Keynote
Neal Petersen
No Barriers — Only Solutions!
South African born, Neal Petersen is an international professional racing yachtsman, global investor and award winning author of Journey of a Hope Merchant — PBS has aired a documentary of his life. Petersen has completed two amazing journeys in his life: a single-handed yacht race around the world, 27,000 miles, nine months at sea, alone, and in a yacht he designed and built himself; and an even more arduous and eventful trip of overcoming racial prejudice during the Apartheid era in South Africa, poverty, and a childhood physical disability, just to make it to the start line! While sharing his riveting life story — and philosophy, Neal’s personal messages and unique delivery will open the mind, with new hope and a determination to break down the barriers, real or perceived, that now exist and to take adversity head on and demonstrate that with determination and hard work you can achieve your goals. In sharing his high-impact, unique and extraordinary adventure, Neal delivers a powerful message that “In Life There Are No Barriers — Only Solutions!”
Featured
John Hickman
Alston & Bird LLC
John Hickman is head of Alston & Bird’s Health Benefits Practice where he leads five attorneys devoted exclusively to HIPAA privacy, flexible benefits, and other health and welfare benefit issues. Mr. Hickman has been a pioneer in the consumer directed health care arena and has worked closely with health plans, financial institutions, and employers as well as the IRS, Treasury, and DOL in developing guidance for tax-favored health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs).
Mr. Hickman has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White) and Who’s Who Legal in the employee benefits area. Mr. Hickman has lectured widely and published articles on HIPAA, ERISA litigation, cafeteria and health plan issues. He is co-author of the Cafeteria Plans Manual, HIPAA Portability and Privacy, and Consumer-Driven Health Care (published by the Employee Benefits Institute of America). Mr. Hickman has been called upon by benefits and trade associations to testify before the IRS and DOL on issues affecting health and welfare benefit plans including HIPAA, cafeteria plan regulations, DOL claims procedures, and the HIPAA health care privacy regulations.
John F. Dini
Business Ownership Expert
John F. Dini is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on small business ownership. He is a consultant and coach to hundreds of business owners, CEOs and presidents of companies. John is an outlier in coaching business owners, having achieved the rare feat of delivering over 10,000 hours of face-to-face, personal advice to entrepreneurs.
Mr. Dini is the author of 11 Things You Absolutely Need to Know About Selling Your Business, now in its second edition. He is a serial entrepreneur currently operating his ninth company, and has conducted business in all 50 United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Asia.
John founded and operates the most successful peer group franchise in North America, overseeing 15 monthly meetings of business owners’ groups under the auspices of The Alternative Board®. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Rutgers University, a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University, is a Certified MBA, and holds six additional certifications in exit planning, business brokerage, behavioral analysis, medical practice management, facilitation and coaching.
Mr. Dini writes numerous articles on business topics for newspapers and magazines, in addition to his weekly column on business ownership on this website www.awakeat2oclock.com and his opinion blog at www.awakeat2oclock.com. He speaks frequently to business groups and national associations, and is a 10-year member of Jim Blasingame’s “Braintrust” appearing regularly on “The Small Business Advocate” nationally syndicated radio program as an expert in the issues of business ownership.
John Robbins, Jr.
DataPath, Inc.
As one of the nation’s leading experts in the field of health care payments, John is a leader in new product development. John has developed the Max105 Proposal system and ProDocs document management system, and was instrumental in the design and programming of DataPath’s 105, 132, and COBRA administration systems. However, John is best known for developing DataPath’s patent-pending stored value card program: the myResourceCard® credit card and mySourceCard® debit card platforms. John has also contributed to the development of the HSAToday® platform.
In 2007, John helped form the SIGIS organization and is an active member on its Certification and Compliance Committee. John’s contributions in the area of health care payment cards and the Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) are immeasurable.
As an authority on consumer driven health care, John has presented at national conferences and has been interviewed frequently by local television and radio stations. John has been named one of “Forty under Forty” leaders by Arkansas Business magazine and is a 2010 graduate of Leadership Arkansas.
John is an alumnus of Christian Brothers University and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics.
Reuben Polk
Trotter Wellness
Reuben Polk currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Trotter Wellness. He earned his MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, after receiving his bachelor degree from Memphis State University School of Business.
Prior to joining Trotter Wellness®, Reuben was the Vice President of Business Development for SelfHelpWorks, President of Wellsource, Inc. and Senior Vice President of Wellsource Health Solutions.
Reuben also spent nearly a quarter of a century successfully developing and implementing business and sales strategies for AT&T and Lucent Technologies. He is also a former world-class sprinter and Olympic trials qualifier.
Jeremy Miller
FSAStore.com
Jeremy Miller is the Founder and President of FSAStore.com. FSAStore.com’s mission is to make it simple and convenient for FSA participants to use and manage their FSA funds. Jeremy recognized the need for FSAStore.com after his time with different companies, where some of his managerial duties were managing the FSA account process for employees. He found the confusion surrounding FSAs resulted in participant frustration, and ultimately led to them to forfeit plan funds.
In response to the clear need for clarity and understanding regarding FSAs, FSAStore.com was launched in the spring of 2010, after winning Columbia’s Odyssey Global MBA Award for best entrepreneurial business idea. Initial funding was awarded from Columbia Business School’s Lang Fund. Since its inception, the company has received additional financing, has amassed a 20k+ customer base, has signed on more than 50 TPA partners, and has exceeded site and revenue expectations every quarter.
Jeremy graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from U.C. Berkeley and received his MBA from Columbia Business School.
Doug Field
The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism (IHCC)
As CEO/Founder of The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism and FieldMediaLLC, Doug Field has molded the company into the only multi-platform, collaborative environment focused exclusively on innovative health and benefit management. It’s a place for employers (including human resources and benefits managers, wellness executives, C-suite executives, and financial management decision makers), TPAs, solution providers, brokers, advisors, consultants, and administrators of regional health plan providers to LEARN, CONNECT and SHARE through The Institute’s publication, CDHC Solutions Magazine, its bi-annual live conference The FORUM, and its online community at www.TheIHCC.com. As a catalyst for the growth of the health care consumerism movement, the Institute deepens the conversation and collaboration between its invested stakeholders.
Field has accumulated more than twenty years of business building experience. In this span of time he has acted as chief executive officer, chief operating officer and President of businesses in a diverse set of industries.