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Dan Young, CMP

PAST Young started his career as a financial planner, then joined Lutheran Brotherhood as a sales trainer. He rose to regional sales manager and then AVP of field services in 1994, at which point his involvement with conferences began. In 2002, after the merger of Lutheran Brotherhood and its competitor Aid Association for Lutherans, Young was asked to create a combined events department for the new company—Thrivent Financial. He has led that department ever since.

CRED Young has run his department using SMMP principles since 2002, before “SMMP” was common parlance. And he continues to innovate, using his perspective on the company’s annual events calendar to push for a change in the strategic planning calendar. The change ensures that the company’s strategic direction and messaging is set before the annual national sales meeting in the late fall.

SUCCESS STORY As Thrivent executives struggled with “the AIG effect” late last year, Young submitted a four-page memo in defense of the company’s 2009 recognition conferences. Waiting to learn the fate of the conferences “was the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in my 25-year career,” Young says. Later that week, he found that the conferences would go forward.

GIVING BACK Young is serving his third year on the Board of Directors of FICP. At the annual meeting in November, he will begin his term as president of the association.

ADVICE “Relationships are more important than profits, especially in this economic environment. For example, we had to cut our budget for the conference we just held in Banff, and our DMC—CanTrav—really stepped up and did things beyond what we paid for so our people would have a great experience. I’m now their most loyal customer. I will bring business to them for the rest of my career.”

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