Stephen Blumenthal founded CMG Capital Management Group, Inc. in 1992. Mr. Blumenthal is CMG’s Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Blumenthal began his career at Merrill Lynch in 1984 and he has over 34 years of investment management and industry experience. Mr. Blumenthal is a frequent speaker and writer on investment strategies. He writes investment commentary for Forbes and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, Pensions & Investments Magazine, Investment News and ETF.com. Mr. Blumenthal has appeared in various media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNBC and Fox Business News. Mr. Blumenthal is the author of the popular weekly e-letter, On My Radar, that helps investors, advisers and institutions gain a deeper understanding of the forces driving the economy and investment markets.

Mr. Blumenthal graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University. He is married and has six children and is active in his community coaching youth soccer.

Brendan is Chief Executive Officer of Clark Capital Management Group. As the Firm’s leader in defining and executing its vision and strategy, Brendan is tasked with aligning Clark Capital’s mission with stakeholder needs. He oversees all of the firm’s business lines including custom-tailored strategies for high-net-worth investors, 40 Act products and strategist model delivery, and works to develop and enhance strategic partnerships and opportunities for growth. Brendan leads an experienced team of executives to ensure that Clark Capital maintains its consistent, firm-wide focus on delivering world-class asset management strategies and services to advisors and their clients.
 
Brendan has been with Clark Capital since 2001, where he has held positions of increasing responsibility including Executive Vice President of Business Development and President. He earned a B.S. in Economics from the University of Delaware and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Brendan is a member of the CFA® Institute, the CFA® Society of Philadelphia, and serves on the MMI Board of Governors.

Eve Cout, Director, is a member of USWA Platform Development Team. She is responsible for working closely with Sales, National Accounts, Marketing, Due Diligence and other functional areas of the firm developing sales strategy for the SMA business across Managed Portfolios, Private Investors and our traditional SMA.

Prior to her current role, Ms. Cout was a member of iShares USWA Marketing team. In this role she was responsible for developing and managing iShares marketing campaigns, lifecycle marketing efforts and the Model Portfolio subscription program. She began her career at BlackRock in USWA Marketing.

Ms. Cout earned a BA with Honors in History and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Scholar. She is currently pursuing her MBA from Temple University, Fox School of Business.

Joined the Company in 2013 with 26 years of industry experience. Prior to his current role, Sean was an ETF Investment Consultant in the Global Client Group. Before joining, he served as a Director in Alternative Investment Consulting at Proshares. Prior to that, he was a Regional Sales Consultant for NBD, RIA, Family Offices, Foundations and Endowments at State Street Global Advisors. Previously, Sean was a member of the original iShares launch team at Barclays Global Investors and held various positions at Merrill Lynch, Prudential Investments, Pilgrim Group, Sunamerica Securities and PML Securities. He started his career as a Sales Manager for low cost accident and health insurance at Combined Life Insurance.

AS in Business from Orange County College; Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA).

Estee Jimerson has over 20 years of industry experience working for both manufacturers and distributors of investment products. At Envestnet, Estee is responsible for defining and optimizing both the economic model and engagement between Envestnet and the asset managers on its platform. She also heads up the team responsible for deepening relationships with asset managers across the Envestnet suite of services, and ensuring that these managers have the tools, training and knowledge they need to be successful distributors throughout the Envestnet ecosystem. Her duties include chairing Envestnet’s managed product acceptance committee, facilitating Envestnet’s strategic engagement with asset managers and advocating industry best practices. Prior to joining Envestnet, Estee spent eight years at Morningstar Investment Services, where she led the National Accounts team charged with expanding the adoption of Morningstar’s TAMP and managed account solutions across broker-dealers, custodians and platform providers. She has also held relationship management positions with ABN-AMRO and New England Financial. Estee is on the board of Envestnet Institute on Campus’s Women in Wealth Management, on the mentorship committee of Women in ETFs and is passionate about the advancement of women in financial services. Estee attended Kean University and spent six years in the United States Naval Reserve.

Jeff Kilburg has over twenty years of investment experience and is the CEO of KKM Financial, a boutique asset management firm based in Chicago, IL.

