Presenters

Christi Powell, CFP®,  RICP®
Christi has been a BetterInvesting member since 2000.  A former BIVA Board member, she is a member of BI’s Speaker’s Bureau. She has a BS in Dental Hygiene from the University of Oklahoma, and practiced in 4 states over a 20 year period.  Christi is a Certified Financial Planner with Perissos Private Wealth Management, an SEC registered investment advisory firm specializing in retirement and estate planning.  She serves on the BI Oklahoma Chapter Board as well as the Central Oklahoma Financial Planning Association board. She and her husband, Steve, enjoy traveling, reading and photography.  They have 5 grandchildren and live in Edmond, OK.

Cy Lynch
Cy is a lifetime member of BetterInvesting (BI) and the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII), frequently presents on investing topics online and in person throughout the country. He’s appeared in Smart Money and Business Week magazines and writes the “Growth Stock Outlook” column for BetterInvesting Magazine. Cy also serves as Vice-Chair on the BetterInvesting Board of Directors. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Barbara Koll and their three cats. Cy is a church pastor and enjoys singing tenor in the church choir and then preaching. A life-long Atlanta Braves fan, he is a season ticket holder and attends as many games as possible.

Doug Gerlach
Doug is president of ICLUBcentral Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BetterInvesting and makers of tools for investors and investment clubs, including myICLUB, StockCentral, and MyStockProspector.com. He is the author of six books, including “Investment Clubs for Dummies” and “The Armchair Millionaire.” He is editor-in-chief of the award-winning Investor Advisory Service (named to the Hulbert Investment Newsletter Honor Roll for 15 straight years), the SmallCap Informer (which has beaten small-cap indexes since inception in 2012), and the Dividend Informer (launched in 2023). Doug is a popular speaker at BetterInvesting events.

Jackie Cummings Koski, CFP® and AFC®
Jackie has been a member of BetterInvesting since 2008 and was a part of the Cincinnati Model Investment Club for 12 years. She joined the OKI Tri-state Chapter board in 2009 and currently serves on the BetterInvesting National Board of Directors. She is best known for reaching FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) in her 40s making less than six figures. Her fascinating story has been featured on the Rachael Ray Show, CNBC, MarketWatch and other major media platforms. She's the author of two books: “F.I.R.E. for Dummies” (featured in the May 2024 BI Magazine) and  “Money Letters 2 my Daughter”. She is co-host of the “Catching Up to FI” podcast that helps late starters on the journey to financial independence.

Kathleen Richards
Kathleen has been known to say, “Everything I have learned about investing, I have learned from BetterInvesting.”  Kathleen has appeared on Spectrum News 1 Ohio on a variety of investing topics.  She facilitated BI contributions to USA Today and MSN.  For her national service, she has received the prestigious Tom O’Hara Award.  Kathleen’s passion is training youth. She is a co-author of “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg” workshop for middle school students.  Kathleen also has mentored the Visionary Young Professionals (VYP) young adults of CLIMB, founded by Bob Wynn. Kathleen developed her unique teaching style as a chemistry teacher and IBM speaker.  For over twenty years, Kathleen has been active in the Northeast Ohio BI Chapter. 

Ken Kavula
Ken has been volunteering for BetterInvesting for almost 25 years. He devoted his professional career to education and served as a high school principal for 21 years.  Ken is a regular on Ticker Talk as well as his own chapter's Investing Roundtable and Investing Topics programs. He is a popular speaker at chapter events throughout the country and visits at least one club a month within his own chapter. Ken was awarded the George Nicholson award for contributions to investment education as well as the Dick Dwyer award and the Kenfield-Burris awards. 

Kevin Gillogly
Kevin Gillogly (pronounced: GILL-low-GLEE) has been a member of BI since 2001 when he read the Beardstown Ladies book and the NAIC Manual that was given to him by his mother. She did not join; he did. Kevin has  been a Director in the DC Regional Chapter since 2002 and an instructor of the chapter's SSG Class for almost as long. He started the Happy Destiny Investment Club in 2001, and  co-founded the Montgomery County Maryland Model Investment Club (MCMC) in 2017.  Kevin is the co-founder of a joint Maryland and DC Chapter webinar called "Digging Into the BI." He likes to teach and his motto is "if one teaches; two learn." 

Mark Robertson
Mark is the founder of Manifest Investing, which focuses on investment education to enable investors to experience successful long-term fundamental investing.  Manifest Investing features an e-newsletter and also provides investment research for stock and fund screening and resources for portfolio design and management.  Mark formerly served as senior contributing editor for BetterInvesting magazine and has appeared on National Public Radio, CNBC and ABC to discuss long-term investing.  He has worked with Smart Money, Barron’s, Money magazine and the Motley Fool, and published features in the Chicago Tribune and a number of local publications. 

Matt Speilman
Matt is a lifetime member of BetterInvesting.  He has been a Director of the Houston Chapter since 2021, and currently is the Vice President for Club Development, and President of the Houston Model Club.  He was the founding Secretary for the BI Baker Model Investment Club in the Mid-Michigan Chapter.  He has been an avid investor in individual stocks for 24 years.  Matt retired in 2020 after a 27-year career in the automotive industry in engineering and information technology, capping his career with a 2 year assignment in Ireland.  Since that time, he has been exploring his new home State of Texas, and the rest of the US.

Ray Giese, CCSP, MS
Ray is a longtime advocate for financial education and has been a member of Better Investing since 1987. He co-founded The FIT Group Investment Club, and has served as Past President and Director of the Chicagoland Chapter. He is also a Volunteer Instructor for both the chapter and BINC. Ray holds a Master’s in Personal Finance from Kansas State University and is a former Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) professional.

Robin Ware
Robin is a BetterInvesting volunteer and serves as President of the North Florida Chapter.  She started an investment club and became a member of BetterInvesting in 1997.  She founded a second investment club in 2019.  She is passionate about sharing financial knowledge and teaching others how to invest.   Robin teaches BetterInvesting tools and techniques at North Florida Chapter’s Tuesday Training Workshop, and serves as an educator and mentor during its First Cut Mentoring sessions.  She also teaches and presents during club visits, and at investment education fairs and events nationwide. You are always invited to participate and she hopes you join the North Florida Chapter at its learning events.

Ron Mauer
Ron has been a member of BetterInvesting since 1993. He is an individual investor & has been investing for more than 40 years. He has served as secretary on the Wisconsin Chapter of BetterInvesting. Ron recently retired from GE Healthcare where he worked for 35 years. He currently is & has been a volunteer teacher of high school youth at his church for 20 years.

Scott Horsburgh
Scott has been a professional investment manager for over 30 years and has been writing for BetterInvesting for more than a decade. Prior to joining Provident Investment Management (formerly Seger-Elvekrog Inc.) in 1992, he spent six years managing investments for National Bank of Detroit. Scott was named President of Provident in 2005. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Scott is a founding member of the National Independent Financial Advisory Professionals. His advice has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Detroit and Free Press, Oakland Press, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Chronicle, and Kiplinger’s magazine. 

Sriram Madabhushi
Sriram has been with the BetterInvesting & NAIC for over two decades. He is a member of Yankee Model Investment Club and Louisiana-Mississippi Model Investment Club. He is active in Online Chapter as a Director and member of the Education committee. Recently he has become a national volunteer and is helping with the 2025 Virtual BINC educational and 2026 BINC organizing committee. Sriram has a passion for teaching, and loves to share his knowledge in investing the BI way with all!