Event Details

Tony Gordon lives in Bristol, England.  He started his life insurance career in Manchester, England in 1969.  In 1973 he moved to the city he has called home ever since where he started his own independent agency.  His early years were less than mediocre, then he heard about MDRT, started to set daily goals, qualified in 1977 for his first MDRT meeting in 1978.  What Tony learned at his first MDRT meeting catapulted him into the Top of the Table where he stayed firmly for the rest of his career.  In the year 2000, with a business partner wanting to retire, Tony merged his now large regional firm with a national firm of advisors which two years later was snapped up by Europe’s largest independent advisor.  In 2004 Tony retired or as he prefers to say rewired.  With 47 years of MDRT membership, 46 years of Top of the Table Tony now spends his time mentoring other advisors, speaking, charity work and looking after his other business interests.
 
His volunteering started with his local LUA (Life Insurance Association of the UK & Ireland) which he chaired in 1977 going on to become the President in 1984.  He became Chairman of MDRT’s Top of the Table in 1989 and in 2001 became the first non-North American to be President of MDRT.  The first time anyone had led their National Association, TOT and MDRT.  He was featured as one of 12 outstanding life insurance advisors in the book commissioned by MDRT, ‘The Greatest Insurance Stories Ever Told’.

Tony served for eight years representing advisors on the board of the UK regulator. As a speaker he has appeared in 56 countries, where audiences always want more of his simple but highly effective sales ideas.  He is the author of ‘It Can Only Get Better’, Tony’s route to sales success which has sold over 100,000 copies in eight languages. Happily married for 53 years to Eve, father to Miriam & Linsey and Poppa to Emmy, Raffi, Roo, Manny and Hetty. When not doing any of the above he likes to spend time in Italy’s Tuscan hills.

If you are familiar at all with the life insurance business, you know the name Solomon Hicks. He is an internationally sought-after speaker, career coach, and consultant. With 53 years in the business, Sol is showing no signs of slowing down as he continues to add exciting and inspiring chapters to his already remarkable life. Most recently he launched Hicks Global Institute, a worldwide training community for advisors and sales professionals everywhere.

For more than three and a half decades, Sol Hicks was an agent with Prudential Financial. He is one of only two agents in Prudential’s 130-plus-year history to have won the President’s Trophy Award—that company’s highest honor, given to its number one agent—a staggering seven times (To put that deed into perspective, it should be noted that it took more than 25 years for the other seven-time trophy winners to accomplish this feat, while Sol’s effort took him just 10 years). He has received the President’s Citation Award 21 times.

In addition to that, Sol Hicks is a life and qualifying member of the Million Dollar Round Table for 36 years (MDRT), a 25-time COT qualifier, and a TOT qualifier for 25 consecutive years—many done within the first month of the year! He was the General Agents and Managers Association’s Agent of the Year in 1998, 1997, 1996, and 1995.

Sol Hicks is the author of three books. “Wise Guys Finish First,” is an autobiographical portrait of over-coming incredible obstacles to get to the top. In “The Secret Life of a #1 Salesman,” Sol shares the mindset, values and daily disciplines that led him to his great success and Making Disciples where he will show you how to move up and stand out in a world where the power to move products is increasingly dependent on your ability to move people. Believing that success is not only attainable but transferable, Sol spends much of his time mentoring more than 150 agents worldwide, including his daughter, Cynthia, who joined him in the business. Cynthia is a 9-time MDRT qualifier, 4-time COT qualifier, and a 3-time TOT qualifier.

Jim Rogers is a veteran of the financial services industry and is the founder of Rogers Group Financial (now RGF Integrated Wealth Management), a 63-person financial advisory and portfolio management firm located in Vancouver, Canada. Jim has earned the industry designations RFP, CFP, CHFC, CLU in addition to a BA in Economics from the University of British Columbia and an MBA in Organizational Theory from Simon Fraser University.

He is a past two-term Chair of The Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (CAIFA), now known as Advocis. Jim is a 51-year Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) member, and for the last 40 years has been a member of the prestigious Top of the Table (TOT). He is also a past Chair of the TOT and is also a past President of the MDRT, an international (78 countries) organization of approximately 85,000 of the world's leading insurance and financial advisors.