KKM provides portfolio management and hedging solutions to family offices, wealth advisory firms and institutions. KKM utilizes dynamic stock selection, ETF model portfolios, hedging and option-overlay strategies that seek to control risk to a variety of investors. KKM's investment approach integrates quantitative and qualitative methodology with an understanding of volatility pricing, risk mitigation and market insight.

After learning equity options from Mercury Founders Jon and Pete Najarian at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in the 1990s, Mr. Kilburg was offered an opportunity in the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) bond option pit. He had the opportunity to learn from a team of veteran traders with one of the premier firms, Ritchie Capital Markets Group at the CBOT. There he was first introduced to volatility.

After gaining a footing in the fixed income option pits, Mr. Kilburggravitated to the bond futures pits. Subsequently, he joined a specialist firm in the 30-year pit, JLS Group. The 30-year pit in the 1990s was a riveting opportunity and became his starting point in futures.

In early 1999, he decided to launch a floor operation of his own at the CBOT. He went on to become one of the larger market makers in the 10-year note pit. With the ability to trade the entire Treasury curve, Mr. Kilburg obtained vast experience in understanding risk management.

Risk management was imperative as he transitioned his floor operations into a SEC registered investment advisory firm in 2012. KKM Financial ("KKM") is a private investment management company and a registered investment advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission. KKM provides alternative asset management utilizing dynamic stock selection, ETF model portfolios, hedging and option-overlay strategies that seek to control risk across various asset classes to investors of all types. KKM brings vast knowledge and expertise via its options and futures market-making experience at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and CME Group. Located in Chicago, KKM strives to be an innovative leader in alternative investments. KKM currently serves as an adviser to the Essential 40 Stock Fund (ticker: ESSIX). KKM has also partnered with BlackRock, KKM licenses ETF model portfolios powered by Nasdaq Dorsey Wright that are constructed with iShares ETFs. KKM has previously been a portfolio consultant to Nuveen Investments as well as InCapital.

Mr. Kilburg gained recognition in 2012 when he called, on CNBC, for the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield to fall to historic lows (under 1.5%). Also, he is a graduate of the Mendoza College of Business at The University of Notre Dame as he was a recipient of a four-year football scholarship under Lou Holtz.

Follow Jeff Kilburg on Twitter: @jeffkilburg

John Lewis is a Senior Portfolio manager with Nasdaq Dorsey Wright. In this role, Mr. Lewis is responsible for the investment strategies used in various different indices and models.
Since joining the firm in 2002, Mr. Lewis has developed strategies for the firm’s Systematic Relative Strength series of separate accounts, the Technical Leaders Index methodology, global asset allocation strategies, and multiple series of UITs. His work is technically driven and focuses on relative strength and momentum as the main factors in the investment process.

One of the foremost experts on relative strength investing, Mr. Lewis has authored several original research papers on the subject. He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a member of the Market Technician’s Association and the American Association of Professional Technical Analysts.

Mr. Lewis earned an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of San Diego.

He began his career in the investment industry in 1994. He is married and has two children.

John Lunt is the President and Founder of Lunt Capital Management, Inc. John has created a variety of dynamic and tactical investment strategies used by financial advisors around the country. He is a charter member of the ETF Strategists Roundtable and is a regular contributor at ETFTrends.com. John and Lunt Capital are featured as a case study in the book ETF Investment Strategies. John has visited 34 countries, and Lunt Capital’s Investment Trek featured meetings and reports with market, economic, and political leaders around the world. From 2001 to 2014, he served on the board of Utah Retirement Systems (URS), a multi-billion-dollar pension fund. John is currently the Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee for the $10 billion Utah Educational Savings Plan (My529) and serves on the board of trustees for the $2 billion Utah School & Institutional Trust Funds Office. John completed the Program for Advanced Trustee Studies at Harvard Law School and finished a number of courses at the New York Institute of Finance on trading and portfolio management. He formerly worked on the Washington, D.C. staff of U.S. Senator Robert Bennett. John graduated Magna Cum Laude with University Honors from Brigham Young University with a degree in Economics, and he later received an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University.