Patrick Alyward, President & CEO, Resource Insurance Consultants (RIC)
Patrick Alyward serves as President and CEO for RIC where he leads all strategic decisions for RIC including oversight of all marketing/sales activities, client retention efforts, and management of the company. RIC is a Fiduciary Risk Manager that services over 200+ wealth management companies for fiduciary compliance solutions (6 of the top 8 U.S. banks).
Patrick has 29 years within the fiduciary & wealth management industry. He was with CCH (a Wolters Kluwer division) for 6 years where he founded and led a fiduciary tax reporting solution for banks and trust companies. Patrick also served in critical leadership roles in banking managing large fiduciary wealth mgt. functions for a top 10 bank. He was an Executive Vice President at PNC/National City for 15 years where he was Chief Fiduciary Officer and managed all fiduciary related processes and personnel. He also previously worked at EY and KPMG in fiduciary wealth tax leadership roles.
Trevor Bare, FSA, EA, MAA, Partner & Consulting Actuary, Conrad Siegel
Trevor Bare is a specialist in retirement plan consulting and administrative services for defined contribution and defined benefit plans. He works closely with clients to consult on employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs), 401(k), profit sharing, government, and cash balance plans, often customized to fit their particular objectives. Trevor also oversees the Central PA 401(k), by Conrad Siegel PEP, chairs Conrad Siegel’s compliance committee and specializes in complex nondiscrimination testing.
Trevor has been with Conrad Siegel since 2006, joining the firm as an Actuarial Analyst working on corporate and government defined benefit pension plans. He transitioned to work primarily with ESOPs and other defined contribution retirement plans by 2013. This experience has elevated Trevor as a recognized thought leader, speaking frequently at conferences.
Trevor is a born problem-solver who strives to serve his clients by providing excellent service and solutions to their problems. Away from work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four children. Together, they enjoy card and board games, boating, and hobby farming.
Nora Gieg Chatha, Esquire, Tucker Arensberg, P.C.
Nora Gieg Chatha’s prior experience as legal counsel for the Pennsylvania State Medicaid (Medical Assistance) Agency, the Department of Human Services (formerly Public Welfare), and knowledge of Orphans’ Court practice and fiduciary duties aids her in providing comprehensive representation to individual and corporate clients in a variety of complex situations. Nora has been named a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation. She represents individuals, fiduciaries and healthcare providers in all areas of estate planning and wealth preservation, with a focus on fiduciary compliance, special needs, public benefits and long-term care related issues.
Nora received her JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and her BA (summa cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh.
Michael Dixon, Director of Organizational Development, Pohl Consulting & Training
Michael Dixon has worked with Pohl Consulting and Training for more than 20 years, as a Consultant and industry resource partner. He has a broad background in Professional Sales and Sales Management and is adept at developing integrated sales and service leadership models; as well as Wealth Management product design and service delivery systems.
Clients benefit from Michael’s broad experience gained as a consultant, as well as his work leading a Community Bank Wealth Management Group. His time ‘in the field’ provided real world lessons and demonstrated results of both top and bottom-line growth as well as team leadership skills.
As a consultant his focus is: • Evaluating organizations to create action plans for growth and profit • Implementing sales tracking and CRM systems • Change management involving trust, brokerage, insurance, and RIA • Coaching individual sales performance in wealth management and commercial banking • Developing sales and marketing strategy (account and market segment) • Performing and evaluating industry standard metrics and benchmarks.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and an MBA in Industrial Management. He is a past Board Member of the Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois, and a regular contributor to his congregations in the areas of endowment and resource management. He resides with his wife in Chicago, Illinois.
Linda Duessel, CFA, CPA, CFP, Senior Equity Strategist, Federated Hermes
As senior equity market strategist, Linda Duessel is part of the team responsible for formulating Federated’s views about various equity market conditions and the firm’s positioning strategies. She is also responsible for articulating the strategy, process, positioning and performance of Federated’s equity portfolios.
Linda has been a regular contributor to CNBC’s “Closing Bell” and other programs. In addition, she has appeared on Fox News “Your World with Neil Cavuto” and Bloomberg Television. Linda has also been extensively quoted by Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s and has been featured in the annual roundtables for USA Today and Smart Money Magazine. Linda also discusses personal finance with investor groups across the country on topics of interest ranging from the impact of the alternative minimum tax to investing for retirement. She has more than 30 years of investment experience.
Linda earned her master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and bachelor’s degree from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Linda is a CPA, CFA charterholder and a CFP professional.
