Our Aging Market

How the Aging Market Is Driving Change

Harvard Business School Association of Boston (HBSAB) will once again host the Our Aging Market Grand Forum which will discuss how businesses can successfully address the aging market. The Grand Forum will bring together industry experts to discuss how the changing senior market is driving wealth transfer, changes in the workforce, and spurring new technology.

The baby booming aging demographic makes up a quarter of the American population and has a purchasing power of over $15 trillion dollars (according to Euromonitor International) leading to a wealth of economic and business opportunities in health care, financial services, consumer products, travel and leisure, services, and pharmaceuticals, etc. From employment to purchases, to caring for their parents, there are numerous business opportunities to explore.

Speakers

Bob Pozen


Former President of Fidelity, MFS

Current MIT Professor

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Robert C. Pozen is currently a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.  During his distinguished career, Bob has been active in business, government and academia. Prior to joining MFS, he was vice chairman of Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Management & Research Company. During Bob’s five years as president, Fidelity’s assets increased from $500 billion to $900 billion. 


Bob is currently an independent director of AMC (a subsidiary of the World Bank). He also serves as chairman of the Leadership Council of the Tax Policy Center, chairman of the Advisory Board of Agility (an outsourced CIO), trustee of the IFRS Foundation (international accounting), and member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Bob frequently writes articles for the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review. He has published a book on the recent financial crisis, Too Big To Save? How to Fix the US Financial System, and a guide for investors entitled The Fund Industry: How Your Money is Managed.

Joe Coughlin


Director

MIT AgeLab

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD is Director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. He teaches in MIT's Department of Urban Studies & Planning and the Sloan School's Advanced Management Program. Coughlin conducts research on the impact of global demographic change and technology trends on consumer behavior and business strategy. He advises a wide variety of global firms in financial services, healthcare, leisure and travel, luxury goods, real estate, retail, technology, and transportation. Coughlin has served on advisory boards for firms such as Bell Canada, British Telecom, Daimler, Fidelity Investments and Sanofi-Aventis. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the White House Advisory Committee on Aging and by Governor Charlie Baker to the Governor’s Council on Aging in Massachusetts where he co-chaired the Innovation & Technology Subcommittee. A Behavioral Sciences Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fellow of Switzerland’s World Demographics & Ageing Forum, Coughlin is a Senior Contributor to Forbes and writes regularly for MarketWatch and the Wall Street Journal. He was named by Fast Company Magazine as one the ‘100 Most Creative in Business’ and by the Wall Street Journal as inventing the future of retirement. Recently, Coughlin was recognized as one of 15 World Minds by the Zurich-based World Minds, a select community of global leaders in science, arts and business. His recent book, The Longevity Economy: Inside the World's Fastest Growing, Most Misunderstood Market (Public Affairs, 2017), is one of CEO READ’s Business Bestsellers. 

Mim Minichiello


President

Hub International

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Mim Minichiello serves as President, Employee Benefits, of HUB International New England. With over 25 years of experience, Mim provides leadership and implementation of employee benefit initiatives across the New England Region, building and expanding the HUB New England’s offerings as the top employee benefits solution provider.

Before joining HUB New England, Mim  served in executive positions within the insurance brokerage and health plan industry.  Mim’s experience lies in executing strategic growth and operational plans, building and implementing innovating sales strategies, and cultivating best-in-class teams.


Outside of her leadership role, with HUB New England, Mim is the Chair of the YW Boston, an organization committed to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. Mim is also a member of Northeast Human Resources Association, the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, The Boston Club, and The Commonwealth Institute.


Mim is the recipient of the 2022 Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in MA award and one of the 2019 Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 winners.


Mim is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy. Mim has also received a graduate certificate in management from Radcliffe College, and has completed AHIP’s Executive Leaders program with the Certified Health Insurance Executive designation.

Amy Friedrich


President of Benefits & Protections

Principal Financial Group

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Amy Friedrich is president of Benefits & Protections with Principal Financial Group®. Benefits & Protections serves more than 120,000 employers and 3.5 million people. Friedrich leads 3,200 employees responsible for group employee benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, and nonqualified deferred compensation, along with the distribution arm, which includes Principal Securities®, the broker-dealer organization, and network of affiliated financial professionals. Friedrich joined Principal® in 2000 in a performance improvement role for Corporate Strategic Development. Later, as a director in that division, she helped define a long-term strategy for the specialty benefits division and in 2004, she moved into that area. Since then, she’s held many leadership roles, including second vice president in 2006 and vice president of group benefits in 2008, a role in which she led the segment to above industry growth. She took on oversight of individual disability insurance in 2015 when she was named a senior vice president. She assumed her current position in 2017. In 2021, Friedrich was listed as one of a named inventors on a granted patent covering a system and method for benefits enrollment.1 Friedrich is active in community organizations including United Way. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Buena Vista University, and on the Board of Directors of Greater Des Moines Partnership and of LL Global (the parent company of LIMRA, LOMA, and Secure Investment Institute®). She holds an undergraduate degree from Buena Vista University and a master’s degree from Purdue University.

