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Throughout a distinctive career earning her executive management positions at some of the world’s largest financial services institutions, Clara Sierra has always stood apart: for her extraordinary professional relationships, her remarkable passion for sales\/marketing, her unique personal background and, most of all, for her unrelenting drive to achieve the best-possible results for her employees, employers and her clients.Over the course of two decades Ms. Sierra has emerged as a dominant figure in financial services.As Executive Vice President and Director of Strategic Alliances for Sentinel Investments– a position she assumed in 2007 – Ms. Sierra has global responsibility for Sentinel Investment’s relationship management team, sustainable investing research team, and advisor training and development through Sentinel Investment’s University. Throughout her diverse financial services career path, driving training and development programs has been a consistent element of her ever-evolving professional responsibilities.Prior to Sentinel Investments, Ms. Sierra held a series of progressively more senior positions at AIG Advisor Group. Recruited in 2002 as Senior Vice President and Director of Advisory Services, Ms. Sierra was responsible for the company’s entire fee-based advisory business, with over $40 billion in assets under management across five broker dealers.In this role, she oversaw all crucial elements of the advisory business ranging from sales, training, marketing, technology operations and compliance; Ms. Sierra also successfully integrated the five previously competing broker dealer advisory divisions, This included launching the first shared advisory platform among each of the five brokers dealers (Vision 2020 Advisor) raising one billion in assets under management, in the platforms first two years.During Ms Sierra tenure at AIG Advisor Group; she also became director of Marketing, and Meetings\/Events for all five of the AIG broker\/dealers, and was the only woman to serve on AIG Advisor Group’ executive management team (launched in 2006).Ms. Sierra entered the financial services industry in 1990, when she joined the former Alliance Capital (now Alliance Bernstein) and began establishing the blueprint for her financial services career. Over the course of nearly 13 years, she became involved in virtually every element of asset management – including customer service, internal and external sales, marketing, and portfolio management research.“I’m fond of the quote, ‘Prepare for the worst, plan for the best,’” says Sierra. “Above all, my work – and my life – has been driven by relationships. Each of these relationships has enabled me to grow, and helped me advise my employers, my employees and our clients through every possible sales, marketing and asset management scenario.”Ms. Sierra holds Series 6, and 26 licenses. A graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor’s degree in business management, she is an active member of the Women Unlimited (WU) Mentorship Program (NY\/NJ Chapter). She is Latina, married with two children and resides in Central New Jersey.

Ciro J. Giué is the Voluntary Benefits Practice Leader for HUB International Northeast. Ciro works with HUB’s sales and account management teams to develop and implement integrated employee benefit strategies that include Voluntary Benefit solutions. He has written numerous topical articles. He recently joined HUB in 2015. Prior Ciro was the Voluntary Benefit Subject Matter Expert for Corporate Synergies Group. Ciro earned an MBA in Finance and International Business from The Stern School at New York University and a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Rutgers University.

Cindy Lapoff is an ERISA compliance consultant for Manning & Napier Advisors, LLC.  She provides clients and consultants guidance on the Affordable Care Act and other regulatory and case law developments affecting single employer and multiemployer plans.

Cynthia L. Conger is President of Conger Wealth Management, a comprehensive wealth management firm which provides advice on a fee-only basis. She was named to Worth Magazine’s lists of “The Best Financial Advisers in America” starting 1998 and their list of the “100 Top Wealth Advisers.”\nShe received both her Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1981 and her MBA in 1983 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She holds the CPA\/PFS and CFP professional designations. She was admitted to the Registry of Financial Planning Practitioners in 1987, and is listed in the current editions of Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in the World.\nShe served as a Director on the International Association for Financial Planning’s Board of Directors from 1994 through 1998; as Chair of the task force for the IAFP’s 1994 Conference for Advanced Planning (CAP) in Washington, DC; and has also served on the task forces for the 1996 and 1998 IAFP Success Forums, Investment Advisor Magazine Wealth Management Symposium for 2002, and the AICPA PFP Conference for 2005 and 2006, and chaired the conference for 2007 and 2008. She has presented at numerous financial planning conferences around the nation.\nMs. Conger currently serves on the University of Arkansas Foundation Inc. Board, the Professional Counseling Associates Board, UALR’s Friends of the Arts Board and the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas Board. She was honored with the UALR Alumni President’s Award for Community Service.

Cindi Van Meir has more than a decade of experience creating technology products for human resource departments and their employees. As a product manager at Benefitfocus, she leads cross-functional teams of user experience, engineering, and product management to design and develop products that are serving 25 million consumers.