Speakers/Presentations
David Aronson
David is CEO of Peanut Butter, which helps employers offer student loan assistance as a benefit. He previously served as Senior Director of Business Development for Sears Holdings, and Director of Corporate Development for Gevity HR. David earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in finance from Valparaiso University and a Master of Business Administration in entrepreneurship and innovation from the J.L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Matt Bradley
Matt leads the sales team for HealthEquity's (HQY) retirement division and was previously the CEO of BenefitGuard, a full-service 401(k) offering that HealthEquity acquired in July of 2017. Prior to his time in the retirement space, Matt spent a number of years in real estate development, financial services, and private equity building and selling various different companies. Matt has a degree in finance and loves developing, executing, and selling new and meaningful ideas and products. Personally, he enjoys surfing, mountain biking, playing and coaching soccer, and spending time with his wife and five children.
Dr. Melissa Cheng
Melissa is an assistant professor at the University of Utah’s Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (RMCOEH). Melissa received a bachelor’s in medical technology, and earned her master’s in health science with an emphasis on complex humanitarian emergencies at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine through the department of International Health. She earned her Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of Utah and stayed for her Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine internship and her Environmental Health residency. Melissa’s role at RMCOEH includes clinical care at the Occupational Medicine Clinic, teaching residents and other graduate students, supporting the advancement of underprivileged students in the field of science, and research — including work on the ongoing musculoskeletal cohorts and opioid medication usage among working populations.
Brian Hamilton
Brian is a new business manager for Cigna in Utah, specializing in medical, dental and vision plan sales to employers with 20 – 500 eligible employees. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s in economics, while simultaneously running his own IT business. Brian has been with Cigna for two and a half years in both account management and sales roles.
Shannon Bahrke Happe
Shannon Bahrke was born and raised in Lake Tahoe, CA and moved to Salt Lake City, UT in 1998 to pursue her dream of competing with the U.S. Ski Team at the Winter Olympic Games. She made the U.S. Ski Team that same year and competed on six World Championship Teams and three Olympic Teams, ultimately bringing home two Olympic medals, seven World Cup wins, one Overall World Cup title and six National titles. Since her retirement in 2010 she and her husband, Matt, started up and in 2013 sold their first company, Silver Bean Coffee. She now has her plate full raising a 4-year-old girl named Zoe and a newborn baby boy named Tucker while working as a Ski Champion for Deer Valley. Shannon wrote a children’s book titled Mommy, Why Is Your Hair Pink? and has recently launched a corporate team building and inspiration company called Team Empower Hour.
James Harrison
James is the founder and CEO of INVISUS and is one of the industry's foremost experts on cyber risk management. As the market strategist and product visionary for INVISUS, he develops the company’s cybercrime, identity theft and data breach compliance product lineup. James regularly speaks and trains in a wide variety of industry and trade groups including financial services, legal, insurance and more.
Kyle Healy
Kyle Healy is the vice president of Corporate Development for NFP Corp. A dynamic leader with over a decade of expertise in the corporate benefits advisory space, he helps lead the NFP Sales Enablement Function, Integrated Sales Initiative and supports national sales opportunities. Early in his career, his work focused primarily on helping organizations control their long-term attraction and retention spend while maintaining competitive reward programs for their employees. Kyle is a frequent public speaker and presenter on topics ranging from employee engagement to workplace demographics and progressive benefit solutions. He contributes to conferences such as The McLagan Hedge Fund Roundtable on Benefits, Yale Thought Leaders in Business Speaker Series, The Metropolitan Business Network’s Small Business Symposium and the Mid-Sized Healthcare and Retirement Conference. Kyle holds a Bachelor of Science from Ithaca College and resides in New Jersey with his wife, Mallory Healy.
Dave Jackson
Dave has over 30 years’ experience working in employee benefits and human resource consulting. He works with some of Utah’s largest and notable employers. He is a nationally known health reformer and has been instrumental in the development, implementation and promotion of Utah’s health system reforms that predate the Affordable Care Act by several years. Dave has been a consultant to the State of Utah for health system reform matters. He was appointed by Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. to the Utah Defined Contribution Risk Adjustment Board as the citizen representative and reappointed by Governor Gary R Herbert in the same capacity. Dave currently serves as its chairman. In 1987, Dave founded First West Brokerage Services, Inc. the parent company of FirstWest Benefit Solutions. Under Dave’s leadership FirstWest grew to one of the largest full-service benefit and HR consulting firms in the region. FirstWest merged with NFP a large national consulting firm in 2016. Dave attended Utah schools and universities. He resides in Orem, UT with his wife Susan of 34 years, they have five adult children. Dave’s personal interests include his family, scuba diving, travel, classic cars, and Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycles.
