Michael Conn

Michael Conn is a Bates Group affiliate expert with over 35 years of professional financial services. His extensive and diverse background in the retail brokerage, private banking and professional sales training and development arenas allow him to offer clients a unique perspective of the industry, having viewed it from a variety of lenses. His areas of expertise include practice management, organizational training, recruiting, sales supervision and client interaction.

Prior to joining Bates, Mr. Conn served as Executive Vice President, Director of Enterprise Solutions at Cannon. Here he was responsible for the design and sale of corporate-wide professional development programs for the financial service industry. He also managed the design and sale of Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule Compliance and Sales training offering. In addition he has acted as a Global Financial Services subject matter expert.

From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Conn was Managing Director of the newly formed wealth management division for TIAA-CREF. Here he was directly responsible for the national sales and service associates of the group, which had 55 locations in 32 states. Mr. Conn led the design and implementation of a uniform business practice management model, achieving significant client satisfaction while adhering to regulatory compliance. Mr. Conn authored a Practice Management Guide that enabled TIAA-CREF Wealth Management division to institutionalize best practices and scale the business.

During his role as Private Banking Regional President at Bank of America, Mr. Conn managed a seven-state high-net worth private bank with 55 teams in 20 offices providing specialized services for clients with a minimum net worth of $5M. During this time he also served as a member of Bank of America’s Investment Board and successfully represented Bank of America before the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.

Mr. Conn started his career in the Washington, D.C. metro area as a financial advisor with Dean Witter. He spent the next 22 years with the organization, which later became Morgan Stanley. His positions included advisor, branch manager, and regional sales manager. His last position was as a regional director responsible for over 50 locations and 1500 advisors.

Mr. Conn received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a focus in Finance from Georgetown University. Additionally, Mr. Conn has served on several professional and non-profit boards and has been a principal speaker at company-wide forums.