The Symposium Experience

Steven Tew »4LIFE RESEARCH - The 4Life Story-Learn From Their Successes, Avoid Their Mistakes

Steve Tew joined the direct selling industry in 1996 and has served as President of 4Life Research™ since 2004. Previously, he held positions as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating officer with 4Life® and ShapeRite® Concepts, Ltd. In August 2000, ShapeRite and 4Life merged operations.

Steve has overseen the international expansion and growth of 4Life since joining the company in 2000. Under Steve’s direction, 4Life has opened offices in 15 countries around the world and is doing business through various business models in over 50 countries.

4Life was recognized by Inc. magazine in 2003 as the 15th fastest growing, privately-owned company in the United States. 4Life was named a member of the Direct Selling News $100 Million Club, a distinguished group of direct selling companies with annual global wholesale revenue of $100 million or more.

4Life is the creator of Transferceutical™ Science and worldwide leader in the distribution of transfer factor products. Steve graduated cum laude from Weber State University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He worked as a Certified Public Accountant for Price Waterhouse Coopers for six years, followed by various financial positions at Mrs. Fields Cookies and Park City Group.

Rod Heckman » KEYSTONE CONSULTING PARTNERS- Creating a 5-Year Financial Plan

Rod Heckman is the founder and Managing Partner of Keystone Consulting Partners, a consultancy focused exclusively on the direct selling industry.

His background includes an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and more than thirty years’ experience in marketing, general management and consulting.

For the past 12 years, his focus has been direct selling, and his experience comprises more than a dozen direct selling companies, including five start-ups.

He has personally held almost every position from warehouseman to CEO, and he has strong first-hand experience in every aspect of direct selling, including o Business planning and strategic thought o Financial plans and forecasting o Marketing strategy and execution o Event planning and execution o Sales development and recruiting o Operations and Technology

In addition, he has consulted to the industry for 5 years; as a consequence, he has: o A comprehensive understanding of industry best practices. o First-hand experience with preferred industry partners. o A clear vision of the requirements for success.

Steve Hooper » IVEY CONSULTING - Managing Your Key Operations

Steve Hooper is a recognized industry name in technology and operational strategy and has had the unique opportunity to head up the Technology Group for two explosive international companies, Quorum International and New Vision International.

Through the design and implementation of technology and operational infrastructure, he helped grow these companies from startups to more than $200 million in annual wholesale sales.

Jennifer Fong » JENNIFER FONG CONSULTING - Web 2.0 Marketing

Jennifer Fong is a speaker, consultant, and trainer, who teaches direct selling companies and individual direct sellers how to use social media effectively as a business building tool. A former direct sales company CEO, Jennifer built her company from the ground up, and understands what it takes to build, lead, and train a team, as well as the major principles of any direct sales business: networking, selling, and recruiting. A champion of social networking and social media marketing in the direct sales industry, Jennifer is passionate about teaching direct sellers how to use social media tools to enhance their businesses, while remaining true to the fundamentals. She provides consulting services to direct sales companies, helping them skip the learning curve and achieve immediate success through a comprehensive social media strategy. She also coaches and trains individual direct sellers, and other business owners, on how to put the principles of social media to work in a profitable way, maximizing the return on their social media investment.

Bob Hipple » VP SALES SCENTSY - Recruiting-The Core Elements of Building a Team

With 30 years direct sales experience, Bob has participated in virtually all aspects of the industry - as a customer, an independent distributor, an industry consultant, and as a corporate executive. Bob uses his detailed knowledge of the direct sales model to help drive rapid growth for Scentsy and long-lasting success for Scentsy's passionate independent Consultants. He is actively involved in designing Scentsy's field training, leadership development and Consultant Support. Bob views his role at Scentsy as a "stewardship" to protect and promote business for the Consultants and the company.

After 13 years in the field building a personal downline, Bob entered the corporate side of the industry where he managed sales for two of the largest direct sales software companies in the industry. He has trained thousands of direct sales representatives, been a guest speaker at Direct Sales Association (DSA) and MLM Symposiums, and acted as co-founder of a party plan company. Bob is also a member of the DSA Education Committee, and the owner of Eaglecap Consulting, LLC, a direct sales consulting firm.

Dave Taylor » LAUNCHSMART™ - Growth and Retention Strategies

Mr. Taylor has founded and sold 6 private businesses, including 2 national training companies offering hundreds of workshops and seminars per-month nationwide. His expertise lies in sales and marketing systems, communications, training, and overall business launch strategy and management. David has served as an advisor to such companies as Herbalife, USANA, MonaVie, Creative Memories, Avon, Sensaria Natural Bodycare, and Nature's Sunshine. He co-developed the LaunchSmart™ Total Success System, which provides the proven best practices for launching and growing a direct selling company – including tools, training, coaching, consulting, and expert resources. Mr. Taylor has an undergraduate degree in communications and an MBA.

