Third Round of Speakers for #FinCon12

This is our third, and final, list of speakers who will be taking the stage at #FinCon12. Thanks to everyone who submitted a proposal.

Mitchel Harad – Mitchel is vice president of marketing for Lending Club, the leading platform for investing in and obtaining personal loans. Mitchel leads the borrower marketing efforts at Lending Club, which includes a multi-million-dollar partner marketing program and a substantial affiliate program on the Commission Junction network. Lending Club has experienced unprecedented growth, surpassing $600 million in cumulative loan originations and is issuing over $40 million in new loans each month. Prior to joining Lending Club, Mitchel was president of Broderick Street Partners LLC, a financial services marketing firm that was the #1 affiliate for Chase Student Loans, Intuit’s online business products, Experian Auto, and other major financial services companies.

Kelly Kinkaid — who happens to come from a long line of penny pinchers, super savers, and frau frugals – is a professional blogger and freelance writer specializing in topics that explore personal finance, social media, diet and fitness, and generally living a life well lived. She is the founder and creator of Kellyology, created in 2006, and has written recently for The Centsible Life, Kidworth, and Blissfully Domestic. Kelly, married to her C.P.A. husband for forever and a day, is very active within her local community as a runner and as a soccer, swimming, basketball, band and piano parent. She especially enjoys talking about herself in third person.

Luke Landes “Flexo” – After coming to the realization his own finances were on a dangerous path, Luke Landes embarked on a journey to improve his own life. With this goal, in 2003 he created Consumerism Commentary, a blog using the name Flexo to protect his identity, where he could share the intimate details of his bank accounts, engaging readers on a journey from debt to financial success. Today, Consumerism Commentary boasts an active community of hundreds of thousands of readers every month, the top-rated weekly financial podcast, and the Carnival of Personal Finance, a weekly traveling showcase identifying the best personal finance articles. Through the Carnival of Personal Finance and other efforts supporting personal finance bloggers, Luke encouraged the community to grow. From less than ten “personal finance blogs” in 2003, there are now thousands of web sites in this niche. In addition to Consumerism Commentary, he has written about money as Flexo or Luke Landes for US News, Currency from American Express, Yahoo Finance, TurboTax, and PC World Magazine.

Jesse Mecham – In 2003, Jesse married his sweetheart, Julie. With seven semesters to go in the Accountancy graduate program at Brigham Young University, Jesse knew their meager earnings would have to do some serious stretching. As a result, he created a unique money management system. It worked so well, he officially founded YouNeedaBudget.com in 2004, and began selling his program as a way to earn extra income for his growing family. After graduation, Jesse worked as a certified public accountant, but continued to sell YNAB on the side. Eventually he left the day job in order to focus on his business full-time. YNAB is used world-wide and can be found on Amazon.com, the Intel App-Up store, and the Apple store. In September, 2010, Jesse wrote a companion book to the software, also titled “You Need a Budget.” The program was named winner for Best Windows Personal Finance Software in About.com’s Reader’s Choice Awards for 2011 and Best Desktop Personal Finance tool on Lifehacker.com. Jesse enjoys working from home, golfing, taking his wife on weekly dates, and keeping up with their five kids.

Mike Piper – Mike is a Missouri licensed CPA and the author of 7 personal finance books. He also writes the popular blog Oblivious Investor, which was recommended by Money Magazine in their “100 Best Money Moves” series. At his blog, Mike writes brief, plain-English articles about tax planning, retirement planning, and low-maintenance investing.

Matt Schulz – Matt is an award-winning journalist who is the VP of Content for InvestingAnswers.com, a site devoted to helping readers build and protect wealth through education. Previously, he’s helped lead editorial teams at CreditCards.com — where he once worked on an online town hall with the White House and even blogged about Dr. Seuss — KXAN.com and Austin360.com. Many years ago, he was a sportswriter, covering NFL training camps, March Madness and college football, but now his work is focused on helping consumers make smart decisions with their money.

Ramit Sethi – Ramit Sethi is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” which focuses on personal finance for people in their 20s and 30s by weaving together threads from health & fitness, social psychology, and personal finance. His blog, iwillteachyoutoberich.com, hosts over 300,000 readers per month. He occasionally writes for the New York Times and has appeared on The Today Show, ABC, PBS, NPR, and most major media. Previously, he co-founded PBwiki, a Silicon Valley collaboration company, where he helped drive the user acquisition of millions of users. Ramit was the keynote speaker at #FinCon11.

Janet Stauble — Janet is the Social Media Community Manager for Bankrate.com. She helped Bankrate tone down the broadcasting on social networks and turn up the conversation, collaboration and curation. She believes social media has done wonders for content discovery, community building … and even competing with search engines.

Jon Stein – Jon is the founder and CEO of Betterment. Passionate about helping people make smart decisions with their money, he founded the online brokerage in 2008. Jon is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Business School. His interests lie at the intersection of behavior, psychology, and economics. What excites him most about his work is making everyday activities and products more efficient, accessible, and easy to use.

View the entire list of speakers.