Chaitra Chandrasekhar


Partner

OliverWyman

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Chaitra Chandrasekhar has been advising senior decision-makers for nearly two decades on strategy, digital transformation, public policy, and data-driven innovation initiatives. Her clients include global firms, private investors, development banks, international organizations, government and supranational entities across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.


Chaitra is a thought leader, speaker, and industry expert on delivering impact centered around customers to drive business growth and transformation, with substantial experience in the areas of digitization, financial inclusion, underserved needs, gender equity, and mobility. 

An elected member of the firm’s global Partnership Committee and executive sponsor for Oliver Wyman’s racial and ethnic diversity group, Chaitra also serves as an International Council Member with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, and as an active mentor for the 30% Club Cross-Company program


Chaitra received a Master of Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Management from the Sloan School of Management.  Additionally, she also holds a Diploma in Wines & Spirits from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).

Matt Hart


First Vice President

Merrill Lynch

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Matt Hart joined Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in 2005. Over the course of his career, he has developed and refined an approach to help his clients achieve sustainable financial independence. His process begins with a conversation about what is most important to them. With that understanding, he helps his clients prioritize their goals and implement a financial strategy that adapts to their evolving life circumstances, needs and resources.


In addition to assisting private clients and their families, Matt works with entrepreneurs, founders and key associates at both public and private companies. His goal to help these individuals understand the challenges associated with their equity ownership and to appropriately integrate it into their overall financial strategies.


Matt is also committed to working with his clients’ other professional advisors, including CPAs and estate attorneys, to help develop integrated strategies that strive to mitigate tax liabilities, protect their legacies and reflect their intentions.


Matt is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) certificant, a designation awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. He also holds the Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor® (CPFA®) designation and earned his bachelor’s degree in Management from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. Matt resides in Boston, and his hobbies include cooking, hiking, photography and traveling.

Marc Perry


Senior Demographer

US Census Bureau

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Marc Perry is the Senior Demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau. He joined the Census Bureau in 1997 and has authored or co-authored numerous publications on topics such as population growth patterns, age/sex composition of the population, domestic migration, population concentration, municipal annexation, metropolitan areas, and data visualization. He received a Department of Commerce Gold Medal and the Director's Award for innovation for his work analyzing early results from the 2020 Census for accuracy and coverage and has served as a main spokesperson for the past three decennial censuses. Perry was a co-author of the Census Atlas of the United States, for which he received a Silver Medal Award from the Department of Commerce. He earned his master’s degree in sociology, with a focus on small area population estimation, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and economics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is a resident of Washington, D.C. 

Renee Fry


CEO

Gentreo

LinkLinkedIn

Full Bio

Renee Fry is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gentreo, an on-line software provider with a mission to provide affordable, accessible and easy-to-use estate planning tools for everyone. Gentreo is next generation estate planning, making it simple for families to create, save and share their estate family plan so they can sleep at night. Not just a will, it is true state-specific estate planning that is now affordable and available to all.  Gentreo today works with employers, financial institutions, and benefits providers across the United States.


Previously, Renee led a 20+ person company in the sustainability space that revolutionized packaging materials.  She is a co-founder of Making Care Easier, an on-line application for helping families care for elderly relatives.  Renee led Philips Lighting North America's New Business Initiatives and Development across their five business units helping the company make a profit in a tough economic time.  She worked for the VP of Sales and the CEO of GT Solar on their new business opportunities as the company prepared for its successful IPO.  


Renee worked for now Senator Mitt Romney, when he was governor of Massachusetts overseeing the majority of his cabinet and before that was in the cabinet herself as Director of Business and Technology and Undersecretary of Economic Development. In her role, she personally negotiated the deal to bring Bristol Myers Squibb $1.2B manufacturing facility to Massachusetts. Previously, Renee was one of the first 10 employees at Celarix, an internet supply chain software company backed by Charles River Ventures.  Renee has a BS in Operations Management and Honors Logistics degree from Penn State and is a 1999 alum of Harvard Business School.   She was recognized as a Harvard Business School Rock 100 Entrepreneur and often helps the school with new venture related activities.