|
ICFA 2003 Convention Speakers
Ann Bastianelli is president of Anthology Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and a professor of marketing and lecturer at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business. Ann is an authority on advertising, marketing and consumer trends. While overseeing advertising for McDonald's and Kellogg's at Leo Burnett, and later, as advertising director for Dow, she managed such popular campaigns as the Happy Meal program, "Two Scoops of Raisins," and Dow's Scrubbing Bubbles. Her experience also includes key leadership roles for IKON Office Solutions, Franklin-Covey, and Batesville Casket Company, where she introduced the concept of staging funerals in personalized vignettes.
Barry Berlin is chief operating officer and executive director of planning and development for Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, Los Angeles, California. He has more than 43 years of experience in sales, marketing and operations for large national corporations. Barry is president of the California Funeral Directors Association, director and treasurer for the Funeral Directors Service Corporation (California Master Trust), member of the Interment Association of California and the Los Angeles Funeral Directors Association, and a member of the ICFA Sales & Marketing Committee. He holds a bachelor of science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from New York University.
Julie A. Burn is cremation services manager for Wilbert Funeral Services Inc., Willowbrook, Illinois, where she is responsible for the marketing and sales of Wilbert's cremation products, along with the administration and promotion of its Cremation Choices program. Julie began her career with Wilbert in January 1991 as manager of funeral service communications. She was promoted to regional manager in September 1996, where she served as a liaison between Wilbert and its licensee network, as well as liaison between the licensees and their clients in the North Central Region. Julie is chairman of the ICFA Personalization Committee and is a Certified Pre-Planning Consultant.
Patrick R. Downey, CCE, is vice president of sales and marketing at Palm Mortuaries in Las Vegas, Nevada. Previously, he was president of Genesis SMS, a full-service sales and marketing consulting firm. He formerly served as vice president of marketing and regional vice president of sales for Carriage Services from 1997 to 1999, and vice president, sales and marketing, for Memorial Park Inc. of Memphis, Tennessee. Pat is vice president of the ICFA's Products and Services Committee. He was chancellor of ICFA University from 1995 to 2000 and has been a featured speaker at many ICFA and state association meetings. He attended the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
Quinn H. Eagan is owner of Pre-Need Funeral Program, a consulting service based in Metairie, Louisiana. He and his family have been in the funeral business continuously since 1854. Quinn has developed and grown a unique "system-oriented" preneed program into a national organization (PFP), which operates in 27 states and across Canada. Counselors using PFP systems have sold in excess of $1 billion of funded preneed funeral arrangements. On average, counselors who use the system more than double their sales production.
Donald H. Eiesland, CCE, is president of Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, and Park Lawn Cemetery in the City of Commerce, and is the CEO of the Centinela Group, Western Memorial and Western Sequoia affiliated companies. Don is a past president of the ICFA and has served in numerous leadership positions for the Interment Association of California. He is a former district lieutenant governor of Optimist International. He has served as vice president of the Inglewood/Los Angeles Airport Area Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the American Heart Association, Inglewood Branch, and president of Inglewood Partners for Progress
Suzanne T. Elkins is president of Pre-Smart Inc., Pinellas Park, Florida. She has more than 13 years of experience in preneed sales and marketing and has designed, developed and implemented numerous preneed database management programs and tools across the country. Suzanne has particular expertise in strategic business planning, forecasting and budgeting, product development and delivery and implementing sales processes to increase customer sales and effectiveness. She holds an MBA in marketing and finance from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a licensed funeral director in Kentucky.
Paul M. Elvig is vice president of administration at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Seattle, Washington, and is vice president of the ICFA's Industry Relations Committee. Previously, he was an administrator at the Washington State Department of Licensing, where he assisted in the redesign of state cemetery law. His experience includes licensing cemeteries; auditing endowment care and endowment trust funds; and processing, analyzing and recommending action on transfer of ownership applications.
Judy Faaberg is manager of Abbey View Memorial Park, Brier, Washington, and executive director of the Washington Cemetery & Funeral Association and the Northwest Cremation Association. She formerly served as a regulator with the Washington State Cemetery Board for nine years. Judy is a member of the ICFA Sales & Marketing Committee.
