RIA Masterclass Speakers

In Order of Appearance

View the agenda.

Jay Therrien

Managing Director

  • Jay specializes in practice development, team leadership, communication, collaboration and adult-learning behavior. He and his team provide coaching to financial professionals across the country, and he frequently speaks regionally and nationally on behalf of Invesco Global Consulting (IGC). Jay is also a member of the IGC Leadership Team, which focuses on helping financial professionals grow, keep and optimize their practices in a complex and competitive business environment.

    A keynote speaker, executive coach and author, Jay has worked in the financial services industry since 1999. His writing has been featured in multiple industry publications, and he is the coauthor of The Three Commitments of Leadership: How Clarity, Stability and Rhythm Create Great Leaders.

    Jay joined Invesco in 2019 when the firm combined with OppenheimerFunds. Previously, he was a Director of Business Consulting and head of CEO Advisor Institute Marketing at OppenheimerFunds. Prior to these positions, Jay held various leadership roles in the financial industry, including head of learning and development, national sales manager and head of professional development at ING, MassMutual and The Hartford, respectively. Jay earned a degree in economics and finance from the University of Massachusetts and a BS in business management from Western Governors University. He holds the Series 7 and 63 industry registrations.

    Jay lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with his wife and three daughters. In his free time, he enjoys writing music with his kids and coaching their sports teams from the sidelines. He also leads a nonprofit music school in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Tony Sirianni

Publisher & CEO

  • Tony Sirianni is a 35 year industry vet, the publisher of two of the most successful Financial Advisor magazines in the industry, and the force behind the AdvisorHub website, the number one news site for Financial Advisors. He is the host of the top rated Tony Sirianni podcast, which features the industry's best  CEOs, advisors, and thought leaders. He created an Advisor focused events business that gives thousands of advisors access and networking opportunities, along with national recognition in his annual 1,000 Advisors to Watch list.

    He is a consultant for Fortune 100 banks and Advisory firms, and a minority interest investor in a portfolio of RIAs. He is a founding partner in Steward Partners and Washington Wealth management, which later became Kestra Private Wealth, and a former Managing Director at 3 Wirehouse firms.

    Tony has a Law degree and a Masters Degree and lives in Virginia with his family.

Matt Krugman

Managing Director

  • Matt is a Managing Director and heads the Prospect Capital US distribution team. He has been working in the financial services industry since 1998.

    Prior to joining Prospect, Matt served as Director, for Stepstone Global, one of the largest investors in the private markets. At Stepstone, Matt was responsible for distribution of Stepstone’s HNW funds to registered investment advisor (RIA) firms.  Prior to that, Matt was a Regional Consultant, for Black Creek Capital Markets (Now Ares Wealth), a specialist in real estate investment products. Before that he worked for Franklin Square Capital Partners in a similar role. Prior to Franklin Square, Matt spent 8 years as a Managing Principal at LMCG Investments in Boston, responsible for managing the firms private client team.

    Matt received a BA from Oswego State University. He holds FINRA 7, 63, 65 and 26 licenses.

Greg Banasz

CMO & Founding Partner

  • Greg Banasz serves as Director of Business Development, a Wealth Manager, and is a founding partner at Steward Partners Global Advisory. He has 23 years of experience in the financial services industry. Greg most recently held the role of First Vice President of Wealth Management and Complex Business Development Officer for Morgan Stanley.

Mike Bilotta

President

  • Mike serves as President of Gladstone and has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. A graduate of Temple University, Mike was an Officer of Commerce Bank and Vice President for TD Ameritrade prior to joining Gladstone in 2006. Mike and his team have provided strategic guidance to hundreds of closely-held Advisory businesses and successfully navigated the sale of numerous RIAs up to Billion Dollar+ AUM firms. He focuses on providing timely, objective, and comprehensive business and financial advice to craft specific solutions that balance clients’ needs while addressing the challenges of running a successful business.

Jason Borek

Chief Growth Officer

  • Jason Borek joined The Pinnacle Group in 2008 as the Vice President of Independent Sales. Jason was promoted to Senior Vice President of Distribution in 2010, then promoted to Chief Distribution Officer in 2013, and finally given his current title, Chief Growth Officer, in 2022. In this role, Jason is responsible for developing new distribution channels and strategic partnerships, as well as cultivating broker dealer and RIA development. Through his expertise in driving revenue to advisors’ practices, Jason has successfully led The Pinnacle Group into the broker dealer and RIA spaces, and continues to do so now. Jason persists in generating significant relationships, revenue, and growth for Pinnacle’s future.

