Executive Team
RetireOne™ was founded by veteran executives from industry-leading firms such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity who shared the vision of building retirement income and savings platform focused exclusively on independent RIAs. As fiercely independent as you are, we are committed to delivering the boundary-breaking products and support that enable our partner advisors to become even more significant players in the booming retirement solutions market.
With more than 25 years of experience each, the RetireOne executive team has the elite management skill and product development expertise to deliver innovative solutions that help RIAs protect their clients and expand their retirement income business.
David Stone
Chief Executive Officer, Founder
As a former senior legal counsel to major life insurance companies, mutual funds and broker dealers, David has more than two decades of financial services experience as well as specific expertise in annuity product development and distribution.
Before co-founding Aria, David was chief legal counsel for all of Charles Schwab’s insurance and risk management initiatives. He was a member of the firm’s Insurance Services management team as well as a co-leader of a cross-enterprise internal team dedicated to building a series of Schwab-branded financial products to be wrapped with annuity guarantees.
Prior to Schwab, David was in-house counsel at Allstate Financial, where he served as lead counsel on numerous product development projects for broker dealers and bank distributors.
David is a frequent speaker at industry conferences as well as an active participant on numerous committees dedicated to retirement income product solutions.
Edward J. Mercier
President
Ed brings more than 25 years of experience spanning investment and insurance products, including sales, distribution, clearing, and general management. He has held multiple senior leadership positions at Charles Schwab & Co., most recently as General Manager of Investment Management Distribution and Clearing Services.
In prior positions at Schwab, Ed was General Manager of Insurance Services, and General Manager of Mutual Fund Clearing. Previously, he worked in strategic institutional sales at Liberty Financial Services.
Ed received a BS in Economics from the University of San Francisco and holds the FINRA Series 7, 9, 10, 24 and 65 licenses.
R. Scott Strait
Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
Scott has an extensive record of IT leadership and strategic technology transformation within the financial services industry, most recently at Charles Schwab & Co. At Schwab, Scott was CTO, divisional CIO for the Schwab Institutional business serving independent financial advisors, and divisional CIO for the Schwab Investor Services business serving retail investors.
As head of Schwab Institutional Technology, Scott led the effort to build SchwabInstitutional.com and to support independent advisors as they adopted the Internet for the first time. He was also responsible for building the back-office tools used by Schwab to support the advisor business.
As CTO and head of retail technology, Scott drove the technology strategy to support cross-channel integration and develop a more client-facing experience as Schwab’s focus shifted from transaction-based to relationship-based. He led the complete rewrite of Schwab.com as well.
Prior to Schwab, Scott was with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Arthur Andersen, where he was a CPA.
Karen Chang, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Karen is the Chief Financial Officer and leads Aria’s finance and accounting functions. She brings over 15 years of financial planning and reporting experience in financial services to Aria.
Prior to joining Aria, Karen was the Chief Financial Officer for Luminent Mortgage Capital, a real estate investment trust. At Luminent, she oversaw all aspects of accounting, tax and financial reporting, including SEC filings and maintaining internal control policies and procedures. Prior to joining Luminent, Karen worked for Deloitte, providing assurance services to clients in banking and investment management.
She is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor’s of science in accounting from Boston College, a master’s in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University
Russell M. Parker, CIMA®
Chief Strategy Officer
For over three decades, Russell has helped some of the most formidable names in financial services build market presence, expand distribution and drive profitable results. Now, as Aria’s Chief Strategy Officer and board member, he oversees the firm's strategic development.
Russell has extensive management experience, starting with a foundation in consumer package goods sales and marketing. He has led businesses for investment industry firms including Citibank, Nuveen and Janus, as well as co-founded and sold an ETF-based asset manager to Natixis. Russell founded rpmAUM® to provide strategic product, brand and distribution consulting services to the leadership of asset management firms.
A graduate of Villanova University, Russell earned the CIMA® designation through the Wharton School of Management and holds the Series 7, 26, and 63 licenses.
Board of Directors
David Stone
Chairman
As former senior legal counsel to major life insurance companies, mutual funds and broker dealers, David has more than 20 years of financial services experience. He also specializes in annuity product development and distribution.
Before co-founding Aria, David was chief legal counsel for all of Charles Schwab’s insurance and risk management initiatives. He was a member of the firm’s Insurance Services management team as well as a co-leader of a cross-enterprise internal team that developed Schwab-branded financial products to be wrapped with annuity guarantees.
Before his tenure with Schwab, David was in-house counsel at Allstate Financial. He served as lead counsel on product-development projects for broker dealers and bank distributors.
David is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and an active participant on committees dedicated to retirement income–product solutions.