Robert M. "Bob" Fells, Esq., is external chief operating officer and general counsel of the ICFA. In addition, he serves as president and general counsel of the ICFA Service Bureau Inc., a for-profit subsidiary that administers the Credit Exchange Plan, and is national coordinator and assistant secretary of the Cemetery Consumer Service Council, an industry-sponsored consumer assistance organization. Bob is a contributing editor to the ICFA WIRELESS newsletter and his column, "The Washington Report," appears in each issue of International Cemetery & Funeral Management. A graduate of Iona College and the George Mason University School of Law, he is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the U.S. Supreme Court Bar.
Richard E. Fisher is vice president, marketing funeral and cemetery trust, for National Heritage Trust, a division of National Fiduciary Services, N.A. Rich came to the company in 2000 from a funeral e-commerce company where he was responsible for business development. He has over 21 years of experience in the cemetery and funeral industry, including marketing with a major casket manufacturer and corporate development with two funeral consolidators. Rich holds a degree in business administration from the University of Texas El Paso.
Doug Flin is a senior project manager for The Landplan Design Group Inc., Denver, Colorado. In his tenure with Landplan, Doug has led and participated in numerous cemetery site planning and development projects of varying sizes, types and complexity, including cremation gardens, family estates, expansion master plans, renovation projects and mausoleum site work. With a degree in environmental design from the University of Colorado, Doug emphasizes "defensible" design solutions and assisting cemetery owners in defining project goals, programming, schedule, marketing and budget objectives-all with a sensitivity to natural resources, historic preservation and public perception.
Mark A. Friedman is CEO of Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary, a community service of Temple Israel of Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. He is now in his 10th year as CEO at Hillside, one of the Los Angeles Jewish community's most prestigious and historically rich institutions. Previously, Mark worked for eight years as personnel director and then chief financial officer of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. From 1969 to 1985 he held a succession of executive management positions with Owens-Illinois, a major packaging manufacturer. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and an MBA in finance from Ohio State University.
Robert A. Gordon Jr., CCE, is area sales director for Service Corporation International, San Diego, California. A fourth-generation cemeterian, he has worked in every capacity in the cemetery and funeral industry since 1981. In 2001, he was named Area Sales Director of the Year for SCI. Bob has served as a director and secretary of the ICFA and vice president of the ICFA Membership Steering Committee. He also has served on the board of directors of Heritage Insurance Services and has been a member of the Interment Association of California and the Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity.
Glenn H. Gould, is CEO of MKJ Marketing, Largo, Florida, a leading marketing influence in the death care industry. He has held executive positions with Bausch & Lomb, General Mills and the Batesville Casket Division of Hillenbrand Industries. Glenn has conducted more than 500 positioning and prospective trade area studies for funeral homes throughout North America. In addition, he has conducted quantitative research studies, moderated focus groups and consulted to companies such as Wilbert Inc., Columbian Financial Group, Keystone Group Holdings, The Hamilton Group, Aurora Casket Company and The Loewen Group. He has served on the board of directors of the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science and instructed the small business class for St. Petersburg Mortuary College.
John J. Horan, CFSP, is president of Horan & McConaty Funeral Service/Cremation, Shalom Funeral Service and the Cremation Society of Colorado, serving more than 2,000 families per year in the Denver area. In 1986, John purchased a declining firm serving exclusively Catholics. Through positioning and niche marketing, superior service, demographic analysis and new construction, the company turned around and has become the largest independent in the Rocky Mountain Region. John is immediate past chairman of the Funeral Service Foundation and continues to serve as regional chair for its Hand in Hand Campaign. He is one of four spokespersons for the National Funeral Directors Association and serves as chair of its Communications Committee.
David B. Jones is vice president of sales and marketing for Matthews International Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this position, he is in charge of sales, marketing, customer satisfaction and new product development. Prior to joining Matthews, he served in the chemicals industry for 13 years. Dave has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and a master's in management from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He has served on the board of directors for the Southern Cemetery Association and is a frequent speaker to the cemetery and funeral industry.
