Richard Salmen, a former air traffic controller with 25 years of financial planning experience, took over as chair of the board of directors for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards on Jan. 1.
He succeeded Blaine Aikin, the 2017 chair.
Salmen has served on the CFP Board’s board of directors since 2015. He was the president of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) in 2009 and helped create the Financial Planning Coalition, which includes the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), FPA and the CFP Board.
On Jan. 1, Salmen joined the Family Investment Center as president to spearhead expanded financial planning services at the firm’s Lenoxa, Kansas, office. Most recently, Salmen was interim CEO of Northern Financial Advisors. Prior to that, he was an owner of GTrust Financial Partners—which was sold to BOK Financial—overseeing the firm’s financial planning practice.
“This year promises to be significant for our profession and for the CFP mark as we finalize the proposed revised Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct,” Salmen said in a statement. “This major undertaking and other important initiatives demonstrate our commitment to benefit the public through competent and ethical financial planning provided by CFP professionals.”
Salmen enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1984 and went to college on a three-year Army ROTC scholarship the following year. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and an MBA from the University of Kansas.
He also served on active duty in the U.S. Army and as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. For nearly 25 years, Salmen was also an air traffic controller in Kansas, until his retirement in 2013.