Russell M. Parker, CIMA®
Vice Chairman
For over three decades, Russell has helped some of the most formidable names in financial services build market presence, expand distribution and drive profitable results. Now, as Aria’s CDO and board member, he oversees the firm’s distribution.
Russell has extensive management experience, starting with a foundation in consumer package goods sales and marketing. He has led businesses for investment industry firms including Citibank, Nuveen and Janus, as well as co-founded and sold an ETF-based asset manager to Natixis. Russell founded rpmAUM® to provide strategic product, brand and distribution consulting services to the leadership of asset management firms.
A graduate of Villanova University, Russell earned the CIMA® designation through the Wharton School of Management and holds the Series 7, 26, and 63 licenses
Alan Spoon
Board Member
Alan is a General Partner at Polaris Partners, a venture and growth capital firm. He joined in 2000 and served as Managing General Partner (2000-2010). He leads investments in ecommerce (LegalZoom, Art.com), digital media, financial services (Focus Financial Partners), and distance learning.
Prior to Polaris, Alan served as President and Board member of The Washington Post Company, a multimedia and education corporation. There he also led investments in a successful portfolio of early stage companies in cellular (Cellular One), distance learning (Kaplan), digital media (washingtonpost.com, WebTV) and e-commerce (Cars.com). Alan began his career at The Boston Consulting Group.
Current outside Board seats include Danaher Corporation (DHR) and IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI). In his not-for-profit activities, Alan is Regent Emeritus and former Vice Chairman of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents. He is a member of the MIT Corporation and serves as a board member at edX.org. Alan’s prior business board service included Getty Images, Human Genome Sciences, Inc., Ticketmaster, IDG, and American Management Systems, Inc.
Kevin Osborn
Board Member
Kevin is an Executive Vice President with Envestnet, where he is currently responsible for senior industry engagement with Institutional clients and the Investment Management community. He spent 26 years at Prudential Investments helping to build and lead the Wealth Management Solutions group. (WMS)
WMS provided a full service outsourced managed account platform to mid-size and large Regional Bank and Broker/dealer wealth management units. The platform included technology, research/due diligence, and business development support. The majority of his career has been spent working with fee-based advisors and portfolio managers, providing a unique perspective into the needs and expectations of this fast growing market. WMS was acquired by Envestnet in 2013.
Kevin has been a member of the Money Management Institute’s Board of Governors since its inception in 1997. He is also an active participant in the Corporate Executive Board’s Wealth Management Circle.
Thomas F. Streiff
Board Member
Mr. Streiff is President of TFS Resources where he uses his 30 years of experience to assist financial service firms in adapting and thriving in today’s investment environment. Mr. Streiff has the unusual background of working in Wealth Management, Asset Management, Insurance, and Investment Banking. Most recently Tom was a Senior Managing Director and Head of Retirement Income Products and Distribution for TIAA-CREF & Nuveen. Prior to joining TIAA, Tom spent 6 years as an Executive Vice President and Head of Retirement Solutions for PIMCO. Prior to PIMCO Tom was a Managing Director at UBS where he spent time as Head of Insurance Sector Relationships in the Investment Bank and Head of Investment Solutions at UBS Wealth Management.
Tom is a member of the Advisory Board of Vestigo Ventures (Fintech) and an immediate past member of the Board of Directors of the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI). Additionally he has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences including the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA). Tom has written over 100 articles for the financial trade press and co-authored 3 books.
Tom is a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, and Chartered Financial Consultant and holds a bachelor’s of science in Nuclear & Mechanical Engineering from University of Utah and a master’s in business administration from Pepperdine University.
Advisory Board
Rob Klapper
For over 20 years Rob has helped build and advised businesses that improve consumers’ financial and intellectual well-being, including Charles Schwab, insurance.com and Ashworth College.
Gail M. Lingle
Gail is the Regional Director of OneAmerica Financial Partners. She has 30 years of retirement expertise and has received The Lifetime Achievement Award from Prudential Retirement. Gail is married, has two children and lives in Kenilworth, Illinois.
Darlene DeRemer
Darlene T. DeRemer has over 35-years of experience in the financial services industry. As co-founder of the advisory merchant bank Grail Partners LLC serving investment management since 2013, Darlene handles sale and purchase mandates for institutional and mutual fund managers in the US, as well as restructuring assignments for alternative investment firms that seek to tap public markets in the US and abroad.
Before shifting to investment banking full time in 2003, Darlene spent twenty-five years as a leading adviser to the financial services industry, specializing in strategic marketing, planning, product design and service strategies.
Darlene’s strategic planning experience includes managing a $4 billion pension real estate department, and developing marketing communications and client service programs. The asset management strategy firm she opened in 1987 was the first consultancy focused on the U.S. mutual fund industry.