Matt Montague
Matt is an advisor consultant for Hartford Funds. He is responsible for marketing Hartford Funds and The Hartford SMART529 in Colorado, Utah and southern Idaho. Matt supports financial advisors and their clients with educational material, client seminars, product expertise, strategy sessions and practice-management strategies. In 2007, Matt joined the organization as a regional marketing director. Prior to joining the company, he was a fundraiser and event planner for the Wheelchair Foundation, a nonprofit. Matt is a registered representative of Hartford Funds Distributors. Matt is FINRA Series 6 and 63 registered. Originally from Louisville, KY, Matt graduated from Brigham Young University where he earned a bachelor’s in public relations. He currently resides in Orem, UT, with his wife, Natali, and their four children. In his free time, Matt enjoys sports, especially basketball.
Douglas G. Peterson
Doug is the chief information security officer for Great-West Financial®. In his role, Doug is responsible for cybersecurity strategy architecture, development and implementation. He has enterprise-level responsibility for all cybersecurity policies, standards, evaluations and roles as well as awareness for all utilized technologies, services, vendors and partners. Doug is also responsible for business continuity and disaster recovery planning, testing and execution. Doug has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. His previous experience includes his role as chief security officer for Nationstar Mortgage and Aurora Bank. He has also held various leadership roles at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Prior to his corporate career, Doug served in the U.S. Army as an Intelligence Analyst in the 82nd Airborne Division and the 19th Special Forces Group. Doug is a Certified Business Continuity Planner through Disaster Recovery Institute International, a Certified Information Security Systems Professional through the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium and an Information Security Systems Professional through Global Information Assurance Certification. Doug is also chairman of the SPARK Data Security Oversight Board.
David Snyder
David is CEO of Perspective Partners, where he works to bring holistic, outcome-based financial wellness solutions to retirement plan advisors, sponsors and participants. Under David’s leadership, Perspective Partners has helped hundreds of plan advisors to differentiate through industry-leading retirement readiness reports and software, and launched such programs as NestUp Managed Deferrals®. David has over 30 years of experience in commercializing innovation. Before joining Perspective Partners, David worked on a wide range of market-making products and innovation management initiatives at Xerox. Prior to that, he worked in research and advanced development in Silicon Valley, principally at SRI International.
Ryan Sullivan, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, CRPC®, CMFC®
Ryan Sullivan is a managing director of strategic markets for Hartford Funds. He travels extensively and is responsible for engaging and educating financial advisors and their clients about current and emerging opportunities in the financial services marketplace. These range from areas such as retirement-income planning, investment planning, and charitable giving, to anticipating and preparing for long-term demographic and lifestyle changes. Ryan has been an invited speaker on a variety of financial topics nationwide and has had the good fortune to address groups in 46 states and Puerto Rico.
Ryan originally joined the organization in 1996 and held various roles of increasing responsibility, leaving the company in 2012 as a vice president of advanced markets. Prior to rejoining Hartford Funds, he founded a business to coach professionals on public speaking and the improvisational mindset, something he continues to do in a volunteer capacity today. He was then vice president and head of investor education for PIEtechSM, the creator of MoneyGuidePro®, a leading financial-planning software program for financial advisors. Ryan holds his Life, Health, and Variable Products licenses in addition to his other designations. He’s also a Fellow of LOMA’s® Life Management Institute. Originally from Hartford, CT, Ryan attended Bucknell University where he received a bachelor’s in business administration. He currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, Katie.
Dave Twardowski, PhD
As a vice president in research, Dave Twardowski leverages his background in statistical modeling, algorithms, and coding to provide solutions to a range of projects involving Dimensional's fixed income and equity portfolios, target date retirement products, and algorithmic trading strategies. Prior to joining the firm, Dave worked for General Electric Aviation developing flight control algorithms for Black Hawk helicopters. He was also an adjunct staff member of the Institute for Defense Analyses, where he led a project addressing national security issues. He received his doctorate in computer science and engineering from Dartmouth College in 2011. He also holds a master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Rhode Island, where he graduated as salutatorian of mechanical engineering. Dave is also Series 7 licensed.