    Prior to joining The Pinnacle Group, Jason had a successful career at NY Life as a Financial Sales Representative. He received the Rookie of the Year award in 2006 and was then recognized as the New Agent of the Year in 2007. In 2000, Jason joined Diversified Consultants Incorporated as the Vice President of Operations. During his five year tenure, he helped the company grow from 22 employees to the 800 employee company it is today.

    Jason resides in Virginia with his wife Erika and their daughter, Reagan, while their daughter, Kimmy, and son, Nolan, both attend Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.

    Jason is also extremely involved with his local ministry as a part of Halesford Baptist Church's leadership team. He also works with inmates in Franklin County Jail with the Bridging Gap Program. Jason and Erika also sponsor three Ethiopian children - Sesay, Kidist and Yabsera - through Elpis International.

Matt Zimmerman

Regional President, Strategic Growth

  • Matt serves as President of Strategic Growth for the Northern Region at Steward Partners, where he leads the firm's expansion efforts across the region. He focuses on driving sustainable growth through strategic dealmaking, including advisor recruiting, mergers and acquisitions, and partnerships that enhance the firm's national footprint.

    With over 20 years of experience in financial services, Matt has built a proven track record in senior leadership roles centered on both organic and inorganic growth strategies. His expertise spans mergers and acquisitions, high-impact recruiting, sales leadership, and business development in the wealth management industry.

    Prior to joining Steward Partners, Matt played a key role in United Capital's aggressive national expansion, contributing to numerous M&A transactions that fueled the firm's rapid growth and positioned it for its eventual acquisition by Goldman Sachs in 2019. Earlier in his career, as Chief Growth Officer at a boutique registered investment advisor (RIA), he guided the firm from its startup phase to more than $6 billion in assets under consideration through disciplined growth initiatives. He also served as Managing Director and Head of Distribution for Milliman's Financial Risk Management division, where he led a national sales team to significantly expand the division's market presence.

    Matt resides in the greater Chicagoland area with his wife, Katie, and their three young children: Winnie, Emma, and Rider. He cherishes family time, whether relaxing on the lake in Wisconsin, skiing in Colorado, cheering at his children's sports and school events, or enjoying the outdoors.

David Harvey

Regional Director

  • David Harvey is a regional director in the Intermediary Investment Client Group at Fidelity Institutional®. Fidelity Institutional is a division of Fidelity Investments that offers investment insights, strategies, and solutions, as well as trading services to a wide range of wealth management firms and institutional investors. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals.

    In this role, Mr. Harvey is responsible for the sale of Fidelity mutual fund and 401(k) products through independent, insurance, banks, wirehouse firms, and regional broker-dealers in New York City and Long Island.

    Prior to joining Fidelity in 2011, Mr. Harvey held various positions at Invesco, most recently covering registered investment advisors, independent advisors, and insurance advisors in New York City, Westchester County, and Connecticut. In this role, he represented mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, unit trusts, and closed-end funds.

    Mr. Harvey earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from Gettysburg College. He also holds the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 7 and 63 registrations, as well as his Connecticut life and health insurance license.

John Langston

Founder & CEO

  • Mr. Langston founded Republic Capital Group in 2015. Since that time, John and his incredible team have built the firm into an industry leading wealth and asset management investment banking firm. In 2023, the firm was awarded “Boutique Investment Banking Firm of the Year” by The M&A Advisor, the preeminent organization recognizing excellence among the world’s leading dealmaking professionals. Republic also won “M&A Deal of the Year” for a historic and complex wealth management transaction.

    In 2020, John was named to Wealthmanagement.com’s “Ten to Watch in 2020” list as an innovator and influencer set to change the industry.
    In 2022 and 2023, according to publicly available data, Republic advised on more transacted wealth management assets than any other investment banking group in its space.

    As a Chartered Alternative Investments Analyst and Certified Mergers and Acquisitions Analyst, John has extensive financial services experience and is the architect of some of the most significant and complex transactions in the history of the RIA industry. Over his 20+ year financial services career, John has advised the nation’s leading RIA’s, asset managers, senior wirehouse executives and financial advisors, large broker dealers, and family offices. He previously served as a Managing Director at Avalon Advisors, an RIA and asset management firm that was a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. In addition, he served as a Director for Salient Partners, an RIA and asset management firm that was a portfolio company of global private equity firm Summit Partners.

