Close the Gap Between Health and Finance for All Americans

Edmund Murphy is the President & CEO of Empower, a leading provider of financial services for consumers that include retirement, wealth management, advice and asset management, and one of Lynx’s trusted advisors.

Before his appointment as CEO of Empower, Mr. Murphy served as Managing Director at Putnam Investments and was a member of the firm’s operating committee. Prior to Putnam, he held executive leadership roles at Fidelity Investments, in its institutional, private equity and retail businesses. During his time at Fidelity, he served as CEO of Veritude, LLC and as a board member of several Fidelity-owned companies. He spent the early portion of his career at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Murphy serves as a board member of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, Boston College Wall Street Council, the New England Council, Colorado Inclusive Economy and a member of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He is active in supporting numerous not-for-profit and charitable causes, including The Ireland Funds, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Cristo Rey High School in Boston, where he serves on the board. He previously served as a member of the board of trustees of Emmanuel College in Boston.

Karen Webster is one of the world’s leading experts on platform innovation and emerging payments and a strategic advisor to CEOs and Boards of global players in the payments and commerce space. As the Founder of Market Platform Dynamics, she works extensively with the most innovative players in the payments, financial services, mobile, B2B, digital media and technology sectors to identify, ignite and monetize innovation. Karen also serves on the boards of a number of emerging companies, helping innovators develop and implement business strategies that drive market adoption for their products and services.

Karen is also an entrepreneur herself, who has successfully founded and launched several new ventures in the loyalty, digital media, and contextual commerce sectors, including PYMNTS.com – the largest global B2B media platform covering payments, commerce retail and financial services innovation.

Lars Albright is a Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in consumer software, fintech and vertical SaaS. He loves to work with founders who have the unique blend of passion and persistence, coupled with humility and a desire to learn. Lars is a repeat entrepreneur and has spent his career building successful high growth companies as a founder, executive and investor. The last two venture-backed businesses Lars co-founded were acquired by Apple and Mastercard, respectively. Lars looks for entrepreneurs that confront challenges head on, take action and embrace the accountability that comes with starting a business and managing a team.

Prior to Unusual, Lars was global Executive Vice President, leading Merchant Loyalty & Engagement at Mastercard. Lars joined Mastercard via the acquisition of SessionM, where he was the CEO and Co-Founder. Prior to co-founding SessionM, Lars worked at Apple, Inc., where he was a member of the executive team at iAd, Apple’s mobile advertising business unit. Before Apple, Lars was a Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development at Quattro Wireless, a leading mobile advertising platform that was acquired by Apple. Lars started his career in investment banking and finance on the West Coast. Lars received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and his AB with honors from Harvard University. Lars loves a great margarita (rocks, salt and not too sweet), Vermont IPAs, all things Boston sports teams, any sport with his kids and spending time in Maine and Alaska. He lives just outside of Boston with his wife and two children.

Matt Marek is a growth-oriented healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience leading every segment of healthcare from Medicaid to commercial markets. Matt currently serves as President and CEO, Seniorlink. Prior to Seniorlink, Matt served as President and CEO, Further, where he led the company from a small division inside of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota to one of largest stand-alone consumer directed administrators in the country that was acquired by Health Equity.

Matt also served as Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Sales Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota where he was a 2011 recipient of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty Award.

In addition to his executive experience, Matt regularly serves as an advisor to healthcare start-ups and he sits on the boards of Consortium Health Plans, Open Y, and YMCA of the North. Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Frannie McGowan is a strategy-development healthcare professional with over 20 years of industry experience and currently serves as the CEO and Founder of Consumer Health Strategies. She has held a variety of executive positions, including CEO of Scriptcycle (a Health IT company) and Senior Vice President of Business Development & Strategy at Kroger Health. Frannie holds a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and a PharmD from the University of Cincinnati’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy.

Adam Hjerpe is an organizational growth and strategy expert with over 20 years of client engagement experience placing companies on a path toward ultimate mission fulfillment, operational performance, high-performing market value, and whitespace growth opportunities. He currently serves as an executive private consultant for start-ups in the $20M - $250M space and as Board Chair of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. In addition, Adam is on the advisory board of Fraser Community Services and a board member of the professional consulting practice of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Prior to his independent career, Adam dedicated over two decades to health care at UnitedHealth Group spanning assignments at United Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, and Optum. His experience spans health benefits, health services and business integrations. His roles included Chief of Staff to the CEO, delivering the Individual Health Record to 55 million Americans, starting the ProtectWell business during the COVID pandemic, and Chief Operating Officer of Optum’s Growth Office, resulting in record-breaking revenues. Adam is a highly motivated ambassador, champion and facilitator for positive/progressive corporate culture, values-driven leadership, and inclusion of people with disabilities through DEIB and ESG initiatives and national efforts.

Adam holds a BAB from the University of Minnesota, completed his executive education at the Wharton School of Business, Stanford University, and is an alum of GE and UnitedHealth Group’s General Management Programs.