their defined benefit, defined contribution, DROP and retiree health plans by designing customized solutions in administration, fiduciary oversight, investment policy and design, investment monitoring, evaluation, provider searches, and total plan cost analysis. Steve has over 30 years of experience in benefits plan administration.

AndCo is an independent, employee-owned institutional consulting firm providing advisory services to over $96 billion in institutional assets. Prior to AndCo, Steve was a Principal at Mercer, where he was responsible for all areas of retirement, health and benefits administration. He has held leadership positions with Wells Fargo and STI Capital Management, including Managing Director roles in both retirement and investment management. He has a Graduate Trust Degree from the ABA, BS in Finance degree from the University of South Florida and an MBA from the Rollins College (Crummer) Graduate School of Business.

Amy Heyel, National Practice Leader – Government Market
Voya Financial

Amy is the National Practice Leader for Government Markets at Voya Financial. Her focus is on continuous improvement of the governmental plan sponsor and participant experience. Amy has 25 years of experience in the retirement services industry split among consulting and recordkeeping. As a consultant, she worked with plan sponsors of both defined contribution and defined benefit plans in the public and qualified plan market to improve plan design, streamline investment options, and provide fiduciary education. As an executive in recordkeeping, she has focused on thought leadership with the goal of improving plan performance metrics for governmental plan sponsors and their employees.

Jeff Hutson, Chief Communication Officer
INPRS

Jeff is the Chief Communication Officer at the Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS), a $36 billion retirement system with nearly 500,000 members. He currently leads a team of 22 dedicated and talented employees. The team focusses on retirement counseling & financial education, stakeholder and customer communication, marketing communication, voice of the customer research, customer satisfaction measurement, market research, and issues management. Jeff has over 30 years of marketing experienced with the last 14 years spent at INPRS.

David Ireland, Senior Managing Director
State Street Global Advisors

David is a Senior Managing Director of State Street Global Advisors and the Head of Global Defined Contribution. In this role, he is responsible for advancing SSGA’s global defined contribution business, including product development, distribution, pricing, client service, operations and marketing infrastructure. He works closely with our global teams to build out competitive defined contribution offerings tailored to meet regional and country-specific requirements. Additionally, David is a member of SSGA’s Senior Leadership Team.

Prior to joining SSGA, David was Director of DC Distribution for Wellington Management where he focused on business development and investment strategy. Prior to Wellington, David spent 12 years at SSGA in a variety of roles, including Head of US Consultant Relations and Director of the North American Defined Contribution Sales and Strategy. David earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Skidmore College. He earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society and CFA Institute.

Greg Jenkins

Greg Jenkins, Head of Institutional DC
Invesco

Greg Jenkins is a Managing Director and Head of Institutional Defined Contribution on the North American Institutional team. He and his team are responsible for strategy, new business development and relationship management with plan sponsors and consultants.

Mr. Jenkins joined Invesco in 2010. Prior to that, he was with Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he was responsible for institutional defined contribution relationships and consultant relations. Before that, he was vice president of defined contribution sales at Charles Schwab from 2001 to 2007. He has served on committees with the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA), the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA), and the Defined Contribution Real Estate Council (DCREC).

Mr. Jenkins earned a BA degree in economics from the University of Colorado and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute. He holds the Series 3, 7, 24, 30, 63, and 79 registrations.

Zach Karas, Principal
Retirement Plan Advisors

Zach began his career with a leading public sector plan provider in 1984 and spent over 24 years in their retirement plans practice. He began as an Account Representative, conducting field enrollment and administering 457, 401(a), 403(b), and 401(k) plans throughout New England and New York. He then transitioned to Senior Account Representative, marketing group retirement plans, managing staff representatives and independent brokers, and working extensively with plan sponsors on the design and ongoing administration of their defined contribution plans.

Zach advanced to Regional Manager and expanded the firm’s market presence throughout the Midwest. He also managed and grew the group retirement plan markets throughout New England and New York while supervising the internal staff and field personnel.