    John and his wife Candace have endowed the Langston Wealth Management Center at the University of Texas, McCombs Business School, and John is the Chairman of the Board for the Center. They are also the Founders of the John and Candace Langston Fellowship at the Langston Wealth Management Center that provides scholarships to students committed to wealth management studies. John received his MBA from Rollins College and the Crummer Graduate School of Business.

Tim Bello

Managing Partner, Co-Founder

  • At Merchant, Tim is engaged across all aspects of the Firm, with a day to day focus on driving the company’s key growth initiatives and directing the overall corporate strategy. Prior to Merchant, Tim was an early stage Partner at Dynasty Financial Partners, where he was in charge of strategic implementation and advisor identification firm-wide for the Dynasty Network. Prior to Dynasty, Tim was Head of Global Platforms for New York-based alternative asset manager, SkyBridge Capital, where he was in charge of building and managing the Firm’s global platform sales activities.

    Previous to SkyBridge, he was an original member of the Permal Group’s Hedge Fund of Fund US Private Client Platform Distribution Team, where he launched and developed the firm’s US distribution arm and brand. Earlier, he worked on Permal’s Institutional Sales team which involved interfacing with pensions, endowments, foundations and institutional consultants across the Permal product suite. Tim currently serves as Special Advisor to the Board for the Family Office Association in Greenwich, CT and is on the Membership Committee of the Core Club in New York. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University.


Harris Baltch

Managing Director, Co-Head of Investment Banking

  • Mr. Baltch is responsible for leading Dynasty’s Investment Banking division. Prior to joining Dynasty, Harris spent nearly a decade at UBS Investment Bank where he was an Executive Director in the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. While at UBS, Harris originated, led and executed over $10 billion of strategic M&A and capital market transactions for companies in the asset and wealth management industry.

    Earlier in his career, Mr. Baltch worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Banking and Capital Markets Group. He has over 15 years of financial services experience and earned his M.B.A. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also received a B.S. in Accounting at Binghamton University and is a certified public accountant, registered in the State of New York.

Phil Fiore

Co-Founder & CEO

  • Phil is a highly experienced individual with over 30 years of expertise in providing investment consulting services to institutions and high-net-worth families. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Procyon, he brings his extensive financial knowledge to the firm, focusing on firm-wide management, leadership & Nationwide expansion.

    Before co-founding Procyon, Phil held the position of Senior Vice President of Wealth Management at UBS. During his time there, he led the FDG Group, which was a prominent Institutional Consulting and Private Wealth Team. He also served as a member of the Institutional Consulting Group, Advisory Council, Senior Institutional Consultant, and a Senior Retirement Plan Consultant at UBS. In addition, Phil held the role of Co-Chair of the UBS Corporate Development Advisory Board and its Retirement Advisory Council.

    Phil has received several accolades for his accomplishments in the financial industry. He was recognized by 401KWire as one of the Nation’s 300 Most Influential Advisors in the Defined Contribution Arena. The Financial Times named him one of their Top 400 US Advisors, and he was also listed as one of Barron’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors. Phil’s exceptional achievements led to his induction into the PlanAdvisor Hall of Fame.

    Due to his success and expertise, Phil is often invited to speak at national retirement conferences and media interviews, where he shares his knowledge on RIA M&A (Registered Investment Advisor mergers and acquisitions).

    Phil has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Political Science from the University of Hartford. He has also earned the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) and Certified Retirement Plans Counselor (CRPC®) certifications from the College for Financial Planning. These certifications were obtained through the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

    Outside of work, Phil resides in Westport, CT, with his wife and their two sons. He enjoys golfing, working out, and participating in exotic car rallies and shows.

Joseph D. Summa

Partner

  • As a Partner at Ascent Wealth Partners, Summa brings more than twenty years of financial advisory and business consulting experience to our team. He works with a diverse group of individual clients, closely held businesses, and non-profit organizations, focusing on building long-term relationships that form the foundation for thoughtful investment, estate, and business planning.

    Prior to Ascent, Joseph developed his advisory and planning expertise while working alongside Bradley Kowalczyk at a regional registered investment advisory firm. Earlier in his career, he gained valuable business consulting experience in the commercial real estate industry.

    Summa graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Finance and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

    He and his wife, Erin, live in their hometown of Rome, New York, with their two children. Erin teaches second grade in the Rome City School District, and their family remains actively involved in supporting local non-profit and youth sports organizations.

