Our Team

Leadership Team

Board of Managers

Timothy E. Ash
CEO and President Ash Brokerage Corporation, Member of the Board of Managers

Clyde D. Beers
Member of the Board of Managers

Paul S. Beideman
Member of the Board of Managers

Gregory S. Campbell
Member of the Board of Managers

Daniel Nigito, CFP
Member of the Board of Managers

Paul S. Beideman, Member of the Board of Managers

Paul is as a member of Merion’s Board of Managers. Paul brings nearly four decades of experience in the financial industry, specifically in management roles to Merion.

Prior to joining Merion, Paul was Chairman and CEO of Associated Bank. While CEO, Associated Bank had $23 Billion in assets including its banking operations, and a full array of asset management, brokerage and insurance services. Additionally, Paul worked for Mellon Financial Corporation for 14 years. Paul was Chairman of Mellon’s Mid-Atlantic Region and Executive Vice President of Retail Financial Services. Paul was a member of Mellon’s Senior Management Committee. Earlier in his career, Paul held a variety of positions with the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society including Senior Vice President of Branch Operations and Director of Marketing.

Paul is a graduate of Millersville University, has a Masters in Business Administration from Widener University and graduated with honors from the National School of Banking at Fairfield University. Paul’s community involvement includes having served on a number of boards including, Widener University, The Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia Academies, The Visitors and Convention Bureau, Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Greater Philadelphia First, Children’s Services and the United Way.

Daniel Nigito, CFP President & CEO, Merion Wealth Partners, LLC

Kevin Mailey, Marketing Director/National Sales Manager

James A. Barnash CFP®, Senior Vice President

Jim is a Senior Vice President with Merion Wealth Partners and leads the business development and consulting activities for the organization. As a senior executive he also helps guide the firm in the pursuit of its strategic vision and mission.

Jim has been in the financial services industry for over thirty years. His career includes experience as an independent financial planner, a field leader for large broker-dealer firms, a corporate executive and a consultant for practice management and practice development. His focus has been on helping deliver financial planning to all those who seek quality and ethical advice.

Jim is a sought after speaker by professional associations and consumer groups. He is a former adjunct faculty member for the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado and has also taught CFP® instructional courses for his alma mater, DePaul University. In addition, he has done professional training in sales and financial planning for some of Chicago’s largest financial institutions and he has designed training and educational courses for those same entities.

Active in the financial planning profession and its association, Jim was president of the National Board for the Financial Planning Association in 2005. Jim served as Chair of the Association in 2006. He has been a Board member of the Chicago Society of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners and served as their president in 1998.

Jim is a graduate of DePaul University and is currently a member of the DePaul University College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Advisory Council, co-chairman of DePaul’s Planned Giving Advisory Council and co-chairman of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Campaign 2012 task force.

Dale A. Pope, Compliance Officer of MerCap Securities, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC
Chief Compliance Officer of Merion Wealth Partners, LLC

Mr. Pope is currently President & CEO of MerCap Securities, LLC where he leads the broker-dealer operations. Dale is a 30-year veteran in the broker-dealer, RIA and insurance industries and was the president, CEO and founder of three national firms. He took all three of these firms to record sales and recruiting levels.

Dale spent the majority of his career as founder, president and CEO of American Capital Corporation (ACC), an independent national broker-dealer, registered investment advisor (RIA) and insurance agency with over 600 planners in 42 states. Headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, the firm was a top producer for many nationally recognized mutual fund and insurance companies.

Prior to ACC, Dale was the founder, president and CEO of D.A. Pope & Company, Inc., an independent national broker-dealer headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The firm specialized in employee benefits and retirement planning and boasted such clients as the McDonald’s Corporation franchise system in the state of Florida.

Dale has been a FINRA arbitrator for over 17 years and is also a FINRA mediator. Mr. Pope also served on the former NASD District Business Conduct Committee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is also qualified as a securities expert witness. He has been listed in Marquis Who’s Who in Finance and Industry for the past 15 years.

His industry affiliations include:

• Member— International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP), now the Financial Planning Association (FPA) since 1982. He is a former Director and Vice-President of Membership of the Philadelphia Chapter which was the second largest chapter in the country with approximately 1,300 members.
• Charter Member— International Association of Registered Financial Consultants.
• Member— American Society of Financial Services Professionals (formerly the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters). He earned his CLU designation in 1981.

Mr. Pope has authored numerous industry related articles and lectured extensively to industry groups.