Promoted to Regional Vice President, Zach led the sales, management, and distribution of defined contribution plans in the governmental, not-for-profit, and tax-exempt marketplace. Recognized as an industry leader, in 2006 he was named Vice President, National Director of Government Sales. In this role, he provided leadership and direction for the distribution of defined contribution plans in the government marketplace, where he developed strategic plans for the business line. Zach managed an internal distribution team as well as the broker/advisor distribution of governmental defined contribution plans nationwide.

A graduate of Connecticut College (CT), Zach earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He holds FINRA Series 6, 63, 65 (Investment Advisor Representative), and 26 (Registered Principal) registrations, and is licensed to offer life, health and accident, and variable contracts insurance.

Kevin Kilcarr, Senior Managing Director of Retirement Services
Enterprise Iron

Kevin has 35+ years in Financial Services industry, including end-to-end development and the implementation of new products and services at Fortune 100 firms. His expertise spans Insurance, Defined Contribution, Defined Benefit, Health and Welfare. Before joining Enterprise Iron and prior to the TESS contract supporting the TSP plan, Kevin managed the OmniPlus application at TIAA during a major conversion and development effort of 3.5 million participants and over 7 million accounts.

Marla Kreindler, Partner
Morgan Lewis

Marla Kreindler is a senior partner in the Employee Benefits Practice Group at Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP with more than 30 years of industry experience. She represents government 457/defined contribution plans and their fiduciaries, and also investment management and recordkeeping firms working with governmental DC plans. She also serves as counsel to DCIIA and to EBRI, in addition to serving as a member of NAGDCA’s Legislative Committee. Marla lives in Chicago and when loves to vacation in our National Parks.

Michael Kreps, Principal, Co-Chair Retirement Services Practice
Groom Law Group

Michael Kreps specializes in issues relating to public policy, fiduciary responsibility, and plan funding and restructuring. He routinely represents both private and public sector clients before federal agencies and Congress.

Previously, Michael served as the Senior Pensions and Employment Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from the 110th through the 114th Congresses. In that role, he managed all aspects of the Committee’s retirement agenda and had primary staff responsibility for pension legislation, including the pension investment provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the funding stabilization and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reform provisions of the MAP-21 Act of 2012, the Pension Relief Act of 2010, and the CSEC Pension Flexibility Act. He also led the Committee’s oversight of regulatory activities involving employee benefit plans.

Michael writes and speaks frequently on retirement and health policy.

Ryan Lamb, Accounting Manager
Ohio Public Employees Deferred Compensation Plan

Ryan Lamb, CPA, serves as Accounting Manager for Ohio Deferred Compensation, a voluntary supplemental retirement savings plan for Ohio public employees. He has over seven years of experience in the asset management industry, including five years planning and executing audits of asset managers, mutual funds, and broker-dealers with KPMG. Ryan is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Capital University and previously graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration – Accounting from the Ohio State University. He resides in Columbus, Ohio with his husband Neil and his dog Oliver.

Davetta Lee, Counsel & Policy Advisor
State of Mississippi

Davetta Cooke Lee serves as Counsel and Policy Advisor for the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, a $30 billion retirement system made up of four defined benefit plans and two defined contribution plans. She is responsible for the system’s legislation, regulations, and policies, as well as the internal administration of the defined contribution plans.

Davetta is a member of the Mississippi Bar where she served on several committees. Nationally, she is active in the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, National Association of State Retirement Administrators and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators.

She has received numerous recognitions, including Mississippi Business Journal Top 50 Under 40 Honoree and Mississippi College School of Law Young Alumni of the Year. She is married to Jonathan Lee, and they have one daughter, Morgan Elizabeth.

David Levine, Principal, Co-Chair Plan Sponsor Practice
Groom Law Group

David Levine is co-chair of the firm’s employer-focused practice. He advises plan sponsors, advisors, and other service providers on a wide range of employee benefits matters, from retirement and executive compensation to health and welfare plan matters.

David advises on the design and redesign of complex retirement, executive, and health and welfare plans; ongoing, day-to-day counseling of plan sponsors; in-depth compliance reviews of corporate and governmental benefit programs; products and compliance for retirement and health service providers, and representation of tax-exempt organizations with respect to issues involving corporate governance, executive compensation, and unrelated business income tax liability.

