Leadership has rotated at a trade group for distribution, sales, and marketing executives in the advisor-sold and retail asset management business, as well as the retirement plan business. Members of the Kansas-based Investment Management Education Alliance (IMEA) recently elected five members to their 2020 executive committee. That includes one new addition to the committee and four committee members rotating into new roles.

George Dicenzo Riedel T. Rowe Price Group Head of U.S. Intermediaries

George Riedel, head of U.S. intermediaries at T. Rowe Price, is the new chair of IMEA's executive council. John McDonough, head of U.S. wealth management at Invesco, is the committe's new vice-chairman. Dave Master, global chief marketing officer at Janus Henderson Investors, is now a vice president on the committee. And John Sturiale, senior vice president of sales and client relations at Charles Schwab Investment Management, is now the IMEA's treasurer. Master, McDonough, Riedel, and Sturiale all already served on the committee prior to the switch.

Jill Brown, the head of U.S. wealth at Principal Global Investors , is a new addition to the IMEA executive committee, where she serves as vice president. She previously chaired IMEA's distribution committee.

IMEA's executive committee members are elected each year and usually do not exceed three years in the same position. All of the members, including the newly elected members have had a role on the council for at least one year.

Riedel previously served as vice chair of the Executive Council. He was "very engaged in the distribution committee." Kimber Lintz, director of IMEA, told MFWire.

"[Riedel has] been active in the IMEA forever, for several years," Lintz said, adding that Riedel has also worked hard to ensure that others from T. Rowe participate, too.

"T. Rowe overall has been a supporter and participant of the organization since the beginning," Lintz said. "George [Riedel] has definitely been a key factor in continuing that engagement and support."

The executive council leads the overall organization of IMEA, including its different groups and committees within those groups.

"[The executive committee members] work with IMEA to identify issues, agenda topics, and discussions to be held within specific groups," said Lintz. She told MFWire that leaders are chosen often on the basis of participation and engagement.

"We like to make sure the leadership is a good representation" of the different types of companies and firms who have members in IMEA, Lintz said.

"I think the one thing that the IMEA will continue to focus on is education," said Lintz, pointing to advisors and firms looking to IMEA for thought leadership.

There are a lot of things that are changing within investment management firms and how they do business. [IMEA] will be very beneficial to members. It’ll give them the opportunity to collaborate with other firms and discuss the challenges and solutions when continuing to do business during COVID. Investment management firms have been very effective in how they pivoted towards continuing to do business in this environment.

"We definitely are doing more things virtually. We had some webinars, virtual discussions," in light of the effects of t coronavirus crisis, Lintz said. She also noted the organization launched a virtual series called In Session, which gives members the opportunity to hear what their contemporaries have to say about issues, client engagement, visual differentiation, and other timely topics.

Overall, there is sill a significant amount of engagement, outreach, and personal contact with members, Lintz told MFWire.

"I think it's important to keep members engaged and connected during this time and continue to provide education to investors and advisors navigating this uncertain time. IMEA is uniquely positioned to do this," said Lintz.

Lintz is referring to the organizations two websites: IMEAlliance and IMEAConnect.

“We gather content from all of our members and house it," Lintz said. "There the investors and or advisors can go directly there to access that content." 

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