MARLENE BUSH
Cumming,GA
Summary
Executive leader in the retirement and investment management industry. Proven experience in developing strategy and translating strategic vision into actionable results with a focus on growth, retention, operational efficiency, profitability, organizational alignment, and optimizing participant outcomes. Significant experience in developing client relationships and cultivating new business. Extensive expertise in product management and strategic marketing. Substantial experience in managing/leading high performing teams.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Owner/Business Consultant
Brookdale Senior Living
02.2016 - Current
- Partner with leading Retirement, Investment Management and Fintech firms to deliver strategic management and business consulting services, helping to grow business, support client engagements and solve complex business challenges.
- Consulting engagements include:
- Led product/service model assessments for four large retirement providers across Corporate, NFP and Tax-Exempt markets and all market segments, inclusive of cataloging current product offering and pain points, industry best practice benchmarking, gap/over servicing analysis, Product Roadmap and prioritization focused on scalability, repeatability and leading with favored offerings.
- Conducted recordkeeping platform evaluations for two large retirement providers, including current state assessment, RFP preparation and evaluation, and recommendation to consolidate, enhance or change platforms.
- Completed 457 government market evaluation for large retirement provider, including business case to continue servicing this market segment.
- Spearheaded Health Savings Accounts (HSA) market evaluation for large retirement provider, including business plan and Minimum Viable Offer (MVO) required for large plan market.
- Conducted in-depth market assessment of 30 retirement readiness/financial wellness product offerings in the marketplace for mega plan sponsor, resulting in current state assessment, RFP preparation and evaluation, vendor scorecards, cost benefit analysis, and recommendation to migrate to new service offering.
- Performed QA testing for major software vendor in retirement/vendor management space, prior to migrating product to new platform.
Executive Director
Allstate
01.2013 - 01.2016
- Product Management, Client Relationship Management and Alliance Network.
- Oversaw Product Management, Client Relationship Management (East Coast), Defined Benefit and BPO (white label clients) for firm. Team of 40, 900 plans, $4B in AUA.
- Oversaw East Coast Relationship Management organization, implementing strategic account delivery model focused on proactive account servicing, quarterly client profiling, annual client business planning, creation of client P&L's, quarterly product/skills-based training, and development of management tools to enhance client retention. Improved client retention by 25%.
- Developed multi-year Product Roadmap. Key product initiatives included: development of product catalog, migration to electronic statements, enhanced plan sponsor/advisor reporting, plan health report card, and enhanced suite of education/enrollment services. Resulting in annual reduction of capital spend of $500,000 and enhancing relationships with advisors and plan sponsors.
- Led strategic product marketing efforts, inclusive of creation of new marketing materials, product factsheets, new sales proposals, value propositions, product positioning and strategic approach to finals presentations. 100% attainment of firm's annual sales quota.
Consultant
Fox Corporation
02.2009 - 02.2013
- Collaborated with clients in the Retirement and Wealth Management industry to deliver strategic management and project management services to solve complex business issues, including:.
- Conducted operating model review focused on product, people, process, technology for Institutional Retirement line of business for large retirement provider. This consultancy included current state assessment, competitive benchmarking, future state and execution roadmap.
- Oversaw the transition of a block of business for largest independent broker- dealer.
- Evaluated existing product set, identified key competitive gaps and proposed recommendations for large retirement recordkeeping provider. This assignment led to a full-time role at the firm.
Manager
TIAA-CREF, TIAA, Institutional Retirement Services
02.2005 - 02.2009
- Developed first formal product governance and multi-year Product Roadmap. Responsible for all phases of product lifecycle including: ideation, business case creation, development, launch, training, go-to-market strategy, adoption and ongoing product management.
- Established partnership with external firm to offer Total Retirement Outsourcing (TRO) solution around DC and DB, eliminating $10M capital investment. Managed external vendor relationships, reducing vendor spend by $4.2M through vendor consolidation.
- Business point with sales, consultant relations and relationship management teams in defining retention and new business strategies resulting in securing over $5B in AUM. Product Owner for multi-vendor recordkeeping, sole recordkeeping, and TRO.
- Led industry research and monitored competitive landscape and emerging trends.
Education
Masters of Business Administration -
Simmons College School of Management
Boston, MABachelor of Science -
State University of New York College
Cortland, NYSkills
- Business consulting, Strategic
- Business strategies, Vendor management
- New business development
- Product development
- Product marketing
- Project management
- Proposals
- Relationship Management
- Business plan, Strategic management
- Catalog, Wealth Management
- Development of product
- Product Management
- Government
- Industry research
- Investment Management
- Reporting
Certification
- FINRA Series 6 and 63
Timeline
Owner/Business Consultant
Brookdale Senior Living
02.2016 - Current
Executive Director
Allstate
01.2013 - 01.2016
Consultant
Fox Corporation
02.2009 - 02.2013
Manager
TIAA-CREF, TIAA, Institutional Retirement Services
02.2005 - 02.2009
Masters of Business Administration -
Simmons College School of Management
Bachelor of Science -
State University of New York College