David was previously the Chair of the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (2011-2013) and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and serves in a number of leadership roles in the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Employee Benefits Committee. Mr. Levine regularly speaks on plan design, fiduciary governance, and legislative issues and contributes a recurring column to NAPA Net — The Magazine. He is recognized in the Chambers USA guide for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation.

Hank Levy, Treasurer
Alameda County

Henry C. Levy (Hank) was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to fill the remaining term of the former Treasurer-Tax Collector (TTC) in May 2017 and was elected to a full four-year term in June 2018.

The job of the Alameda County TTC is varied:

            • Tax Collection of Various Property Taxes in the county, plus business, utility, and hotel taxes in the unincorporated areas of the county; includes selling tax delinquent properties.
            • Bank and Invest the County’s and School Districts’ excess funds, currently approximately $6 Billion.
            • Direct the County’s elective supplemental deferred compensation program for County employees
            •  Ex-officio trustee on the Alameda County Retirement System (ACERA), which has responsibility for providing pension and other post-employment benefits to County retirees.
            • Member of the Alameda County Finance Committee, which oversees bond issuance and other county financial matters.

Prior to becoming Alameda County, TTC, Hank managed his accounting firm, The Henry Levy Group, CPAs and Consultants, which he founded in 1991. He grew it to over 30 people in 6 offices in Northern California. He sold the firm in 2016 prior to his appointment as TTC.

Hank is currently on the board of two non-profits: Pogo Park (Richmond, CA) and Senior Medi-Benefits. He has served on numerous other non-profit boards and been active in government citizen organizations since the mid-1980’s. He served on the Alameda County Assessment Appeals board from 2004 to 2017. He taught income tax for the VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program for 4 years.

An East Coaster by birth, Hank came out to California in his early twenties, living always on the border of Oakland and Berkeley. He raised 4 children, who attended Oakland and Berkeley public schools.  Hank has been a baseball umpire for almost 20 years, and has written a short memoir on this subject. Hank was married to Marcia Goodman for almost 32 years until she passed away from complications from Ovarian Cancer on December 5, 2017.

Hank is an accredited community college instructor. He has taught accounting, employee benefits, and economics various Universities and colleges in the Bay Area.

Hank received his B.A (History) from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, his M.A (Industrial Arts) from San Jose State University, and his accounting education from California State University, Hayward (now Cal East Bay) and Golden Gate University.

Jim Licato, Vice President, Product Management, Retirement & Workplace Solutions
Morningstar Investment Management LLC

Jim is the Vice President of Product Management and is primarily tasked with growing and managing the Fiduciary Services business within Morningstar Investment Management LLC. Prior to his current role, he served as a Senior Product Manager in the Software Division of Morningstar, Inc., specifically in the Custom Solutions group where he was tasked with growing and managing the retail channel of the Site Builder product. Site Builder was a set of components that helps firms build or enhance their websites for internal sales staff and outside clients’ both financial advisors and individual investors.

Previously, he served as the Research and Communications Manager of the Financial Communications Group at Morningstar, Inc., worked as a Senior Analyst at Zacks Investment Research and in various analyst and product management roles at Ibbotson Associates, Inc. He has over 22 years of experience in the financial industry. He has both a BBA and a MBA from Loyola University Chicago.

Rosa Limas, Vice President
Segal Marco Advisors

Ms. Limas is a Vice President in Segal Marco Advisors’ Chicago office and has over 25 years of consulting and institutional custody experience. She manages custodian services for the firm, utilizing her well-developed network, across many custodial providers, to evaluate custodian banks and direct search activities. Ms. Limas is also responsible for the due diligence of Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit consulting services, including providing research support for DC investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, CITs, ETFs, target-date funds and custom investment programs.

Ms. Limas has taken a leading role in the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. She joined Segal Marco’s corporate governance practice to lead corporate engagements on board diversity and to inform the firm’s approach on proxy voting to promote diversity.  Ms. Limas has made frequent speeches at industry conferences on DEI and custody topics, highlighting the importance of recognizing and utilizing available talent across the investment industry. She has been quoted in industry publications, including Chief Investment Officer and Fundfire on these topics.  In addition, she co-authored a research paper entitled, “Changing the Statue Quo”.