Megen A. Reilly, Director of Operations

Megen is the Director of Operations for Merion Wealth Partners, LLC. Megen has worked with numerous Broker-Dealers in operations and administration and has facilitated numerous successful transitions for advisors. Ms. Reilly’s extensive knowledge of the transition process and hands-on experience with industry-leading technology provides Merion with the tools and resources to create an automated, streamlined transition environment for prospective advisors.

Ms. Reilly currently holds her Life & Health Insurance License in addition to her Series 6 and Series 63. Prior to joining Merion, Ms. Reilly worked for several Philadelphia based financial firms with top-producing Million Dollar Roundtable advisors, supporting those advisors with her operational expertise.

Ms. Reilly graduated with Honors from Harcum College with a concentration in Business Administration.

Jon M. Bartholomew, CPA, Chief Financial Officer

Kathy Boyle, Operations Specialist

Joanne Powell, Licensing and Registrations

Gregory S. Campbell, Member of the Board of Managers

Gregory S. Campbell is founder of CD Ventures where he is Senior Managing Partner. He formed CD Ventures (“CDV”) in 1996 and successfully grew ten different businesses with CDV as the originating private equity sponsor. Under his direction CDV and it co-investors and lenders invested approximately one billion dollars in investment capital in these businesses since their inception.

He currently serves as a Director on the Board of ACCT Holdings, LLC one of CDV’s portfolio companies. Prior to founding CDV, Mr. Campbell served as President and CEO of American HealthFund, a national finance company he founded that provided receivables backed credit facilities exclusively to health care providers. American HealthFund was sold to Copelco Financial Services Group in 1995. Mr. Campbell has initiated and built a number of successful companies and brings over thirty years of executive management and financial experience.

Prior to founding American HealthFund, Mr. Campbell was Chairman of AdvaCare, Inc., a medical billing and accounts receivable management company that provided services to hospitals and physician groups. Mr. Campbell successfully completed an initial public offering of AdvaCare stock and the company was subsequently merged into Medaphis, Inc. Prior to AdvaCare, Mr. Campbell also founded and was President of Shared Homecare, Inc. and its successor company, Home Medical Systems, Inc., national home care companies that were sold to Beverly Enterprises in 1985. Mr. Campbell also served as President of AmeriGas and Senior Vice President of its parent company UGI, both of which are New York Stock Exchange listed companies. In addition, he was a partner with Lehman Brothers in Intech Associates, L.P. a leveraged buyout limited partnership formed in 1982.

Mr. Campbell received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from Purdue University. Mr. Campbell is a licensed instrument rated private pilot.

Timothy E. Ash, Chief Executive Officer and President Ash Brokerage Corporation, Member of the Board of Managers

Working with Ash Brokerage since 1985, Tim Ash assumed leadership of the company in 1997. Prior to being named President, Tim’s primary focus was product development, distribution and underwriting/risk management. Since 1997, Ash Brokerage has expanded from one office in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to 18 offices across the country, and has grown from 50 employees to more than 300 financial services professionals who provide support to over 50,000 advisors. Ash Brokerage is the largest independently-owned insurance research and brokerage firm in the United States, annually assisting in the underwriting and placement of 25,000 new life insurance applications with face amounts in excess of $28 billion.

Tim has served and continues to serve on several insurance company field advisory boards and product development committees. He has also been instrumental in the development of several practice enhancement tools for financial service professionals such as the Life Insurance Audit, Ash Priority Underwriting and Ash Technical Services.

Clyde D. Beers, Member of the Board of Managers

Clyde D. Beers recently retired after a highly successful career as a Principal in Towers Watson’s Philadelphia Consulting Office. Mr. Beers was a resource for merger integration work, total rewards assignments, and benefit plan redesign, with particular emphasis on retirement programs. Formerly, he managed the Philadelphia office’s total consulting practice.

He consulted with clients on all aspects of employee benefits including pensions, capital accumulation programs, broad-based group benefits and executive compensation programs. He worked with clients on forecasting and stress testing pension assets and liabilities, and developing investment and risk management policies. He directed assignments primarily in the U.S. but also led worldwide actuarial studies for multinational clients. In addition, he assisted clients with the development of flexible benefit programs and health care management strategies. Mr. Beers worked on actuarial and retirement benefits issues with a who’s who of major U.S. and global organizations.

Clyde earned a B.S. degree in Mathematics from Wesleyan University. He is a retired Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, retired member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a prior Enrolled Actuary. He wrote parts of the syllabus on investment measurement for the examinations of the Society of Actuaries and taught and lectured on actuarial and employee benefit matters in both the U.S. and the U.K.