2023 SPEAKERS

Tim Thomas
Executive Director of Administration & Finance, and Human Resources
Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette
Concurrent Sessions 8 & 9 B

Tim is responsible for all financial management and human resources of the Diocese of Marquette. He is a member of numerous boards and/or finance councils affiliated with the diocese. Tim has served as the interim Superintendent of Catholic Schools, the Director of Catholic Social Services of the Upper Pensinsula, and the Director of Catholic Cemeteries.

Tim has worked in the banking industry for more than 15 years.  Most of that time was working as a national bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in three different states. He has also worked in the audit department for a mid-size bank holding company.

Tim has been married to his wife, Michele, for 29 years and have three children.

Tim received a Bachelor’s degree from Northern Michigan University where he majored in accounting. He received his commission from the U.S. Treasury Department as a national bank examiner and was part of a team which received an award from the Secretary of the Treasury for work on bank fraud.

He is a member of St. Michael’s Parish in Marquette, MI where he has served on the parish finance council and helped lead the high school religious education group. He currently serves as a lector, a cantor, and an usher.

Stephen merged The Schott Group, the investment consulting firm he founded, with CapTrust Advisors in 2007 to become one of the firm’s three managing principals. He became part of CAPTRUST in 2017 when CapTrust Advisors merged with CAPTRUST. Stephen has more than 35 years of institutional investment consulting experience and currently serves as a principal and senior director of institutional religious retirement and foundation services. He advises endowments, foundations, captive insurance plans, Taft-Hartley plans, and public pensions. Stephen and his team were ranked in the top twenty for the last five years in Barron’s Top 100 Institutional Consultants list.

Stephen’s dedication to the Catholic Church is evident in the many leadership roles he holds outside of work. He was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI—an honor bestowed upon Catholic men and women in recognition of their personal service to the Holy See and to the Catholic Church through their unusual labors, their support of the Holy See, and the examples they set in their communities and their countries. He is an investment committee member for Catholic Relief Services and Sacred Heart Major Seminary Foundation. Additionally, Stephen is chairman emeritus of Schott Memorial Foundation and trustee emeritus of Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. In 2016, Stephen was invited to the Vatican as a guest speaker on impact investing.

Wendy is the president and co-founder of Innovest Portfolio Solutions. She has more than 30 years of experience in the investment consulting profession. Her clients include some of the largest retirement plans in the United States as well as many large nonprofits and wealthy families. She is a member of the Executive Leadership Team, which makes decisions on firm-related issues. Additionally, she leads Innovest’s Retirement Plan Practice Group, a specialized team that identifies best practices and implements process improvements to maximize efficiencies for our retirement plan clients. Wendy has been named one of the 20 Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising in the nation by Employee Benefit Adviser. Finally, Wendy has been designated as one of the Financial Times' Top 100 Women Financial Advisors.

Wendy is responsible for contract negotiation between many of our clients and their vendors. Through her efforts, she has saved clients millions of dollars. Wendy’s views on investment cost control have been published in Pensions & Investments and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA). She was a key contributor to the Innovest White Paper on Employee Directed Defined Contribution Retirement Plans as well as The Case for Vendor Consolidation and Investment Menu Simplification. She has also authored several articles on fiduciary related matters which have been published in several national publications. Additionally, Wendy has been a speaker at the Center for State and Local Government Excellence, a national conference in Washington, DC, the Colorado Public Pension Conference, and the Rocky Mountain Benefit Plans Conference, among others.

Wendy has a Bachelor of Science in Finance (magna cum laude) and an MBA from the University of Denver. In 2019, she received the University of Denver Reiman School of Finance Distinguished Alumni Award. Wendy was appointed to the Public-School Fund Investment Board (PSFIB) in 2020 by the Colorado State Treasurer. In her role, she oversees the investments of the $1 Billion fund for the benefit of Colorado public school students. She is also a member of the Reiman School of Finance Advisory Board at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. Wendy is a Trustee for the Colorado Trust, an organization whose purpose is to improve health equity in the State of Colorado as well as a board member for FirstBank, one of the largest privately held banks in the country. Wendy is also on the Board of The 100 Club of Denver, which provides financial support to the families of fallen police officers, and the J.K. Mullen High School, a Lasallian Catholic High School where her children attended. Wendy was also appointed by former Colorado Governor Hickenlooper to serve on the Metropolitan State University Board of Trustees in 2016, where she served for three years. Wendy is married to a retired Denver Police SWAT officer and is the mother of young adult twins.

Margaret Kelly was responsible for the day to day operations and strategic direction of RE/MAX across North America and in more than 95 countries around the world. During her 28 years at RE/MAX, the company grew from 14,000 to nearly 120,000 sales professionals.

Margaret currently serves as the Director and Chair of the Grants Committee for the Daniels Fund, the Director of the Realty One Group, and the Vice President of the Denver Chapter of Legatus.

She has been recognized by countless organizations for exceptional leadership skills, commitment to community involvement and for being an advocate for businesswomen around the globe. Most people know Margaret as the CEO who talked candidly about the real estate market on television with guest appearances on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg and Fox programs and as the spokesperson on the RE/MAX television commercials during the real estate recession.

Joining RE/MAX in 1987 as a financial analyst, Margaret rose through the ranks of the company. She was named SVP in 1997, President/COO in 2002, and CEO in 2004. In 2013, Margaret was the lead on the RE/MAX IPO which began publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange as RMAX on October 3, 2013. In January 2010, Margaret was appointed Director of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Board – Denver Branch and became Chairman in January 2015. Margaret is mindful of her humble roots, learning business basics working in her family’s machine shop in Detroit.

Tim Gray is President of the Augustine Institute and a well-known Catholic speaker and author. Under Dr. Gray’s leadership, the Augustine Institute has established the largest Catholic graduate school of theology in the country, and has created best-selling programs including: Symbolon, a comprehensive program of faith formation for adults; The Search, a celebrated evangelization series; FORMED, a digital platform with a vast array of Catholic films, ebooks, and audio talks; and Signs of Grace, a sacramental preparation program for children.

Dr. Gray has a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America, and is the author of several books including Peter: Keys to Following Jesus and Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina. He is also the host of The Augustine Institute Show, a weekly live show that explores topics of the faith.

Tim and his wife, Kris, live in Littleton, Colorado. They have one son, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter.