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Carlos Lara is CEO of United Services and Trust Corporation, a consulting firm specializing in corporate trust services, business consulting and debtor-creditor relations. The firm’s primary service is working with companies in financial crisis. Serving business clients nationwide, these engagements have involved companies in most major industries including manufacturing, distribution and retail. Lara incorporated his consulting company in 1976 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lara is a specialist in informal reorganizations. These types of corporate financial workouts are creditor-debtor arrangements accomplished outside of Bankruptcy and are alternatives to a Business Chapter 11. His specialized services have been used extensively by many large corporations such as:
- Meinhart Commercial, New York
- Banker’s Trust, New York
- William Islen, New York
- Citicorp, New York
- Ingram Industries, Nashville
- Genesco, Nashville
- Oxford Industries, Atlanta
- Hart Schaffner and Marx, Chicago
- Footwear Management Co., Fort Worth
- HRE HATCO, Inc., Dallas
Lara’s business background makes him a regular speaker at industry trade symposiums and credit management conferences. During the 1980s he taught classes on credit management to upper level credit executives seeking the ABCE accreditation from the National Association of Credit Management (NACM).
He is experienced in raising capital for privately held corporations. From 1993 to 2000, Lara was a General Securities Principal and his firm was a Registered Broker-Dealer and member of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). These additional qualifications broaden the company’s exposure to the highly regulated financial services industry and the enormous array of financial products; however, the firm does not currently sell investments, or securities.
As a passionate advocate of Austrian Economics, Lara speaks and writes frequently on this subject. Firmly believing that Americans can help steer the country back to solvency, Lara has increased his efforts in educating audiences everywhere on the subjects of money and banking through its Night of Clarity conferences and other public speaking platforms. He also publishes the Lara-Murphy Report, a special on-line economic research and reporting newsletter for financial professionals, which he co-authors with Austrian economist Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D.
Born in Monterrey, Mexico (March 19,1947) he grew up in Dallas, Texas where he studied at the University of North Texas Business School. He served in the armed forces (1970-1976) as a U.S Marine Corps Reservist. In 1970 he married Anne H. Browning. Together they have three children and five grandchildren. Carlos and Anne have been residents of Nashville, Tennessee for 39 years. Both are members of Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA).
Books: How Privatized Banking Really Works (July 2010)
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Paul A. Cleveland is part of the economics faculty at Birmingham-Southern College. He received his Ph.D .
in Economics from Texas A&M University and began his career teaching at SUNY-Geneseo in 1985. After spending one year as a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando in 1989, he joined the faculty at Birmingham-Southern.
His principal academic research is focused on the study of free enterprise and entrepreneurial human action. In pursuing his studies, he also reads heavily in the areas of philosophy, theology, and history, which are helpful in exploring the morality of free markets. One of his main interests is an examination of the proper role of government in society and the problems created when it enacts policy mandates beyond its appropriate boundaries. In the pursuit of showing how to build and promote a free and virtuous society, he has affiliated with the Acton Institute where he serves as an Adjunct Scholar. His articles have been published in numerous places including the Journal of Private Enterprise, Idaho's Economy, Religion and Liberty, and Ideas on Liberty. In addition to his writing, he has lectured on the free market in numerous places including universities in Lithuania, Poland, and Taiwan.
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Paul is married and is the father of two children. He is a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA) where he serves as a ruling elder. He enjoys activities with his family and plays golf when time allows.
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Robert P. "Bob" Murphy (born 23 May 1976) is an Austrian School economist and free market-oriented author.
Murphy completed his Bachelor of Arts in economics at Hillsdale College in 1998. He then moved back to his home state of New York to continue his studies at New York University. Murphy earned his Ph.D. in economics from NYU in 2003 after successfully defending a dissertation on Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest.
Murphy has one son, Joel Clark Murphy, and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Murphy is a Christian, and has stated in his writings that "my ethical beliefs are informed by my Christian faith, and I am a firm believer in natural law."
After earning his doctoral degree, Murphy served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College in Michigan, U.S., a role he relinquished in the summer of 2006 when he moved back to New York City. From 2006 until early 2007, Murphy was employed as a research and portfolio analyst with Laffer Associates, an economic and investment consultancy firm.
Murphy is a senior fellow in business and economic studies at the Pacific Research Institute, and is an adjunct scholar and frequent speaker at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He writes a column for Townhall.com and has also written for LewRockwell.com. He is an adjunct scholar at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and an economist for the Institute for Energy Research. Murphy appeared before the United States House Committee on Financial Services on 24 July 2008 to discuss oil prices and the United States dollar. His work has been cited by Walter Block, with whom Murphy has also published. Murphy is a frequent radio guest. He appeared on "Free Markets With Dr. Mike Beitler" on the Voice America Business network on October 30, 2008.
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Murphy has also designed a home study course in Austrian economics (2005), as well as a study guide for Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy and State (with Power and Market), both published and distributed by the Mises Institute.
