meet our team of experts
and advisors

Daniel L. Barbaree

President and CEO

Dan Barbaree serves as President of Newcleus, the preferred national provider of benefit and insurance administration formed from the combination of Bank Financial Services Group and Meyer-Chatfield Group. Dan leads the development of the organization by ensuring foundational philosophies and first-class servicing standards remain upheld. His supervision ensures all departments meet their goals in alignment with Newcleus’ vision and the needs of the ever-evolving marketplace.

Dan’s career began as a consultant working with various financial and technology companies in the Tri-State area. He began working at JPMorgan Chase in 2002 and was later appointed as the Senior Financial Manager for the Home Equity and Capital Markets IT businesses, overseeing $150 million in expenses and $350 million in resources. In February of 2008, Dan joined BFS Group as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer where his role played an integral part in the development and growth of BFS Group’s national sales team and back office support in Newtown. In 2013, he was named President of BFS Group.

Dan is licensed for life and health insurance in over 40 States and also holds his Series 6 and Series 63 securities licenses.

Kamel Boulos

EVP, Chief Operating Officer

Kamel Boulos is Newcleus’ Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s operations and information technology. A strategic business leader with over 25 years of operations and IT success in financial services, his past accomplishments include improving operational efficiency and delivering innovative technology solutions that drive growth, increase profitability and improve customer experience.

As CTO for Strong Home Mortgage, a non-bank mortgage lender, Kamel enhanced the sales technology that led to the attainment of revenue goals. By streamlining operations, he increased efficiency which enabled rapid company growth.

Prior to Strong Home Mortgage, he was CTO for ClosingCorp where he oversaw the development and management of their proprietary data platform that handled a third of all US residential mortgage applications. Kamel designed and implemented operational processes to provide exceptional customer service and support some of the largest mortgage lenders in the country.

Kelly Gates

SVP, Director of Strategic Marketing

Kelly serves as SVP, Director of Strategic Marketing for Newcleus. She is a performance-driven strategy and business transformation professional with a record of achievement and strategic leadership in overcoming diverse business challenges. As a strategy leader at Newcleus, she fosters innovation and designs integrated marketing and business growth strategies to support the sales and business development teams. She has 30+ years of experience working with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500, and across multiple industries, including financial services, professional services and high-tech product businesses.

As Project Faculty for The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), Kelly mentored teams of MBA candidates who consulted with real-world, paying client companies to identify and resolve their business challenges. She taught undergraduate marketing as an Adjunct Professor at Widener University.

Kelly earned her MBA from Widener and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from The University of Tulsa. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the German-American Chamber of Commerce, Philadelphia.

Richard Pearson

EVP, Chief Client Officer

Rich is a graduate of Lehigh University, class of 2003 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Systems. He went on to hold positions with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals as the Client Services Support Leader and with The Vanguard Group as a Web Support Specialist.

Rich joined BFS Group in 2006, and has worked in various departments including roles within Design & Analysis, Client Service and Information Technology. In October of 2014, Rich was appointed Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of BFS Group, a role he continued to serve under Newcleus.

Currently, as Chief Client Officer, Rich oversees all enterprise resource management systems, which include Newcleus MINTS, processes related to compliance, new business and benefit plan servicing.

Christopher J. Pezalla

EVP, Chief Product Officer

Chris Pezalla serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Newcleus, a national executive benefits and BOLI/COLI consulting firm.

With his extensive background in life, annuity and investment products, taxation, regulatory compliance, accounting methodologies and actuarial modeling, Chris works with Newcleus’ clients to design, implement, and administer executive benefit plans and financing strategies. He also manages insurance carrier relationships and works to design new products and strategies. For example, our proprietary LINQS+ strategy provides lifetime retirement benefits for a fixed expense, and the Titanium plan transfers the plan liability off the sponsor’s balance sheet and provides the executive more control of their benefits. Being an industry thought leader, recently he has been called upon by the FFIEC to participate in the Emerging Issues Conferences and assist in educating the national banking regulators on bank and credit union-owned life insurance.

Prior to working in the executive benefits and BOLI/COLI space, Chris has worked for three insurance carriers in a variety of actuarial roles including financial reporting, asset liability modeling, product development, marketing, underwriting, and administration.

Having graduated from the University of Minnesota at Morris with a BA degree in Statistics and Economics, Chris received his master’s degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Iowa. He also is a fellow in the Society of Actuaries (FSA), and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He has his FINRA series 7 and 63, and life insurance licenses.