Rob Luciani, Head of Specialty Markets and Retirement Counseling, Client Relations & Business Development
Prudential

Robert Luciani is head of Specialty Markets and Retirement Counseling within Prudential Retirement. Rob is responsible for National Key Account Government, Taft Hartley, and Jumbo Client Service and Retirement Counseling Teams. As Head of Specialty Markets, he leads a team of Key Account Vice Presidents who collaborate with specialists across administrative services, advisory services, investment services, and participant communication/education to best serve Retirement Plan Sponsors. As Head of Retirement Counseling he leads a team of over 120 professionals who assist Retirement Plan Participants to better prepared for Retirement and overall Financial Wellness.

Rob joined Prudential in 1988 and has over 30 years of experience in the Retirement industry. While at Prudential, Rob has also held leadership positions in Client Services, Research and Compliance, New Business Development, and Product Development. He holds a B.A. degree from the Pennsylvania State University and a Certificate from the Institute for Employee Benefits Training. Rob is a Registered Principal, Sales Officer of Prudential Trust Company, and a registered lobbyist in several States. He holds FINRA Series 7, 24, and 63 licenses. He also serves on several Non-Profit Boards.

Virginia Maguire, VP, Wealth Solutions
Alight Solutions

Virginia leads strategy and product development for Alight Solutions’ retirement outsourcing business. 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. Previously, Virginia was a Consulting Actuary and Principal within the Consulting Practice at Aon Hewitt. As a credentialed actuary, Virginia has extensive experience with both defined contribution and defined benefit plans and feels passionately that presenting a full financial (retirement and non-retirement assets, government sources, cash flow, debt issues, and broad financial goals) is vital to participants reaching the best retirement decisions. Virginia earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Economics from Wake Forest University and a Master’s degree in Actuarial Science from Georgia State University.

Kenje Mallot, Director of Financial Solutions
Alight Solutions

Kenje is the Financial Solutions Director at Alight Solutions with overall responsibility and accountability for financial wellbeing strategy, solutions and partnerships. She works with Alight clients to help them develop and deliver organizational strategy and solutions designed to encourage and support positive financial behaviors. With over 20 years of financial services experience, Kenje has deep expertise with large market employer retirement plans.

Prior to Alight, she was a Strategic Relationship Manager and Vice President of Government Field Operations with Voya, Ombudsman for CitiStreet and Participant Services Manager with State Street Global Advisors and CitiStreet. Kenje has represented Alight at the many industry events including annual and regional conferences for NAGDCA, LIMRA, PSCA, the Institutional Investor DC Forum and New England Employee Benefits Council. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and holds FINRA 6, 26, 63 and 65 licenses.

Jared Martin, Consultant
Innovest Portfolio Solutions

Jared is a Principal and Consultant at Innovest Portfolio Solutions. At Innovest, Jared provides consulting services to Both Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit committees, boards, and individuals. He also manages the relationships between service providers and plan sponsors and provides ongoing vendor management for Innovest’s clients. He also leads many special projects for our retirement plan clients. Jared is also a member of the NexGen Society. Members of the NexGen Society are dedicated to leadership and instilling the Innovest culture into future generations.

Jared is a Certified Financial Planner®. Jared also holds an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) designation. Jared received his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Regis University in Denver.

Prior to joining Innovest, Jared was director of relationship management with ICMA-RC. Prior to being a relationship manager, he was financial planning manager with ICMA-RC for the previous 8 years. Jared is on the Board of the Colorado Public Plan Coalition (CPPC).

Diana McDonald, Senior Policy Advisor
Groom Law Group

Diana McDonald focuses on industry advocacy efforts as well as legislative and regulatory developments.

Previously, Diana served as Policy Director for the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs during the 84th Legislature. In that role, she worked extensively with state retirement agencies and employee groups to address funding and administrative requirements for the state’s pension and health plans. During her tenure, the legislature remedied a $7.5 billion unfunded liability for the Employees Retirement System without making benefit design changes. Immediately prior to joining Groom, Diana worked on executive compensation and Affordable Care Act matters at a major accounting firm.

