NAIFA Experts

Christopher L. Gandy, LACP, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Midwest Legacy Group (OneAmerica) in Lisle, IL. He has served as President of NAIFA’s Chicagoland chapter and has been a NAIFA member since 2003. He entered the insurance and financial services industry in 1999 after playing professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs as well as in L’Hermaine, France.

Gandy serves on NAIFA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force and is a member of the NAIFA 2025 Strategic Planning Committee. He is a highly sought-after speaker for industry events and has been a speaker at NAIFA’s Performance+Purpose annual conference and published in Advisors Magazine, GQ, Advisor Today, and InsuranceNewsNet among other publications.

Gandy is also an active volunteer in the community. He serves on the Board of the Chicago Concussion Coalition, which strives to make amateur sports safer for children, and on the Board of Directors of the Urban League. He is part of the United Way’s Young Community Leaders and volunteers for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization.

As NAIFA’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Mayeux, CAE, oversees the headquarters and national staff and manages relationships with life, health and financial service companies, other industry organizations, legislators, and regulators. Mayeux supports NAIFA’s Board of Trustees and committees and coordinates efforts with NAIFA’s 90 state and local chapters. As CEO, he led an effort to modernize NAIFA’s operations through the development and implementation of a bold new strategic plan, NAIFA 20/20.

Prior to becoming NAIFA’s CEO, Mayeux served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Officer for North American Operations, and General Counsel for the Institute of Internal Auditors Global Headquarters in Orlando, Fla. In this role, Kevin supervised the core membership services offered to all 75,000 IIA members in North America in 158 chapters throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean islands. Kevin further served as General Counsel, guiding the IIA’s intellectual property protection, affiliation agreements and legal interests around the world. He is a Certified Association Executive and holds a Certificate in Risk Management Assurance.

Mayeux has served as an association management professional for more than 25 years, including serving as the executive director of a statewide trade association in Tallahassee and CEO of an international individual membership society in Indianapolis. He also practiced law in Central Florida. He has held leadership positions on both the state and national level within the association management community, including being named Indiana’s association executive of the year, serving as president of the Indiana Society of Association Executives, and serving on the board of directors for the Florida Society of Association Executives. Mayeux received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and took Masters in Political Science and Public Administration courses concurrent with his Juris Doctorate at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he served as Student Body President. Kevin continues to serve his alma mater as a member of its national alumni board.

Areas of Expertise: Disability Insurance, Employee Benefits, Health Care Insurance, Long-Term Care Insurance, 1099 Provision, Cafeteria Plans, Flexible Spending Arrangements, Health Savings Accounts, Medical Loss Ratio, State Exchanges, Employer-Provided Group Health Insurance, Estate Tax, Group Life and Disability Insurance Income, Life Insurance Death Benefit, Life Insurance Inside Build Up.

Diane Boyle joined the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors family in April of 1991 and serves as the association’s chief federal lobbyist. Her responsibilities include the development and implementation of legislative and regulatory strategy, and daily execution of association activities to provide advocacy services for professional insurance and financial advisors in order to support a private, competitive insurance marketplace. Prior to expansion of health services to all NAIFA members in January 2010, Boyle served as the executive vice president for the Association of Health Insurance Advisors, the former health conference of NAIFA.

Brian Steiner is the Executive Director of Life Happens, NAIFA's consumer arm. He previously served as NAIFA’s Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships from 2015-2021 and most recently as President of United Wealth Advisors Group.

Life Happens focuses on consumer education about the importance of life insurance and related products in a sound financial plan. It conducts three national awareness campaigns each year: its flagship Life Insurance Awareness Month in September, Insure Your Love in February, and Disability Insurance Awareness Month in May. Steiner, as the head of Life Happens, reports to NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux, CAE.

Michael Hedge serves on the NAIFA Government Relations team as the Director of Federal Government Relations. His primary focus centers on financial services, representing NAIFA before the House Financial Services Committee, the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and federal regulators.

Before joining NAIFA, Hedge served six years as a lobbyist for the Community Associations Institute, representing common-interest communities before state and federal legislators and regulatory agencies. He has worked for trade associations in the technology and energy fields and also spent four years representing the interests of the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates as well as in the United States.

Hedge got his start in DC on the staffs of former Ohio Congressmen John Kasich and David Hobson. He conducted his graduate studies at Georgetown University for social and public policy and completed his bachelor’s degree in history from the Catholic University of America, both located in Washington, D.C.