He has received the Career Achievement Award from Canada's Advisors' Edge magazine, as well as the Don Johnston Award, given by the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC), for his "outstanding contribution to the profession of financial planning in Canada." Jim's community involvements have included service on the Senate of UBC and the Boards of St. Paul's Hospital, Providence Health Care, St. Vincent's Hospital Foundation, Vancouver College, St. Mark's College, United Way, the UBC Alumni Association, the Vancouver Foundation, the Financial Planning Staridards Council, Canuck Place Hospice for Children, and the Catholic Charities Prison Ministry.
Jim is now retired. He spends his industry time writing and speaking about practice management issues that affect Canada's professional financial advisors, and as an expert witness in legal trials involving financial advisors.

A fully accredited financial planner with a specialty in life insurance, Bruce holds the CLU, CHFC and CFP designations. His firm, Bruce Etherington & Associates, specializes in “Family Harmony and Philanthropy” and achieved the objective of creating $1 billion for charities and not-for- profits in the first decade of this century.

A renowned speaker, Bruce has spoken to virtually every major insurance and financial planning organization in the world. He has appeared 25 times on the program of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), which is considered by many to be the preeminent sales organization in the insurance and financial planning industry. His books “See The People” and “Reflect & Prepare” are international bestsellers, as are his CDs, which continue to change the lives of salespeople around the world.

Born in Purley, Surrey, England, Bruce came to Canada at the age of two. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and entered the life insurance business with London Life. He subsequently obtained his Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (CHFC) and Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designations.
Bruce resides in Mississauga, Ontario with his wife of 56 years, Karen who was his ‘first date’ and high school sweetheart. Bruce and Karen have four grown children and 5 grandchildren. Bruce enjoys golfing, pickle ball, fishing, cycling, reading, music, speaking, writing and selling!

Van Mueller, LUTCF, is a Registered Representative with Mass Mutual.  January 23, 2024, marks Van’s 51st year as an insurance agent.  He is an active member of MDRT having qualified for Court of the Table in 1990 and Top of the Table for the last thirty-four years.

Van has served as an LUTC moderator and served as President of the Milwaukee Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors for the 1998-99 year.  Van has served as Membership Chairman for both Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin.  Van also served on the Annuity Advisory Panel, the Middle-Income Task Force, the Sales Idea Committee, and the Program Development Committee for MDRT.  
Van supports many industry organizations.  In addition to membership in the National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors and Million Dollar Round Table, he is also a member of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, an Emissary Contributor to IFAPAC and a Diamond Knight of the Million Dollar Round Table Foundation.

Van has spoken to groups around the world, including being a main-platform speaker at MDRT in 1998 in Chicago and the Main Platform Speaker at the 2001 Top of the Table Meeting in Maui, HI.  Van was a Main Platform Speaker at the 2003, 2005, 2009, 2014 and 2015 NAIFA Conventions. He was a speaker at MDRT and at the NAIFA Convention for 2006, and again in 2007, 2010 and 2011 and spoke again at the 2021 MDRT annual meeting. He was a main platform speaker for the MDRT Experience in Tokyo, Japan in April of 2008.  Van was the 2010 Advisor of the Year for Senior Market Advisor magazine.  He has also written many articles for various publications, including the “Close” for Retirement Advisor magazine. Van also has a monthly newsletter available to subscribers at www.vanmueller.com.

A board-certified physician, award-winning speaker, and nationally recognized wellness expert, Dr. Romie Mushtaq is on a mission to transform mental health and wellness in the workplace. She is the founder of brainSHIFT Institute and advises Fortune 500 leaders, professional athletes, and global associations on performance, leadership, and mental health for individuals and teams. She combines more than two decades of authority and leadership in neurology, integrative medicine, and mindfulness to deliver cutting-edge programs and create tangible cultural change.