Diana is an active Georgetown alumna as a speaker and mentor to current LL.M. students.

Jed Petty, Director of Defined Contribution
Wellington Management Co. LLP

Jed is instrumental in establishing and developing partnerships with pension clients. He assists clients with long-term investment strategy and policy issues, evaluating portfolio risks and performance, and ensuring compliance with policy guidelines and applicable regulations. He also leads the firm’s defined contribution business. Jed joined Wellington Management in 2005 and has held positions based in the US and Singapore.

Jed earned his graduate diploma of economics from the London School of Economics (1990) and his BS in accounting from Bucknell University (1987). Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute.

Julian Regan, Public Sector Market Leader / Sr. Vice President
Segal Marco Advisors

Mr. Regan is the Public Sector Market Leader and a Senior Vice President for Segal Marco Advisors.
Previously, he served as Executive Director of the New York State Deferred Compensation Board, chief divisional risk officer, Fidelity Institutional Retirement Services Company (FIRSCo), and Assistant General Manager and Budget Director, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

Mr. Regan is a former appointee to the IRS Advisory Committee on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities, served on the IFEBP Financial Education / Retirement Security Panel and serves on the IFEBP Investment Committee and the firm’s ESG committee.

He is a contributing author to NCPERS Best Governance Practices for Public Retirement Systems and Operational Risk for DC Plans, among other publications, and was a recipient of IRS TE/GE “Commissioner” and “Plan Sponsor of the Year” awards. Mr. Regan received his BSBA and MBA from Suffolk University and studied at Georgetown University.

Laura Rooney, Director of Operations
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Laura Rooney serves as the Director of Operations for the Defined Contribution Plans Department of the Massachusetts Office of the State Treasurer and Receiver General. In her current role, Laura manages operations for two state-wide retirement plans: a 457(b) and a 401(k). Prior to her work at the State Treasurer’s Office, Laura completed her MBA through the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. Before grad school, she worked for years in the nonprofit sector, seeking out ways to improve program and organizational operations. A proud AmeriCorps alumna, Laura sees service as a vehicle for strengthening communities and creating positive change.

Michael Sanders , Principal
CAPTRUST

Michael Sanders is a Principal at CAPTRUST and is focused on providing investment advisory and plan consulting to public programs across the country. With over 20 years of experience, Mike has a comprehensive background in various aspects of the retirement industry. Prior to joining CAPTRUST, Mike was a Principal and head of operations at Cammack Retirement Group, a leading independent retirement plan consulting and investment advisory firm, and has previously held leadership roles at both large investment management firms and recordkeepers.

Jennifer Selliers, Director of Internal Compliance
Tennessee Department of Treasury

Jennifer Selliers is currently serving as the Director of Internal Compliance for the State of Tennessee Department of Treasury. The Department is responsible for many of the financial and administrative operations of Tennessee state government, including administering the State’s Consolidated Retirement System and managing over $60 billion in public assets. Previously, Jennifer held compliance and operational roles within the private sector, primarily for dual-registrants. Her areas of expertise include compliance program development, policies and procedures formation and risk and control assessments. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Finance from the University of Phoenix, in addition to other professional certifications. Jennifer is currently serving as an elected Board member of the National Society of Compliance Professionals. Apart from her professional aspirations, Jennifer enjoys backpacking and hobby-farming with her husband and two sons.

Floyd Simpson, Senior Multi Asset Class Strategist
PFM Asset Management

Floyd Simpson, CFA, CAIA, CFP, joined PFM in 2019 as a senior multi asset class strategist. As part of our OCIO business, he works with institutional clients across the country to develop and implement multi-asset class strategies for their portfolios, and is a voting member of the Investment Committee.

Prior to joining PFM, Floyd worked as an investment officer at Xponance, a firm with a long track record of sourcing Diverse & Emerging managers, where he was the associate portfolio manager for the Global and International Equity strategies. His duties included quarterly commentary on the developed markets and investment managers, monitoring the Global and Developed International Equity strategies, and executing due diligence on managers across the G20 and Emerging Market regions. In addition, he contributed intellectual content for ad hoc white papers.