Mark Rawlins » INFOTRAX SYSTEMS, CEO - Understanding Multi-Level Commissions

The Direct Sales foremost authority on compensation plan design and implementation. Mark's 2002 book, Understanding Multi-Level Commissions and Their Role in a Successful Company has helped college students and industry leaders traverse the complexities of commission plans. With a career managing MLM and network marketing companies that spans more than 27 years, Mark Rawlins is recognized as one of the pioneers of the industry. Mark and his teams delivered early solutions for telephone-based order processing systems, credit card authorization, and Internet communication tools. Mark is committed to teaching compensation plan strategies that drive distributor behavior.

Spencer Reese » GRIMES & REESE, PLLC - Avoid Legal Time Bombs

Spencer is an educator, business leader, and the industry's leading legal resource. He first became involved in direct sales as a distributor for Amway and Nikken, and subsequently served as in-house attorney to Melaleuca, Inc. In 1996, Mr. Reese and Kevin Grimes formed Grimes & Reese, and quickly built a practice representing Herbalife, USANA, Tahitian Noni and other recognizable brands. An expert when it comes to helping the MLM startup form policies and procedures and implement what he calls "Preventative Law." Spencer regularly contributes articles to industry publications and is a member of the Direct Selling Association's Government Relations Committee. He is also a contributing author of Angela Moore's acclaimed book, Building a Successful Network Marketing Business.

Jerry York » BYDESIGN, V.P. SALES - Emcee

From field distributor, owner of his own network marketing company, to an executive of a software integrator serving the industry; Jerry's experience in network marketing spans more than 25 years. Jerry has delivered systems to start-up companies and large international DSA companies. He's published several articles on the industry and has spoken worldwide on building strong and lasting downlines. His knowledge and understanding of the distributor field and corporate experience uniquely qualify him to bring the right software solutions to direct sales companies.

Dan Jensen » DAN JENSEN CONSULTING - Understanding Multi-Level Commissions

In 1978, Dan Jensen founded Jenkon, one of the leading software companies serving the direct selling industry. Since then, working with hundreds of new start-up companies and many direct selling giants, Dan has acquired a broad and unique perspective on what makes successful companies succeed, and what makes some of them fail. He has written numerous articles on sales force compensation and other industry issues including The 10 Most Common Mistakes of Direct Selling Companies, and has consulted for many leading companies on their technology and sales force compensation opportunities.

Reed Wright » Axis41 - Maximizing Your Web-Effect

Reed Wright is an Internet innovator with 14 years experience solving business challenges with Web technologies. He has been a principal at SectorC2W and director of the Web Experience at Novell, Inc., where he launched the award-winning Novell.com Web site and online community. He has worked closely and consulted with businesses such as CNN, Intel, FranklinCovey, and WordPerfect. As chief architect, Mr. Wright oversees the technical teams and provides architectural direction that achieves optimal brand and marketing integration.

Phil Schlesinger » CCH - Sales Tax Nuts & Bolts

Phil has been in the sales/use tax field for 20 years and has been involved in all areas of sales and use tax including compliance, audit, tax research, and automation, both in a corporate environment and in a consulting role. While in consulting, he prepared taxability matrixes for dozens of companies representing numerous types of industries such as software, manufacturing, services, food, medical, advertising and construction. Throughout his career, Phil has also been heavily involved in the design, testing, and operation of several sales/use tax software tax calculation engines and tax return processing systems including CCH, Vertex, Taxware and AvaTax.

Over the last 4 years, Phil has been intimately involved in Streamlined Sales Tax in different capacities some of these include designing software functionality to comply with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, overseeing the filing of Streamlined Sales Tax Returns while employed with a Streamlined Certified Service Provider (CSP), actively participating in Streamlined Sales Tax committees such as Certification and Audit, as well as various other Streamlined Sales Tax work groups. Phil holds a BS in Accounting as well as an MBA. He has been employed with companies including Novell, Albertsons/American Stores, Harry and David, Avalara, and CCH.

Wendy Yurgo » Metrics Global, Inc. - PCI Compliance

Wendy Yurgo is the founder, President, and CEO of Metrics Global, Inc., worldwide leader in providing a wide range of innovative, transparent payment solutions to businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 100.Metrics Global not only offers the largest number of settlement currencies worldwide, but also has unique expertise with international businesses and businesses engaged in the direct selling industry.

Ms. Yurgo earned a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University and then attended the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law. She has held various corporate positions, including General Counsel for Cinnabon, Inc., and VP of Business Development for AFC Enterprises.

Answering the call of entrepreneurship, Ms. Yurgo then became an Amway Independent Business Owner (Quixtar at the time). Her phenomenal success in initiating and building the entire West Coast operation propelled her to the Founders Platinum Level and to the Amway national speaking circuit. She spoke at the Amway national conventions and has presented at hundreds of meetings and seminars.

Wendy’s love for the direct selling industry figures prominently in her current merchant services company. Over the years, she has successfully crafted payment solutions for well over 100 companies engaged in direct selling/MLM.