Mitch Barker 
Senior Vice President

Senior Vice President Mitch Barker is a native of Corpus Christi who played tennis at Texas A&M University, where he received an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences. As a district sales manager for Beckman Instruments, he sold bio-analytical systems to colleges, medical schools and hospitals. Mitch then started up operations in the US and abroad for a large British technology company. In 1990, he formed his own consulting company to provide profitability improvement services to hospitals and physician groups nation-wide. His knowledge of hospital and other public sector financial management help him structure plans that save cities money and give employees better retirement benefits for a more secure future.

Andrea Bivens*  
Manager, Plan Compliance

Andrea came to PARS in 1996. With a BA from Point Loma University in San Diego, her experience in plan enrollments and in Qualified and Non-Qualified plans in an insurance environment give her a practical, hands-on foundation for her current responsibilities. Andrea oversees PARS plan implementation to ensure proper legal documentation, IRS Letters of Plan Determination and ongoing compliance.

Michelle C. Emmal*, CAPPP**  
Vice President

Michelle began serving PARS agencies in 1992, overseeing implementation of more than 100 retirement incentive plans. In 1998 she expanded her role to working with public agency staff members to design plans. A Psychology graduate of UC Irvine, her in-depth understanding of PARS plan designs gives her a broad platform from which to help agencies design programs to creatively address their needs and concerns.

Kristen Farris*  
Senior Manager, Enrollments and Client Services

With a BA in English from UC Irvine, Kristen came to PARS in 1998 as a Plan Enrollments Administrator where she enrolled participants in more than 150 Retirement Incentive and Retirement Enhancement Plans. Today, she oversees the enrollment processes of all PARS plans and works with PARS Member Agencies to ensure exceptional client service.      

Tod Hammeras, CPA  
Chief Financial Officer

Tod joined PARS in 1993 with 15 years of accounting and business management experience.  An honors graduate of CSU Fullerton, he became a CPA in 1981.  He was the controller for an electronics subcontractor for five years before starting his own public accounting practice in 1990.  In 1993, PARS became his client, and in 1996 he became CFO, turning his attentions full-time to overseeing the general management of the corporate affairs of PARS.

Dan Johnson, CEBS
President

Educated in Business Accounting at CSU Fullerton, Dan came to PARS in 1988.  Having served as accounting manager for an electronics subcontractor, he developed the PARS plan accounting and administration systems.  In 1998, as Senior Vice-President, Operations he assumed the responsibilities of President. Dan maintains a hands-on relationship with PARS agencies and plan administration while providing visionary leadership to PARS. 

Kevin Murphy  
Executive Vice President

Kevin joined PARS in 1998 with 22 years of front-line municipal management experience - 15 as a City Manager. Educated in Political Science at UCLA and at the graduate level in Public Administration at CSU Long Beach, Kevin leads the consulting team at PARS, providing solutions to public agency managers with fiscal, legal, political and labor relations challenges. He helps government agencies analyze existing plans and design innovative and customized retirement plan enhancements, supplements, and alternatives.

Ryan Nicasio, CEBS  
Senior Manager, Plan Accounting

Ryan started with PARS in February 1998 as an Administrator in the Plan Accounting Department. Primarily focusing on the California ARS cases, Texas wasn't even on the horizon back then, Ryan quickly mastered the complexities of the accounting and valuation processes for 100+ plans with well over 100,000 participants. Through Ryan's hard work and determination, he rose through the ranks with promotions to Senior Accounting Administrator, and in 2002, to Manager, Plan Accounting. During that same year, Ryan powered through the remaining coursework, which he starting in 1998, and attained the CEBS designation. PARS was now entering a new phase in its growth. We were now dealing with new plan types (MATCH, ALP, REP, etc...) in new states...and Ryan's department was at the "frontline"; crunching the numbers, cranking out valuations, and ensuring the financial reporting made sense, all within tight time constraints. Shortly thereafter, daily valuation reared it's head, a new accounting system was brought on-line, new staff members were added and Ryan was, and is, at the center of it all, making it work.

Eric O’Leary, CEBS  
Vice President

Since 1993, Eric has been involved in design and implementation of more than 200 PARS retirement programs. An honors Business/Mathematics graduate of Concordia University, Irvine, Eric specializes in 401(a) Social Security alternatives, retirement incentives, and 457 deferred compensation plans, helping schools and community college districts create plans that are consistent with agencies’ specific objectives, fiscal constraints, and bargaining requirements. 

Patrick Pacheco, CEBS  
Vice President

Patrick came to PARS in 1995 with a BA in Finance from CSU Fullerton.  While managing the PARS plan accounting process, he assisted in a major expansion of the PARS plan accounting systems to equip the growing program with state-of-the-art technology. Today Patrick oversees PARS plan accounting and distribution operations, as well as PARS’ information technology and facilities resources. 

Dion Papafote*  
Manager, Texas Sales and Marketing

Dion joined PARS in 2000 after almost a decade in insurance, securities and the employee benefits industry – working mainly with school districts. With a BA from the University of Texas, Austin,  insurance licenses in Life/ Health and Variable Contracts and Series 6, 63 and 26 securities licenses, Dion oversees sales and marketing in Texas and other states outside California from PARS’ Austin office. 

Maureen Toal, MPA, CAPPP**  
Vice President, Public Affairs

Maureen joined the team in 1999 with 17 years of local, state and federal public sector management experience. Educated at UC Santa Barbara and USC, she helps agencies understand the advantages of qualified plans and provides the valuable service of keeping a finger on the pulse of federal/state legislation that can impact public retirement plans. She updates agencies through the PARS Legislative Alert and PARS Agency Watch.

Heidi Vega  
Senior Manager, Plan Administration

Heidi started with PARS in 1997 as a Specialist in the Administration Department. Having had to adapt to some shifts in staff and management within the Admin Department during the early part of her tenure with PARS, Heidi rose to the occasion and demonstrated her ability to lead and motivate. These abilities were recognized with a promotion to Manager, Plan Administration in 1998. During the years Heidi held this position, she instilled in herself and her staff a dedication to professionally servicing the unique and challenging needs of the participants and the clients of PARS. In recent years, due to the growth and diversity of our client base, Heidi and her staff have had to adjust and rework their procedures in order to maintain the high standards of administration within the Department. Now with the administration of Match Plans, Participant Directed, 457, along with the ARS Plans, Heidi and her staff have worked diligently in mastering the intricate and complex rules that govern the plans we administer. As PARS gains more and more of a national presence, Heidi will continue to provide the leadership and experience this company needs to succeed.   

Dennis Yu, MBA, CEBS, CAPPP**  
Vice President  Consulting

Since 1994, Dennis has gained significant experience in developing innovative and customized PARS retirement plans. Educated in Economics at UC Irvine (where he graduated cum laude), he also completed an MBA at UCLA (in Finance) and the CEBS and CAPPP designations. Dennis offers a wide range of technical expertise to agencies involved in plan design and implementation – particularly in developing complex financial models to address multi-faceted scenarios. He has been involved in the development of more than 200 PARS retirement plans.

Karen Zfaty*, MA, MBA  
Director of Marketing Information Systems

Karen joined PARS in 1988 after 11 years in information systems and research grant administration at the University of California, Irvine, where she also received a degree in Linguistics and an MBA in Management Information Systems. With 18 years of hands-on experience at PARS in plan administration and managing marketing communication efforts, Karen now focuses on marketing information systems, managing a robust client relation management system as well as the numerous PARS websites.