Every year, the Exit Planning Institute® (EPI) awards three honors – Member of the Year, Thought Leader of the Year, and Exit Planner of the Year. Each nominee reflects EPI’s core values and excels at communicating and teaching about value creation and acceleration.
In 2026, EPI will recognize eight individuals who lead and inspire others in exit planning across all levels, serving as role models in the profession. Read below to learn more about them and see who will receive two of these prestigious awards, Member of the Year and Thought Leader of the Year, at the 2026 Exit Planning Summit in Nashville.
To meet our Exit Planner of the Year nominees, click here.
This award recognizes a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) in the community who contributes significantly to the EPI advisor space and to the overall exit planning profession.
From there, Wally became an entrepreneur by supporting a startup ski company in his home state of Colorado. With his experience as an entrepreneur and in the accounting firm, Wally founded Exitology – a business growth and value acceleration firm that creates positive outcomes for clients.
“Helping business owners move from success to significance, specifically in helping them use their business as a vehicle towards personal wealth in all areas. Just as we seek to help a business owner achieve balance between their personal, financial, and business goals, we would seek to empower them to achieve balance of mind, body, and spirit and be the best version of themselves. Helping them unlock the potential of their business, we'd seek to help them experience an exit that allows them to unlock the potential of themselves.”
Jason began his career as a professional civil engineer in New York, bringing analytical rigor and problem-solving to infrastructure and development projects. He later transitioned into structured finance and reinsurance with Republic Mortgage Insurance Company, where he spent a decade structuring complex financial transactions. His first of many mergers and acquisitions experiences began at Zingenuity, where he served as the acquisition director for reinsurance subsidiaries.
His career evolved further through leadership roles in acquisition, advisory, and brokerage—culminating in a stint as a Partner at Linville Team Partners. A two-time founder with one successful exit, Jason understands first-hand the challenges of growing and exiting a business.
Jason holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Clarkson University and an MBA from Wake Forest University’s Babcock School of Business. He is a CEPA, enabling him to help business owners unlock real estate value in preparation for successful exits. As a Commercial Real Estate Strategic Advisory, Jason can share a unique perspective on enterprise value and the application of exit planning principles to commercial real estate.
When he is not advising business owners or financial advisors, he is doing something fun outdoors or traveling with his wife, Karen. As a four-decade snowboarder, he is often found on a steep slope, staying young at heart. A long-time supporter of Breakthrough T1D (JDRF), he has held numerous board and event leadership positions. He and Karen have two adult children, a spoiled rescue dog, and an off-the-track thoroughbred named Spryte.
“Exit planning is a collaborative exercise focused on helping the individual business owner understand their options and to meet their goals. As advisors, we add value by bringing and delivering value. We all have a specific set of skills, experiences, and expertise, but we can’t be experts at all things. This is a team sport. Excellence in exit planning includes understanding the needs of the business owner and then sourcing and bringing a team of subject matter experts together. I believe excellence is achieved when the owner has transactional flexibility and has maximized exit optionality.”
This individual acts as a champion of initiatives, ideas, or plans that take ideas from strategy to action. These nominees have significantly contributed to the exit planning profession through their willingness to take action and act as leaders in the space.
Todd has been with Thrivent Financial since 2002 and has held leadership roles, including Regional Vice President, Insurance Sales; Director, Insurance Product Marketing; and Director, Protection Product Implementation. He holds the CEPA®, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP®, and TPCP™ designations. Todd, his wife Rhonda, and their two daughters reside in Shakopee, Minnesota.
“Excellence in exit planning means truly understanding the business owner’s goals, concerns, values, and motivations, not just financials. It starts with listening: asking the right questions, surfacing what matters most, and translating those priorities into a clear plan. It also means knowing our limits and proactively bringing in the right specialists from the broader exit planning community, so the owner gets the best guidance for every aspect of the transition. To me, excellence in exit planning is also mission-driven. The outcomes ripple beyond the owner, impacting families, employees, and the communities that depend on healthy local businesses. With roughly $14 trillion business value expected to change hands in the coming years, getting this right matters. Excellence helps owners protect and grow what they’ve built so their legacy strengthens their family and supports continued prosperity in their community.”
*Thrivent is a Fortune 500 financial services company that helps build, grow and protect financial well-being through purpose-driven advice, investments, insurance, banking and generosity programs. Thrivent serves more than 2.4 million clients through thousands of financial advisors across the country and has more than $193 billion in assets under management/advisement (as of 12/31/24). Thrivent carries superior financial ratings from independent rating agencies, which demonstrate the company’s financial strength and stability. This includes an A++ rating from AM Best, an Aa2 rating from Moody's Investors Service, and an AA+ rating from S&P Global Ratings. For more information about Thrivent, visit Thrivent.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Thrivent is the marketing name for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Insurance products issued by Thrivent. Not available in all states. Securities and investment advisory services offered through Thrivent Investment Management Inc., a registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC, and a subsidiary of Thrivent. Licensed agent/producer of Thrivent. Registered representative of Thrivent Investment Management Inc. Thrivent.com/disclosures.
Thrivent provides advice and guidance through its Financial Planning Framework that generally includes a review and analysis of a client’s financial situation. A client may choose to further their planning engagement with Thrivent through its Dedicated Planning Services (an investment advisory service) that results in written recommendations for a fee.
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Kristin integrates the Value Acceleration Methodology™, DiSC, Strategic Planning, and leadership development frameworks to help owners grow intangible capital, elevate performance, and create freedom. She also hosts the Beyond Average podcast, highlighting entrepreneurs who transform their businesses through operational excellence and value creation.
With a track record of helping leaders double revenue, build successor teams, and prepare for ESOPs or future exits, Kristin is passionate about empowering owners—especially women—to design businesses that support the lives they want, not the other way around.
“Excellence in exit planning isn't about the transaction; it's about the transformation. It is the turning point when the owner stops thinking like an operator and starts thinking like an architect of a valuable, transferable asset. This is when we create options and the owner chooses and designs the transition path rather than reacting.”
Most founders believe the hardest part of an exit is the deal. It isn’t.
The real risk begins after the paperwork is signed, when the structure that once organized their time, identity, and decisions disappears. After spending the last decade studying this pattern, Jerome identified what he calls the Founder’s Exit Paradox: founders succeed on paper and quietly struggle afterward, not because the deal failed, but because they were prepared for the transaction and not the transition.
Before focusing on exit transitions, Jerome built and led a $20 million division inside a Fortune 550 company and completed multiple private equity acquisitions, recapitalizations, and exits. He understands how exits work and, more importantly, what they do to people.
Today, he brings this work to stages and boardrooms around the world, helping founders, executives, and advisors rethink what it means to exit well. Through Exit to Excellence, he helps clients see beyond the transaction illusion, the belief that achievement alone will deliver clarity, purpose, and fulfillment, and instead design a life they are prepared to live after the deal is done.
Using frameworks like the N.E.X.T. model and the Six Centers of Doubt, Jerome guides clients to align identity, relationships, and purpose so success on paper becomes alignment in life.
Jerome serves on the faculty for the Exit Planning Institute, sits on the Executive Advisory Council for the Deese College of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T, and is a sought-after speaker for organizations including EO, Vistage, and XPX. He is also the host of the Your NEXT podcast.
“Excellence in exit planning isn’t measured by the multiple you achieve. It’s measured by the life you’re prepared to live once the deal is done. Most founders are taught how to engineer the transaction but not how to navigate the transition. The real work is helping them avoid the transaction illusion and prepare for who they will be when the business is no longer there to define them.”