Joe Duffy, Director, Investment Specialist, Harbor Capital Advisors
Joe Duffy is an investment specialist at Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc. He is part of the Investment Specialist Team that provides insights on financial markets and serves as a product specialist for Harbor’s investment strategies. Prior to joining Harbor, Joe was a managing director at Asset Preservation Advisors where he was responsible for communicating the firm’s products and perspectives to clients and prospective clients. Previously, he held various roles within BNY Mellon’s Asset Management division including director, senior investment strategist at Mellon and senior product specialist at The Boston Company. Joe received a BA in Finance from Bryant University and an MBA from Bentley University.
Linda Eaton, Executive Vice President, Cannon Financial Institute
Since joining the firm in 2011, Linda is one of Cannon’s most sought-after speakers and consultants. Linda has focused much of her activity in helping client-facing advisors become measurably better at the relationship management aspects of the business. Linda’s work in the fields of neuro-economics and emerging wealth markets has underscored her conviction that clients deserve the best advice and service possible, and truly need advisors to help them achieve their goals.
Linda has devoted nearly three decades to helping individuals and organizations improve their performance concentrating primarily on the financial services industry. Linda began her training career at Merrill Lynch, where, after having successfully built a practice as a Financial Advisor, she moved on to the training division, eventually working in Management Development for North America. She then served as Vice President of Productivity for the Franklin Covey Co. She was instrumental in the design of their flagship productivity program, What Matters Most, as well as creating custom programs for clients such as Hewlett Packard, Avon, Reebok, and Morgan Stanley.
Linda’s interest in individual transformation led to the founding of The Galileo Initiative, an organization devoted to using cutting age brain research to effect business results. Her extensive media experience includes featured guest spots on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, and CNBC’s Power Lunch.
From keynote speeches to hands-on workshops, over 500,000 participants in 16 countries have benefited from Linda’s ability to connect life-changing concepts to everyday experience.
Augustine (Gus) Faucher, Chief Economist, The PNC Financial Services Group
Augustine (Gus) Faucher is senior vice president and chief economist of The PNC Financial Services Group, serving as the principal spokesperson on all economic issues for PNC.
Prior to joining PNC as senior macroeconomist in December 2011, Gus worked for 10 years at Moody’s Analytics (formerly Economy.com), where he was a director and senior economist. He was responsible for running the firm’s computer model of the U.S. economy, edited a monthly publication on the U.S. economic outlook, covered fiscal and monetary policy, and analyzed various regional economies. Previously, he worked for six years at the U.S. Treasury
Department, and taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was named senior vice president in March 2015, deputy chief economist in February 2016, and to his current role in April 2017.
Gus is frequently cited in international, national, and regional media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has appeared on ABC World News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and Nightly Business Report, and is regularly featured on CNBC, CNN and Fox Business. In addition, he appears regularly on CBS Radio, NPR and Marketplace.
Gus serves on the board of directors of The Economic Club of Pittsburgh - the local chapter of National Association of Business Economics (NABE). He is also co-chair of the Financial Roundtable of NABE.
Gus earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in labor economics and public economics. He also has a B. A. in economics from Cornell University.
Danielle Hart, Account Executive | Enterprise Sales, TEAM Risk Management Strategies
Danielle Hart is with TEAM Risk Management Strategies, the nation’s leading all-in-one payroll and HR solution for household staff. Danielle brings years of experience helping fiduciaries manage employment for trust-paid service providers, and enjoys finding solutions that relieve fiduciaries from the administrative burden and liability that comes with paying employees from a trust
Doug Hart, Managing Partner, Trust Processing
Doug Hart founded Trust Processing Solutions (TPS) in September 2001 and currently serves as the Managing Partner. Doug has spent over 32 years in the fiduciary compliance and preparation industry.
Trust Processing Solutions currently has over 130 clients and is the largest fiduciary tax outsourcing firm by clients.
James (Jim) Kehr, CRSP, Director of Business Development, Conrad Siegel
Jim Kehr leads Conrad Siegel’s business team in developing the rich client partnerships that have been Conrad Siegel’s hallmark for over 50 years. He offers 35 years of strategic experience with proficiency in aligning client organizational vision to custom-built investment, retirement and healthcare benefits plans that enable them to become leading community workplaces.
Prior to joining Conrad Siegel, Jim built an impressive track record of helping corporate and non-profit clients build vision-aligned solutions over 18 years in his roles as Sales Executive, Implementation Services Department Head, and Client Services Relationship Manager for industry leader Vanguard. Prior to Vanguard, Jim honed his expertise supporting institutional trust clients as Vice President for 9 years with PNC Bank. Jim touts additional experience in benefits administration, compliance, and ERISA law.
Jim has always been an advocate for the client first. His role with Conrad Siegel is a natural fit enabling him to build such client partnerships that have been the cornerstone of the firm’s success over the past half-century. As you might expect from a man as who prioritizes relationships above all else, Jim is family-first, but always makes time for travel, fitness, community and causes, admirably supporting community outreach initiatives for veteran service organization Wounded Warrior Project and Fiorenza’s Food for Friends.
