Organization and Board of Directors

Kevin L. Coppola, President and Founder

Having been a senior executive at Accenture where he spent over twenty years Kevin provides powerful expertise in multiple areas including: program management, analytics, problem solving, decision making, strategic thinking and the building of organizations for exploiting new and advanced technologies.

Functioning on a global level, he was in charge of the design and implementation of Accenture’s Global Technology Research and Development Organization integrating Baldridge Award-winning practices at over 200 Accenture offices worldwide.

Mr. Coppola left Accenture to turn his passion for investing and breakthrough problem solving towards finding a way to overcome the inherent flaws in all commonly touted Asset Allocations strategies, He founded the Compass Institute, a think-tank dedicated to investment strategy research and after 5 years of dedicated effort, he and his team found the answers he had set out to unearth. He then founded Compass Investors to offer this generational advancement to Asset Allocation to the public under the name Horizon™.

Kevin also serves as the Director of Research at the Compass Institute

Kevin holds a B.S. in computer science from Northwestern University.

Barry L. Finkelstein

Currently with New York Life, Barry Finkelstein has been providing comprehensive insurance and investment services since 1978. Barry holds certifications in seven financial categories, including Chartered Financial Consultant, Certified Financial Planner, Registered Employee Benefits Consultant and holds a financial services masters degree from American College.

Barry helps individuals achieve a more secure future for themselves, their families, and businesses by providing a wide range of products and services to address their needs and goals.

Barry obtained the prestigious Million Dollar Roundtable lifetime designation from Northwestern Mutual and has served as president of both the Chicago Estate Planning Council, and the Greater North Shore Estate & Financial Planning Council.

Barry is very active in ... .[personal notation here]

Barry obtained his Ph.D. in from the University of Wisconsin (Comparative Literature).

Tim Scherman

Tim brings an eclectic background to Compass. An expert in technology, he holds a doctorate in English literature and serves as a tenured Associate Professor of English at Northeastern Illinois University.

Tim has superior skills in both technology and organizational management, and is an elected member of the Wilmette District 39 Board of Education in Illinois serving as Vice President, technology advisor as well as operations consultant to the board.

Tim is very active in public service and provides a special sensitivity to the pressing needs of workers in both the educational and non-educational fields, as they face the challenges of retirement in an, evolving new economic paradigm.

Tim holds a B.A. in English (with honors) from Dartmouth University and a Ph.D. from Duke University (American Literature and Critical Theory).

Ralf Seiffe

Ralf graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976. His illustrious career began as a senior lending officer for the former Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company.

In 1980, he founded Mail Sort, Inc., a mailing services company in the Chicago area. Mr. Seiffe won the USPS's Industry Excellence Award and, in 1989, marshaled the team that created ElectroCom Mail Systems.

Since 2002, Ralf concentrated on developing private start-ups as an investor or as an early stage manager and most recently served on the Illinois Policy Institute and the Institute for Truth in Accounting.

Sadly Ralf died suddenly in 2011 and we mourn his passing. The Institute owes him a debt of gratitude for his leadership and guidance during our early days.

James D. Hill, Director—Technology

After a long career at Accenture serving as controller for numerous internal groups including the IT Application Delivery Group, Consumer Products Market Group, Technology Services and Industry Markets, and the FOUNDATION Software Organization, he joined McDonald’s Corporation to serve as Controller for their Corporate IT Group. Besides his tremendous depth in financial controls, he has significant experience in information technology infrastructure and operations, application development and maintenance, supplier management , IT asset management and balanced scorecard design.

He brings enormous skills in his role and is a professional’s professional.

Jim holds an MBA in accounting and finance from the University of Michigan and a BS in mechanical engineering from Kettering University.

Tom’s expertise includes over twenty-three years of enabling companies to be more efficient and productive. He has served in senior management positions as a process designer, program manager, business architect, strategist, customer relationship manager and solution integrator for companies as diverse as Baxter International, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York, and Accenture.

Additionally, he was the Senior Strategist and Scope Planner for Accenture’s Sarbanes-Oxley initiative.

Tom holds an MBA in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago, and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration-Management of Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin.

Tony Clark

Tony Clark, a 21 year veteran of the financial services industry, has served in a variety of sales, marketing and senior management positions for private and publicly held financial institutions. Tony has an extensive background in mortgage banking as it relates to residential, commercial, and construction financing.

Tony is the founder and President of Financial Corp. Additionally, Tony owns and operates Adam Marketing, a documentation processing company, and currently serves as its President. He serves as the CFO for TNM Development, a custom home builder and land developer and is the managing partner of Ryan Funding LLC, a private placement fund. Tony also engages in insurance and annuity type business through National investors Banks.

Subscriber Advocate Committee

David M. Aki

David was an Associate Partner at the Accenture CIO organization. Over his 25 year career at Accenture he served in many capacities including: member of the CIO Management Team with specific responsibilities for overseeing Global Program direction, Customer Service Management, Director of the Deployable Resource Group. Program Director in the Global Solution Center and was a Senior Consultant in the Technology Solutions Group for over fifteen years.

Dave brings a diverse set of strengths as an advisor to the organization including both practical and conceptual problem-solving skills.

He holds a Master’s of Business Administration in Finance from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Carleton College.

Margaret Z. Young

Margaret has been a licensed and practicing Architect for over 36 years. In private practice her responsibilities included managing the design and construction of major Chicago hi-rise buildings. As a Senior Executive first with Arthur Andersen and later with Accenture, Margaret assisted the organizations with the selection of new sites, of design consultants and construction teams, and with the management of over 2 million square feet of build-out.

Margaret’s strong organizing skills, focus on details and fair mindedness allowed her to excel in her long career and provides a good background for this advisory role.

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture from the University of Illinois.