Ron Bush is the founder and Managing Principal of Retirement Research, Inc. Drawing on over 30 years of research and consulting experience in the retirement and investment products business, he is a frequent speaker on retirement services industry topics at conferences and client forums.

Prior to joining the predecessor to Retirement Research in 1999, Ron had been a founding partner of Access Research where he developed that firm’s strategic consulting practice and a suite of research programs. Before starting Access Research, he was with CIGNA’s pension and investment management business where he was responsible for business strategy and research.

A graduate of Lebanon Valley College (BA) and the Harvard Business School (MBA), Ron is also a principal in market research firm Brightwork Partners.

Kent Novell is a principal and also directs our Consulting Services practice. He previously held positions as partner and director of RG Wuelfing & Associates and executive vice president of Access Research, Inc. He has been involved in employee benefits for over thirty five years. His experience includes management of Trust and Employee Benefits with major financial institutions, eight years as principal of his own benefits consulting firm, Novell Consulting Group, and positions as Director of Marketing with two of the largest vendors of daily defined contribution recordkeeping software.

Kent received his BA from The University of Miami (1970) and completed graduate studies in London, England. He has authored numerous articles, is a frequent speaker on employee benefits issues, especially as they relate to technology, and served on various industry related committees and publications' editorial advisory boards.

Ali Herzog has over twenty-seven years of experience in the financial services industry with ING and it’s predecessor companies. Her career spans both sponsor and individual markets—including designing and marketing annuity and mutual fund products and services for sponsors of 401(a), 401(k), 457 and 403(b) plans as well as individual investors. Ali also had responsibility at ING for identifying opportunities to serve affinity groups. The resulting research and strategic recommendation led to the creation of a dedicated Diversity Marketing Group.

In her last position at ING, Ali was Vice President of Income Management, responsible for conducting extensive market research on the “income replacement” needs of consumers and the development of income products and services that would evolve over an individual’s lifetime.

Following ING, Ali has consulted in strategic marketing and business development with a focus on business planning, product design and the implementation of distribution and service strategies within the expanding context of e-business services and solutions. Most recently, Ali completed the development of RRI’s latest product line -- 403(b) Vendor Profiles.

Alison is responsible for the ongoing support and development of RRI’s 401(k) Vendor Profiles and as a senior consultant in our Consulting Services practice.

Her experience includes strategic planning, marketing, project management, product development, and information technology;   she has been involved with full life cycle product development and implementation for many years.  Alison was a member of the senior management group at MetLife Retirement Plans for the past several years. She co-led the development and launch of the MetLife Premier product. In her last position at MetLife, she was responsible for the development and growth of the MetSelect TPA product for MetLife Retirement Plans as National TPA Sales Director.

Alison received her BS degree in Quantitative Business Analysis from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN

Frank recently joined the RRI team and is responsible for new business development primarily focused on the Investment Only retirement market.

His experience includes over 30 years of both Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit sales and marketing. Prior to joining RRI, Frank was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for MetLife Retirement Plans. His responsibilities included overall field sales management, incentive compensation planning, field service relationship management, strategic planning, marketing, product development, and played a key role in investment fund due diligence and selection.

He was a key member and officer of MetLife's planning board and instrumental in the integration of three separate retirement organizations (MetLife, New England Financial, General American). The transformation included and introduced one common field sales and service organization, selection of one record keeping platform, and the successful launch of a new Full Service, Defined Benefit and TPA product offering.

Frank currently holds Life and Health licenses as well as the NASD series 6,7,63,65, and 26.

Barb Spangler manages the profile production process and provides administrative support for Retirement Research, Inc. She has provided administrative services to various organizations as a Contract Excellence Analyst for Unisys; Financial/Data Analyst for Valley Health Plan, Employee Benefits Administrator including 403(b) benefits as well as a Contract Manager for Mt. Diablo Medical Pavilion. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

Ralph Zegarelli provides technical support for RRI’s website, database development and profile/matrix production. He is a professor of computer science at the University of Hartford and has over twenty-five years of experience in the field of Information Technology (IT.) He retired from CIGNA’s Retirement and Investment Services division in 2001 where he managed client facing technologies including voice response, call center and web. He was active in sales presentations to prospects and clients.

Ralph is a principal in Nickerson-Zegarelli Consultants, a management and technology consulting firm. He has a Bachelor’s degree in math from Syracuse University and Master’s degree in computer science from RPI.