Nick Jones, CFuE, CFSP, is president of Miller-Jones Mortuary and Crematory and Menifee Valley Memorial Park in Southern California, and is program chair of the 2003 Convention & Exposition. Nick was awarded the industry's first Certified Funeral Executive designation in 2002. Additional professional accomplishments include the 1980 State of California Business Award for helping establish uniform organ donor laws and an Executive Award from the National Funeral Directors Association in 1996. Nick has been on the advisory board of Cypress Mortuary College and a treasurer of the Cremation Association of North America. He is a past president of Preferred Funeral Directors International and the Orangebelt Funeral Directors Association.
Gary Laderman, Ph.D., is associate professor of American Religious History and Culture at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches courses in American religious history and culture, death and dying, theory and method, religions in the South, Native American religions, and science and religion. As a follow-up to "The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799-1883" (Yale UP, 1996), Gary wrote "Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America" (Oxford UP). Gary is associate director of the Graduate Division of Religion, associate editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and is on the editorial board for the electronic-only Journal of Southern Religion. He is frequently quoted in mainstream media on topics related to death in America.
Harvey I. Lapin is an attorney in Northbrook, Illinois, specializing in mortuary, cemetery, tax and corporation law. He is and has been general counsel or special counsel to various national, state and local industry associations. He is licensed as an attorney in Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida, and is registered as a CPA in Illinois. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, Northwestern University Law School and has a master's in tax law from Georgetown Law Center. He has written numerous articles on the subjects of taxation and funeral and cemetery law and is editor of the Cemetery and Funeral Service Business and Legal Guide
Michael S. Pepperman, Esq., is a partner in the Labor Relations and Employment Law Department of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His practice is restricted exclusively to representing management in every phase of labor relations. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware and his juris doctorate at Brooklyn Law School. Mike is co-author of "Securities Industry Leads the Way in Arbitrating Employment Disputes," New Jersey Law Journal, August 12, 1996, (145 NJLJ 648) and "Violence in the Workplace," Philadelphia Enterpriser, September/October 1998. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Georgia.
David H. Quiring, CM, FAICA, is a third-generation monument builder and president of Quiring Monuments, Seattle, Washington. A member of the industry for more than 35 years, he has been designated a Certified Memorialist and Fellow of the American Institute of Commemorative Art. He has served as president for the Washington State Allied Memorial Council and the Pacific Northwest Monument Builders Association, and as vice president of the Monument Builders of North America.
Dwayne R. Spence is president of Dwayne R. Spence Funeral Home Inc., Canal Winchester, Ohio, and is president of the National Funeral Directors Association. A funeral director and embalmer for more than 30 years, Dwayne is a member of the ICFA, the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice, the Funeral Ethics Association and the Cremation Association of North America. He is a past president of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association and a former board member of Central Ohio Funeral Directors. A graduate of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the school in 1996.
Todd W. Van Beck is president of the Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service, Houston, Texas. He is a consultant in the funeral service industry and a speaker in high demand who has spoken in Scotland, Ireland, England, Canada, Mexico and throughout the United States. He is an author known for his series Funerals of the Future, as well as having published four books and 50 training manuals. Todd is a past director of the New England Institute of Mount Ida College. He formerly was director of education for The Loewen Group and was responsible for implementing programs of professional and managerial training for funeral homes, cemeteries, preneed programs and aftercare programs. Todd is a licensed funeral director and embalmer and is dean of the Funeral and Commemorative Services College and the newly created Embalming and Restorative Arts College for ICFA University. He earned his undergraduate degree at Mount Mercy College and his master's in pastoral ministry from Mount St. Mary's Seminary
Ken Varner is president and chief executive officer at Cypress Lawn Cemetery Association and is president of the Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation in Colma, California. Prior to joining Cypress Lawn in 1996, he was a regional manager for The Loewen Group. He is a past president of the Interment Association of California and has served on the boards of the ICFA and the California Mortuary Alliance. Ken has served as an OSHA regional trainer and has spoken at numerous state and regional conferences.
back to top
|