Alan Novak, Co-Founder, Rooney Novak Isenhour
Alan Novak’s political career began in Chester County, Pennsylvania as a Coatesville Area GOP committeeman. He also served as a Coatesville City Councilman for four years and was subsequently elected Chester County GOP chair. In that role, Alan helped deliver large pluralities from the county for state and national GOP candidates from 1991 to 1995.
Alan’s local success turned into statewide leadership when he was tapped to chair Pennsylvania’s Republican Party (1996-2005). As one of the longest serving chairmen, Alan engineered nearly a decade of Republican dominance in statewide elections and was regularly recognized on PoliticsPA.com’s “Power 50 List” as one of the fifty most politically powerful Pennsylvanians. His experience has led him to be tapped as political advisor to Governors Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker and Tom Corbett. On the national scene, Alan served on the presidential campaign of President George W. Bush as well as on the Bush/Cheney transition team and served President Bush as a White House Fellows Commissioner.
Trained as a lawyer, Alan brings a critical eye to discussion and debate. He has provided key analysis to shows on CNN, Fox News, ABC, MSNBC, Pennsylvania Cable Network, and Philadelphia television and radio shows. Alan is the founder and president of Novak Strategic Advisors and co-founder of the Rooney Novak Isenhour Group, both government affairs firm based in Harrisburg and serves of counsel to Lamb McErlane. He currently serves on the board of Independence Health Group Advisory Board for Public Policy and External Affairs and formerly served on the board of Independence Blue Cross. Alan is also a Director of Mid Penn Bank. He is the former chair of both the Pennsylvania Race Horse Commission and the Board of Trustees of Ursinus College.
Jeremy Peterson, Digital Experience Manager, Accutech Systems
Jeremy Peterson, Digital Experience Manager, joined the Accutech team in 2020 and brings over 20 years of experience in financial services technology solutions. He has engaged with business and technology leaders for both startup and mature organizations helping them to align people, process, and technology to achieve their strategic initiatives through thought leadership and innovation.
Jeremy served in a variety of roles on the retail, residential lending, and technology and
cybersecurity spaces in the financial industry prior to shifting his focus to trust and wealth management.
Jeremy has also served in a variety of community and non-profit roles, presently sitting on the City of Loveland Parks & Recreation Commission and helps coach youth sports in his Colorado community.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Rocky Mountain College.
Malcolm (Mal) E. Polley, CFA, President & Chief Investment Officer, Stewart Captial Advisors, LLC
Malcolm Polley led the effort to form Stewart Capital Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisory subsidiary of S&T Bank. Malcolm began his career in 1987 on Black Monday; and he has held leadership positions with many financial services organizations including S&T Wealth Management, Marquette Trust Company, Marquette Advisory Services, and West Bank.
Malcolm has served as adjunct faculty at the Eberly College of Business and Technology at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he is president of Downtown Indiana.
Malcolm often presents to client, community and industry groups; and he has been a frequent guest on various financial and investment programs including Squawk Box, Squawk on the Street, Power Lunch, Closing Bell, Fox Business, Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio. One of those appearances is quoted by Andrew Ross Sorkin in his bestselling book, Too Big to Fail.
Malcolm received a BBA in finance from Iowa State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member and past president of the CFA Society of Pittsburgh.
T.J. Rooney, Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Rooney Novak Isenhour
T.J. Rooney is the founder and President of Tri-State Strategies PA and co-founder and a senior partner of the Rooney Novak Isenhour Group. T.J. works with clients in a broad range of industries including, energy, healthcare, mental health, gaming and government outsourcing. Prior to his service in public office, T.J. held licenses in insurance and real estate.
T.J. began his political career in 1992 when he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 133rd District representing Northampton and Lehigh Counties. He served for seven consecutive terms (1993-2006).
• Served as member on the Rules, Consumer Affairs, and Insurance Committees.
• Founding member of the Gun Safety Caucus where he championed gun safety legislation in Pennsylvania.
In 2003, T.J. assumed leadership of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee where he distinguished himself as a prolific fundraiser and astute strategist. Mr. Rooney's success as fundraiser and political strategist led him to key political positions statewide and nationally.
T.J. and his partner Alan Novak were honored as the first recipients of the 2017 Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life in Pennsylvania in recognition of their work in finding solutions for their clients by navigating divisions in government to build consensus and end stalemates. T.J. is a sought-after speaker and is frequently interviewed and quoted by the media. He is a favorite of statewide political news outlets as well as Philadelphia talk radio programs. He shares a column on Pennsylvania Politics with Alan Novak, his long-time friend and political rival, which appears in the Philadelphia Inquirer. T.J. and Alan regularly lecture aspiring political science students at institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph’s University and Dickinson College.