C. Douglas Hampton

Master of Ceremonies

Professor C. Douglass Hampton is widely-known as the architect of the Hampton Freeze and other innovative financial products for the world’s affluent.  A recognized authority in global and United States tax and estate planning matters, he has particular expertise in the design of offshore life insurance policies and the drafting of offshore life insurance trusts.  He is the author of Survivorship Life Insurance (published by the American Bar Association) and he has been retained as an expert witness in this regard.

An award-winning author and lecturer, Professor Hampton has been a featured speaker at literally dozens of the top offshore conferences in the world.  In addition, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Professional Speakers Association of Europe.

More recently, Professor Hampton served as the Founding Chair of the world’s first totally online graduate degree program in international taxation offered at a law school which is both accredited by the American Bar Association and which is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.  In addition to his numerous academic appointments, he was honored as the inaugural National Director of Education for the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

The following Speakers are in alphabetical order

Frederick Geerken

With over twenty-three years experience in management and personnel recruitment on large national levels, Fred Geerken is President and COO of Opulink, the country’s first national database for clinical trial volunteers and phenotypic studies. Geerken had extensive experience at Corvis Corporation, joining as the 20th employee where he developed the personnel hiring processes and HR systems. He was responsible for building the company to 800 employees in 2.5 years, resulting in a $1.2 Billion IPO in July 2000. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Business from Northwest Missouri State University. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era.

Jon Golding

Golding was formerly Head of the Private Wealth Management division for the largest financial group in the Caribbean and Central America. He retired in 2005 to form Golding Consulting Limited in Trinidad, West Indies, now advising banks and financial institutions. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a member of the elite Guild of International Bankers in London. 

Mel Johnson

Host of the Conference

Mel Johnson, Registered Investment Advisor, is an award-winning financial educator who provides comprehensive financial services for mature investors, company executives, and business owners, including investment management, fee-only planning, tax reduction, and advanced estate planning.  He is a 3-time winner of the Pinnacle Award for Growth and Profitability, representing 5 continuous years of 25+% growth.  Johnson won these awards during the 1999 to 2004 timeframe, which included one of the worst Bear Markets since the Great Depression. 

For several years, Mr. Johnson has shared his financial knowledge by writing columns and articles for publications such as Business Leader magazine, Triangle Business Journal, 50+ Magazine, and the FMA Journal.   In addition, as Executive Director of the CPA/Law Forum – Southeast Region, Johnson provides, and often teaches, monthly continuing education classes for local attorneys and CPAs. 

Paul Moses

Through a combination of experience with private practice, corporate practice, and private consulting, attorney Paul Moses provides sound counsel on a wide-variety of legal and financial subjects.  Moses has presented frequent lectures and workshops in the fields of family and marital law (i.e., divorce, parents’ rights, child custody, visitation, child and spousal support), asset protection planning, wealth and estate preservation planning, negotiation strategies, securities and financial services, collections and general business practice, lien law, and even personal relationships.

Mr. Moses has been a guest on The Today Show, Leeza Gibbons Live!, The Dr. Laura Schlessinger Show, The Daily Buzz, The Roger Hedgecock Show, MSNBC, REM(fm) (Spain), Today’s Family, and on many other local and national radio and television programs throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada. Mr. Moses has also hosted his own radio show in Orlando, Florida.

Michael C. Ross

Michael C. Ross is president of Michael Ross Consultants Ltd. and ABM Management Corp. in Canada, managing director of ABM Management Corp. in the Bahamas, and corporate director and investment committee chairman of the Alex Bruen Macrae group of international investment companies of the Bahamas.

Past management positions include superintendent of brokers and real estate for the Province of British Columbia (senior government official responsible for regulating the securities and real estate industries of the province); vice president - finance and administration of the British Columbia Automobile Association; vice president and chief financial officer of Burns Foods Limited; comptroller of Burns Bros. and Denton Limited (now BMO Nesbitt Burns) and staff accountant for Clarkson, Gordon & Co. (now Ernst & Young).

Mr. Ross has been an officer or director of several public and private companies. He developed and conducted management training programs for the Banff School of Management Studies, the Government of Alberta and private industry. He has consulted large and small organizations in succession planning, general management, strategic planning, financial planning, organization, ethics, marketing and sales for over three decades.

Thomas H. Ross

Thomas H. Ross, has over 40 years of business and professional experience, initially in the aerospace industry with Boeing, and subsequently in the financial planning, corporate finance, and venture investing fields, including residence in nine different nations over a period of 18 years.

Since 2001, Mr. Ross has served as founder and President of Palm Beach Capital Advisors, LLC, a small privately held financial advisory firm that has been engaged in a range of client financing and investment activities, including early stage biomedical venture capital. He is very active in venture capital fund management in the bio-sciences and alternative energy, and has developed an estimated $200 million fund to help commercialize emerging biomedical technologies originating from the major biotech research institutes moving into Florida, and the Florida universities.

Among his many business activities, Mr. Ross is a member of BioFlorida; He was a Director of the Gold Coast Venture Capital Association; and he is President of Venture Fund Management, LLC, a private venture capital fund manager as well as President of Florida Bio-Sciences, LLC, a biomedical fund manager.

Barry D. Siegel

Barry D. Siegel, Esq., an attorney serving clients throughout the United States, limits his practice to counseling individuals and families with respect to trust and estate planning and asset protection strategies. He also represents beneficiaries and fiduciaries of estates and trusts regarding tax, and probate and trust law issues.

Mr. Siegel has authored or co-authored many articles on Estate Planning and Asset Protections strategies and is a co-author of The book of Estate Planning Strategies.  He has been quoted in the South Florida Business Journal, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and he has been a various guest on television and radio shows.

Mr. Siegel, a frequent lecturer for many organizations, has served as an Adjunct Professor for the Legal Studies Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. He has traveled extensively to many brokerage and insurance firms teaching Estate Planning and Asset Protection to Financial Advisors and Insurance Agents.

Lief Simon

Lief Simon has lived and worked on 5 continents and travelled to more than 40 countries.  In the dozen years since he entered real estate, he has personally bought and sold property in 17 countries.  In addition, he was Real Estate Editor for International Living for 10 years, where he managed a multi-million-dollar portfolio of rental properties.  During that time, he spent more than three weeks out of four on the road, travelling almost constantly in search of the world’s top emerging real estate opportunities. 

Lief retired from International Living at the end of 2006 to focus on his own real estate investments and projects, as well as his newsletter, Global Real Estate Investor.  In recent years, he has introduced his clients to investments in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Romania, buys that have appreciated 160% in 18 months, 120% in 12 months, and 82% in 15 months, respectively.