Speakers

Brooklyn H. Brock, CFP®️, CEPA®️, ChFC®️, CKA®️

Brooklyn Brock is a 3rd generation financial advisor and founder of Ellevate Advisors LLC, a fee-only RIA, specializing in Financial Planning and Exit Coaching for advisors themselves. Throughout her career, she found advisors rarely do retirement planning for themselves like they do for their clients, which drove her to launch her own RIA to serve advisors exclusively. Ellevate Advisors was named the Best Financial Planning and Exit Coaching Firm for Advisors in the 2023 World Finance Awards. Brooklyn travels across the nation as a speaker, sharing her passion for helping advisors themselves.

Matt Brill, CFA

Matt Brill is Head of the Core, Core Plus, and Corporate Bond strategies for Invesco Fixed Income across the fixed income platform.

Matt joined Invesco in 2013 as a senior portfolio manager. Prior to joining the firm, he was a portfolio manager and vice president at ING Investment Management, where he specialized in investment-grade credit and commercial mortgage-backed securities. Before that, he was a portfolio analyst at Wells Real Estate Funds. He has been in the industry since 2002.

Matt earned a BA degree in economics at Washington and Lee University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst®️ (CFA) charterholder.

Will Collins-Dean

Will Collins-Dean is a Senior Portfolio Manager and Vice President at Dimensional. He leads a team of investment professionals who manage equity mutual funds and ETFs. He also represents Dimensional in meetings with current and prospective clients. Prior to joining Dimensional, Will was a portfolio manager at Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama. In this role, he managed portfolios for institutions and high-net-worth individuals.

Will earned an MBA with concentrations in analytic finance, economics, and econometrics and statistics from the University of Chicago, where he graduated with honors. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Wake Forest University and has been a CFA®️ charterholder since 2011. Will is Series 7 licensed.

Amy Florian, FT, MA

Amy Florian, CEO of Corgenius, lives out her passion by specializing in training professionals to communicate effectively with clients through loss and transition. She is author of over 250 articles and two award-winning books, the recipient of numerous awards for her ground-breaking work, and is a regular feature throughout the financial trade press. Amy holds a master’s degree and a Fellow in Thanatology, is a graduate-level instructor, has worked with over 2,000 grieving people, and has taught over 1000 sessions on four continents. On a personal note, Amy is one of ten children and bakes amazing homemade cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies!

Philip Gibson, CFP®️

Philip Gibson is a Professor of Finance and Director of Certified Financial Planning at Winthrop University. He is also a Certified Financial Planner ™️.

In 2020, Philip was inducted into the InvestmentNews 2020 class of 40 Under 40. This recognition is given to young advisers and associated professionals who are building and expanding the financial advice industry. He was also inducted into the inaugural class of the Association of African American Financial Advisors 50 under 50, a program that recognizes and celebrates influential Black/African American licensed financial advisors, planners, consultants, and operations/ administrative executives in the financial services industry.

Christelle Hemenez

Christel is an ESOP Consultant with over 15 years of experience with ESOPs from within the industry and as an officer of an ESOP-owned company. She has extensive knowledge and experience in recordkeeping, ERISA plan compliance and complex ESOP issues. She is an active member of The ESOP Association (TEA), the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (ESCA). She is a frequent conference speaker.

Christel earned a BS in Finance from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Business Administration from Central Michigan University.

Peter Lucus

Peter Lucas is the Senior Learning Product Manager at Project Equity, a nationwide non-profit organization that helps retiring owners sell their businesses to their employees. With over 20 years of experience in learning and development (L&D), content creation, and product management, I lead the service provider adoption team to educate and engage business service providers on the advantages of employee ownership exits.

Laura Dawson Ullrich

Laura Ullrich is a senior regional economist at the Charlotte branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Previously, Ullrich was associate dean for undergraduate programs and a professor of economics at Winthrop University. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Georgia and a master's and doctorate in economics from the University of Tennessee.

Prior to graduate school, she worked as a business consultant for Ernst & Young, specializing in executive compensation determination. In 2014, she served as a Fulbright Scholar teaching economics in Kosovo and has spent considerable time working on local economic development issues in Bolivia.