Floyd is a former Investment Committee member of the Truman State University Foundation Board of Directors and is currently a Board member on the CFA Society of Philadelphia.

Christine Stokes, Head of Institutional and Retirement L&D
Nuveen

Christine Stokes is Head of Institutional and Retirement Learning and Development at Nuveen. She’s focused on leading the learning and development strategy for Nuveen’s global institutional sales organization, creating proprietary defined contribution practice management and thought leadership as well as manage strategic initiatives with Nuveen’s affiliated TIAA institutional businesses.

Christine has over a decade of experience in defined contribution across all market segments, contributing to thought leadership and industry publications while frequently speaking at industry events. Prior to joining Nuveen, Christine was the head of Multi-Asset Product at Voya Investment Management responsible for overseeing new product development, product management, product marketing and strategy across all distribution channels. In prior roles at AllianceBernstein, L.P., Christine developed and launched custom target date solutions, managed RFP teams and supported multi-asset product strategy.

Christine graduated with a B.A. from Fairfield University and serves on the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Associate Public Policy Committee.

Steve Toole, Vice President, Financial Wellness Tax-exempt Markets
Prudential

Steve Toole is a retirement program executive uniquely qualified to serve America’s public servants. Steve has spent his entire career meeting the retirement needs of the public sector employee. Combining his private sector executive leadership with his tenure as Executive Director of the North Carolina Retirement Systems affords him a unique perspective to meet the needs of America’s public sector employees.

Steve is currently Vice President, Financial Wellness for Tax-Exempt markets for Prudential Financial. In this capacity he is tasked to deliver financial wellness strategies and solutions to the public sector, Taft Hartley, and not for profit industries.
During his tenure as the Executive Director for the North Carolina Retirement Systems Division, Steve and his leadership team were focused on securing the retirement readiness for their 450,000 active members. To that end, 57.56% of all active North Carolina public sector employees were on track to replace 80% of their income at age 62.

Steve was an active member of Nationwide Retirement Solutions’ executive leadership team running their public and private sector defined contribution business. Steve has served on various boards and associations representing the tax-exempt markets.

Tina Turner, Division Director
Wayne County Michigan

Tina Turner (BA-Accounting and MBA-Finance) is the Division Director at the Wayne County Employees’ Retirement System (WCERS).  She oversees the Data Information System, Communications, Retirement Education, and New Employee Orientation. Tina is also a 30+ year veteran with the County of Wayne who has a diverse set of skills and unique talents.

In August 2019, Tina played a key role in successfully completing a $615+ million recordkeeping consolidation project for WCERS Defined Contribution and Deferred Compensation Plans.  The consolidation resulted in a reduction of recordkeepers from five to one, a robust streamlined investment menu, and a 30%-60% decrease in fund expenses which generated cost savings of nearly $2 million annually for participants.  Tina worked diligently with the WCERS team to develop communication strategies and procedures to educate members on the benefits of consolidating recordkeepers.   The town hall format, Informational Sessions, proved to be the most effective communicative strategy.  These meetings provided additional insight about the consolidation and gave participants the opportunity to address all questions or concerns – over 1000 active and retired members attended the meetings.

Prior to joining WCERS administration, Tina was elected by her peers to serve as a Retirement Commissioner for WCERS from May 2014 – June 2018 holding the title of Chairperson from October 2015 to December 2017.  For nearly a decade, she was a Police Officer for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and has worked as an Accountant in various departments:  Financial Reporting, Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables, and Environmental Service Group.

Sue Walton, SVP, Senior Retirement Strategist
Capital Group | American Funds

Sue Walton is a senior retirement strategist at Capital Group, home of American Funds. She has 23 years of industry experience and has been with Capital Group for five years. Prior to joining Capital, Sue was a director at Towers Watson Investment Services. Before that, she was an investment consultant at Mercer Investment Consulting and Ellwood Associates. She holds an MBA from DePaul University with a concentration in finance and a bachelor’s degree in business administration, economics and international business from Marquette University. Sue is based in Chicago.