Vincenzo Fratto

Model Consultant

  • Vincenzo Fratto is a Model Consultant for the Northeast Division at Invesco. In this role, he works directly with clients and prospects to implement and optimize portfolios, ensuring that portfolio alignment and investment philosophy are properly tailored to client goals.

    Mr. Fratto joined Invesco in 2024. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a registered investment advisor (RIA) specialist at Richard Bernstein Advisors, working with RIAs across the country to implement the firm’s model portfolios. Before that, he was a regional sales consultant at Catalyst Mutual Funds. Mr. Fratto began his career in the financial services industry in 2016.

    Mr. Fratto earned a BA degree in economics from the University at Albany, State University of New York. He holds the Series 7 and 63 registrations.

Jay Therrien

Managing Director

  • Jay specializes in practice development, team leadership, communication, collaboration and adult-learning behavior. He and his team provide coaching to financial professionals across the country, and he frequently speaks regionally and nationally on behalf of Invesco Global Consulting (IGC). Jay is also a member of the IGC Leadership Team, which focuses on helping financial professionals grow, keep and optimize their practices in a complex and competitive business environment.

    A keynote speaker, executive coach and author, Jay has worked in the financial services industry since 1999. His writing has been featured in multiple industry publications, and he is the coauthor of The Three Commitments of Leadership: How Clarity, Stability and Rhythm Create Great Leaders.

    Jay joined Invesco in 2019 when the firm combined with OppenheimerFunds. Previously, he was a Director of Business Consulting and head of CEO Advisor Institute Marketing at OppenheimerFunds. Prior to these positions, Jay held various leadership roles in the financial industry, including head of learning and development, national sales manager and head of professional development at ING, MassMutual and The Hartford, respectively. Jay earned a degree in economics and finance from the University of Massachusetts and a BS in business management from Western Governors University. He holds the Series 7 and 63 industry registrations.

    Jay lives in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with his wife and three daughters. In his free time, he enjoys writing music with his kids and coaching their sports teams from the sidelines. He also leads a nonprofit music school in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Bill Coppel

Chief Client Growth Officer

  • Bill develops and leads Advisor Evolution Sciences, TradePMR’s client growth platform. As Chief Client Growth Officer, Bill is focused on delivering insights, services, and solutions to help future-focused RIA firms achieve sustainable growth.   

    Before joining the TradePMR leadership team, Bill held leadership positions across the financial services industry. Most recently, Bill founded a consultancy firm focused on providing strategies and solutions to support the sustainable growth of wealth management firms. Bill has more than 30 years of industry experience, and holds his Series 7, 9, 10, and 63 securities licenses. Bill earned an MBA from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and is a graduate of the SIFMA Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.   

    Formerly a nationally ranked age-group triathlete for more than a decade, Bill developed an extensive background in fitness, wellness, nutrition, human performance, and the mind-body connection. He remains a part of the endurance community, competing across North America with his wife Kathy, daughter Grace, and son Will. 

Ritik Malhotra

Founder & CEO

  • Ritik Malhotra is a repeat technical founder with two prior exits, to Box in 2014 and Brex in 2019. Most recently, he served as Director of Product Management at Brex, where he founded and built Brex Cash, the company’s second business line after the corporate card. A Y Combinator and Thiel Fellowship alum, Ritik holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

    He is now the founder and CEO of Savvy Wealth, a tech-enabled wealth management firm. Since founding Savvy Wealth and its affiliated RIA, Savvy Advisors, he has led the development of a modern, advisor-centric platform designed to make independence simple and scalable. Since onboarding its first advisors in late 2022, the firm has recruited over 110 advisors and scaled to over $5 billion in AUM.

Cary Carbonaro

Managing Wealth Advisor

  • Cary Carbonaro is an award-winning Certified Financial Planner™ with over 25 years of experience. She is the Managing Wealth Advisor and Women and Wealth Ambassador at Ashton Thomas, where she leads a multimillion-dollar financial planning practice focused on empowering women. Cary is the bestselling author of The Money Queen’s Guide and Women and Wealth: A Playbook to Empower Clients and Unlock Their Fortune, which offers actionable strategies for better serving women in financial services. Wealth Management listed Women and Wealth in the TOP Books of 2025 for Financial Advisors. A respected industry voice, she’s been named to Investopedia’s Top 100 Financial Advisors list six times and is the first female member of the 2024 Nasdaq Advisor Council. She was named 2025 DEI Trailblazer of the Year by Investment News.  She has been a CFP Board Ambassador for over a decade.  Through speaking, media appearances, and advocacy, Cary champions financial literacy and female empowerment.