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R. Nelson Nash is the discoverer and developer of The Infinite Banking Concept™, one of the primary subjects of the new book, How Privatized Banking Really Works,  by L. Carlos Lara and Robert P. Murphy, Ph.D. Nash has spent over 50 years in the study of Economics (The Austrian School). His articles have appeared in dozens of publications and newspapers, including Lew Rockwell.com. A native of Georgia, Nash received a B.S. Degree in Forestry from the University of Georgia in 1952. He established a 35 year career as an Advisor-Agent with The Equitable Life Assurance Society and with The Guardian. Recognized for his high achievements, Nash was inducted as a Hall of Fame Member by The Equitable. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter, and Life Member of the Million Dollar Round Table. Nelson remains a popular teacher and lecturer on the Infinite Banking Concept™ and conducts 50-60 seminars throughout the U.S. annually. Book: Becoming Your Own Banker, a best seller at 200,000 copies
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Richard M. Ebeling is professor of economics at Northwood University. Recognized as one of the leading members of the Austrian School of Economics, Dr. Ebeling writes and lectures widely in the United States and around the world. Prior to his recent appointment at Northwood University, he served as the president of the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York in 2003-2008, and was the Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan in 1988-2003. He was also vice-president of the Future of Freedom Foundation from 1990 to 2003. Dr. Ebeling appears frequently on radio talk shows around the United States. Recently he has appeared on Fox News, CNBC, and on Fox Business News with Neil Cavuto. The author of hundreds of articles, his writings have appeared in the Washington Times, the Boston Globe, Investor’s Business Daily, Detroit News, National Review Online and numerous other publications.
Books: Political Economy, Public Policy, and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition, (Feb. 2010) Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom, (2003). He is presently finishing an intellectual biography of Ludwig von Mises that will be published by Continuum Books in the autumn of 2010.
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Richard J. Grant is Professor of Finance and Economics at Lipscomb University, where he teaches course in International Economics and Finance; Debt and Derivatives; and Principles of Economics.
He is also a Scholar at the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, and the Publications Editor at the Free Market Foundation of Southern Africa.
He is a speaker, writer, and consultant on economic issues.
Before joining the Lipscomb faculty, he worked at universities, and in businesses, in several countries around the world (and was working in the Middle East on 9/11). He was Chief Economist at the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, and Contributing Editor and columnist at the Financial Mail in Johannesburg, South Africa. He trained as an infantry officer, has run for federal political office, and has made numerous appearances on radio and television.
He has a Ph.D. in Economics (with specializations in Finance and Public Economics) from George Mason University.
He has written two books and several monographs and articles (including frequent articles in The Tennessean). His research and consulting interests include most areas of Public Policy, Financial Markets, International Economics and Finance, Monetary Policy, Health-care Economics and Finance, Environmental (and water) Policy, and Constitutional Political Economy.
He is married, has two sons, and attends Brentwood Hills Church of Christ.
Additional articles authored by Richard can be found at RichardJGrant.com.
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Andrew Benedict III (Buddy) started his career in the investment banking business with Equitable Securities Corporation in 1968 as an investment advisor. In 1972 he became a principal owner of Equitable when he and other partners purchased the Corporation from The American Express Company. He was Executive Vice President giving leadership to sales, customer relations and syndication.
Benedict resigned from Equitable Securities Corporation in 1980 to enter Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He graduated with a Master of Divinity Degree in 1983 and was ordained as a Deacon and in 1986 as an Elder in the United Methodist Church. He served as Minister of Pastoral Care at West End United Methodist Church for a few years. While at West End, Benedict initiated a program promoting ethics in the business community developing concrete ways to integrate core faith beliefs in the decision making process within the free enterprise system. Here he learned various ways to invite persons into taking practical approaches to profitability within a spiritual context.
In 1986, Benedict was appointed to start a new congregation of The United Methodist Church in Williamson County. He gave leadership to the founding of Christ United Methodist Church gathering the congregation and building its first worship and educational facility. Starting in a tent with only his family, Benedict and the lay congregation grew Christ United Methodist to 350 persons. In 1990 the congregation moved into its present facilities. His background in finance prepared him to give leadership to not only raising the funds for a new building but expanding the church’s ministry through additional real estate purchases.
Benedict left Christ United Methodist Church in 1992 to redirect his understanding of servant hood to the world of public service. He ran for the United States Senate in 1992 traveling the State of Tennessee talking about what it means to be a servant in public life. After defeat in the 1994 primary election, Benedict returned to the investment banking business. In 1997, Benedict became manager of all Smith Barney offices in Nashville building new office space for an additional sales office in the Green Hills area. As a Smith Barney office manager Benedict built a work environment around his understanding of the principles of servant leadership. Benedict managed 50 investment consultants while at Smith Barney retiring in November of 2007.
Benedict joins United Services Trust Corporation to add emphasis to educating persons on the way money works with teaching practical approaches to being a proper steward of one’s money and personal resources within the context of personal faith and practice.
Buddy was born in Nashville, TN on October 25, 1942 and is married to Dianne Lackey Benedict. They have 4 children: Beth, Fran, Andy and Carolyn. Khullun Avery is their only grandson adding a special ray of sunshine to their family circle. Buddy enjoys playing golf, fishing and playing in his 60s rock ‘n roll band. He and Dianne are members of Brentwood United Methodist Church. |
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Ms. McKechnie began her quest for knowledge of finance, both corporate and personal, in the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University through obtaining a degree in Finance with a further concentration in Personal Financial Planning. She was employed by Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., New York, in their Management Development Program.
It was during a quest to better understand and implement financial strategies for herself that Ms. McKechnie was introduced to Carlos Lara, founder and CEO of United Services and Trust Corporation. Ms. McKechnie found refreshing accuracy and truthfulness in Lara’s strategic approach to wealth creation and preservation based predominately on economics. After a complete assessment of her entire personal financial situation, Lara was able to advise and consult with Ms. McKechnie to implement several financial strategies to secure and protect her financial future. It was with this feeling of having been objectively advised and led to a place of financial confidence that Ms. McKechnie sought a position with the USTC team. |
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