Rachel Webb, Defined Contribution Plans Business Analyst
Virginia Retirement System

Rachel Webb is the Defined Contribution Plans Business Analyst at the Virginia Retirement System, which administers eight defined contribution plans totaling approximately $7 billion in assets. She has over 10 years of experience with public-sector retirement plans. Her focuses include process improvement, including designing and maintaining databases to manage department processes, and data analytics to help monitor the health of the plans and support communication and technology initiatives to improve retirement preparedness. She also works with IT to design and test software changes.

Rachel earned a BS from the University of Mary Washington and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Andrew Whiting, Managing Vice President, Institutional & Investment Sales
MissionSquare Retirement

Mr. Whiting is responsible for all institutional client acquisitions, consolidations, and retentions, and oversees the Institutional Sales; Consultant Relations; Education, Healthcare & Not-for-Profit; and Investment Only teams.

Mr. Whiting has more than 16 years of experience in the financial services industry. He brings extensive experience in working with public sector and government sector retirement plans and has expertise across the 457 and 403(b) retirement plans, and the DCIO markets. Throughout his career, Mr. Whiting has worked with plan sponsors, recordkeepers, consultants, and advisors specializing in the government retirement markets.

Before joining MissionSquare Retirement in November 2020, Mr. Whiting served as the Public Markets Client Advisor at JP Morgan Asset Management, where he was responsible for their Public Sector investment-only business. He was Vice President, National Sales for Government Markets at Lincoln Financial, where he was responsible for leading the development of their tax-deferred business. Mr. Whiting also served as Regional Vice President of Governmental Employer-Sponsored Plans at AXA Equitable and was Regional Sales Director for Tax Exempt Markets with The Hartford.

Mr. Whiting serves as a Trustee for the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Assoc. Signal 30 Fund. Mr. Whiting is also an honorary lifetime member of New Jersey Police Benevolent Association Local 265 and Dade County Police Benevolent Association. Mr. Whiting also served on the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) Industry Committee.

Mr. Whiting earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Fairfield University. He holds the Series 6,7,63, and 24 registrations.

Tina Wilson, Senior Vice President, Chief Product Officer
Empower Retirement

Tina Wilson is Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer for Empower Retirement. In her role, she is responsible for the strategy, ideation and design of retirement products and solutions and oversees the team responsible for product development, management methodology and governance. She is President of Advised Assets Group, which is responsible for Empower’s advice and managed accounts solutions, as well. Tina joined the organization in 2019. She has also served as Head of Product & Investment Solutions Innovation for MassMutual’s Workplace organization and as Managing Director, Product & Investment Management for MassMutual International LLC, and she has led fund strategy within MassMutual’s Annuities and Retirement Services businesses.

Prior to MassMutual, she was an Investment Officer at Connecticut Mutual. She has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Tina holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut. She currently holds FINRA Series 7 and 24 credentials, and she is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and a member of the Colorado CFA Society and the CFA Institute.

Brigen Winters, Principal, Chair Policy Practice
Groom Law Group

Brigen Winters counsels employers, plan administrators, financial institutions, insurers, trade associations, and coalitions on retirement, health and welfare, tax, executive compensation, regulatory, and legislative matters.

Brigen helps clients achieve compliance and obtain favorable outcomes through amendments from Congress and regulatory guidance from the IRS and Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services. He counsels clients on all aspects of tax-qualified and individual retirement plans, including plan design and administration, tax and ERISA, and pension plan funding issues.

His practice also includes the full range of laws that affect the administration of health and welfare benefit plans, cafeteria plans, health reimbursement, health savings and flexible savings accounts, retiree medical plans, private exchanges, and health funding arrangements. He works extensively on health care reform compliance, reporting, product design, and public policy matters related to the Affordable Care Act and American Health Care Act.

Brigen also counsels clients regarding the design and administration of executive deferred compensation plans, equity and long-term incentive plans, rabbi trust, and other funding arrangements including the design and administration of nonqualified deferred compensation plans, supplemental executive retirement plans, change in control and severance arrangements, employment agreements, bonus plans, and equity awards in compliance with IRC Sections 409A, 162(m), 3121(v), 83, 280G, and 457A.

Brigen chairs Groom’s Policy and Legislative Practice, and is a frequent speaker and writer on issues in the health, retirement, executive compensation, and tax areas.