Dr. Romie's brainSHIFT programs help clients to build a culture of caring for your people to manage stress, improve mental wellbeing and optimize leadership performance. The bottom-line results for teams that Dr. Romie's programs deliver are:

●    Transforming managers into leaders
●    Reducing per-employee healthcare costs
●    Fostering a sense of belonging and community within teams
●    Strengthening engagement and commitment to your organization's mission

Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Dr. Romie brings her signature style and energy to the stage in an interactive experience for audience members to assess their brain power and walks them through her scientifically validated protocol on healing stress and burnout. As she walks groups through the principles of brainSHIFT, she shares actionable takeaways for igniting a workplace transformation and moving teams from a place of quietly quitting to building a culture of wellness.

In addition to founding brainSHIFT, Dr. Romie is the first chief wellness officer for Great Wolf Resorts, where she spearheads programs and initiatives designed to build a wellness-focused culture for more than 12,000 employees, as well as curate unique wellness experiences for guests. Previously, she served as Evolution Hospitality’s first chief wellness officer, scaling mindfulness and wellness programs for more than 7,000 employees. Dr. Romie is not only the daughter of immigrants, but also a pioneer in her field; she entered neurology when less than five percent of neurologists were women. She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in fellowships, roles in academia, and healthcare. She has experienced both the highs of success, as well as the lows of burnout and a near-lethal disorder triggered by the stresses of work. These experiences sparked her shift toward mindfulness, meditation, and integrative medicine, which has impacted the lives of more than one million people across the globe.

As one of the faces of the movement toward a new, more effective concept of workplace wellness, Dr. Romie's insights for cultural transformation are cited in the world's leading publications. She has been featured in NBC, CBS, FOX, Forbes, NPR, Inc., and Huffington Post, as well as dozens of other national media outlets. Her popular TEDx talk on "The Powerful Secret of Your Breath" has garnered more than 500,000 views. Her book, The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety, and Sleep Again, was released globally in January 2024 and is a national USA Today and Amazon bestseller. Following its release, she was selected to discuss the book in depth for “Talks at Google” — an opportunity presented to only a handful of authors each year.

In addition to being a go-to authority on reworking the workplace using more person-oriented approaches, Dr. Romie is a self-described "STEMinist in Stilettos" who advocates for young girls and women to pursue roles in science, tech, engineering, math, and medicine.

Mark Hanna is the Founder and President of Hanna Insurance & Financial Solutions, Inc., located in Walnut Creek California. HIFS is an Executive Benefit and Financial Services firm specializing in integrated retirement, compensation and financial planning solutions for executives and high net-worth professionals.

A 46-year veteran of the financial services industry, Mark is recognized internationally for professional and industry accomplishments. Most recently, serving as the 2017 President of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT). A 36-year MDRT Life & Qualifying member, Mark has 25 consecutive Top of the Table honors. In 2007, Mark served as Chair and Divisional Vice President of MDRT’s Top of the Table.

Mark’s professional experience is extensive, having served on many local, state, and national boards of directors, including as President (twice) of the Golden Gate Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals (SFSP). Service as a member of the National Board of Directors of The Society of Financial Service Professionals, President of the San Francisco chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and two years as Trustee of NAIFA—California.
Mark and his wife Barbara have four grown children, six grandchildren, and reside in both Contra Costa County California and Litchfield County Connecticut.

Marc began his financial planning career in 1983 and formed Silverman Financial in 1989. Since the beginning of his career, Marc has been a leader and has thoroughly enjoyed his profession. He chose this career because he enjoys meeting people and helping them in achieving their financial goals. A key to his success is the exceptional service he and his staff provide to clients. He is energetic and enthusiastic and will go to great lengths to get the answers to a client’s questions. He has a diversified client base including public corporations, closely held businesses, individuals, trusts and estates. His motto is, “promise a lot and deliver more”.

Marc earned his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Miami and was the past President of the University of Miami  Alumni Board School of Business. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter and Certified Financial Planner™. He is a past President and Board member of the Miami Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals. In addition, he is a past member of the Board of Shaare Zedek Medical Center and the Florida Bar Grievance Committee. He is a past Chair of the Top of the Table.

Marc is a gifted speaker and has addressed audiences in the United States, Canada, South Korea, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Taipei and Australia. He lives in Miami with his wife, Patti, and daughter, Cara. He enjoys playing golf, maintaining his saltwater aquarium and traveling.