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Rob Harkins leads the Willis initiative for private exchanges, which focuses on a Defined Contribution approach and emphasizes cost control through a total population health management strategy. Harkins has over 30 years of experience at medical carriers, including UnitedHealthcare, Coventry and Prudential. Most recently, he was Vice President of Sales for Extend Health, the nation’s largest private exchange.

John A. Rubino, SHRM-SCP, CCP, CBP, GRP, WLCP, is founder and president of Rubino Consulting Services, a global human resources consulting company based in Pound Ridge, New York. His areas of expertise cover all areas of Human Resources program design. An internationally acclaimed speaker for SHRM and WorldatWork, John is the author of numerous human resources articles, and is frequently quoted in professional publications. He holds BA and MBA degrees, as well as a lifetime Achievement Award from WorldatWork. John works with a wide variety of organizations and his consulting practice takes him all around the world; in fact, he has visited one hundred and nine countries!

Ben Sommers is the Vice President, North America Business Development at Fitbit, a company that designs products and experiences to empower and inspire people to live healthier, more active lives.  Ben works primarily with employers and organizations of all sizes, including Fitbit’s wellness and health plan partners, to enable organizations to lead more engaging and effective wellness programs with world-class technologies and services.  Prior to Fitbit, Ben served as Regional Vice President, Western U.S., for Castlight Health, a healthcare IT company that built the first personalized platform to enable employers to understand and manage their healthcare investments while helping employees make the best possible healthcare decisions.  Before joining Castlight, Ben served as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Future Point Systems, a software company focused on business and government analytics.  Ben also managed a Western U.S. territory at IBM, working across all of IBM’s solution areas and focusing on healthcare IT and software clients.  Previous to IBM, Ben has held key finance and investment positions at Windspeed Ventures, a venture capital firm, and at Robertson Stephens, a technology-focused investment bank.  Ben earned his MBA from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and received his BA in Economics from Harvard University.  

Internationally recognized as an expert in the field, Mr. Kushner is one of the nation's most sought after speakers on HR strategy and employee benefits. He has advised four U.S. Presidents on health care and has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. House Small Business Committee on employee benefit issues.

A frequent resource to the media, Mr. Kushner contributes to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, AP, Knight-Ridder, the Kiplinger Washington Newsletter, CNN News, Fortune, MSNBC and Good Morning America among others. More importantly, he and his wife Tamis have five children and four wonderful (and amazing!) grandchildren.