Conquest Planning Accelerates U.S. Growth Strategy with Three Senior Go-to-Market Executive Hires

New CRO, COO and CMO appointments strengthen commercial leadership as platform expands AI-powered, advisor-centric financial planning

WINNIPEG, Manitoba--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), the financial planning platform powering advice delivery across the full wealth spectrum, today announced the appointment of three go-to-market executives: Rob Crnkovic as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Kristen Winther as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Karen Budell as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The hires represent a strategic investment in commercial leadership as Conquest expands in the United States and builds on growing demand for more efficient, personalized financial advice across the wealth continuum.

“Conquest is helping reshape how financial advice is delivered, making it easier for institutions and advisors to provide high-quality, personalized guidance efficiently, without sacrificing trust or consistency,” said Brad Joudrie, CEO of Conquest Planning. “Rob, Kristen and Karen each bring deep experience building and scaling commercial organizations in financial technology. Their leadership will help us accelerate growth in the U.S., extending our reach and taking another step toward our goal of helping more families gain access to bespoke financial plans built for their unique needs.”

These appointments follow Conquest’s recent milestone of surpassing two million financial plans created, highlighting accelerating demand from advisors and enterprise institutions, including banks and broker-dealers. The company is investing in leadership to advance its mission of democratizing financial guidance for advisors serving mass affluent clients all the way up to ultra-high-net-worth families. Powered by its proprietary AI expert system, Strategic Advice Manager (SAM), Conquest enables firms to deliver consistent, auditable planning across digital, hybrid and advisor-led experiences.

Each executive will lead a core pillar of Conquest’s go-to-market engine—revenue, operations and marketing—working in concert to support how financial institutions adopt, implement and scale financial planning across their organizations:

Rob Crnkovic, Chief Revenue Officer

Crnkovic is a seasoned revenue leader with a track record of scaling fintech and enterprise software businesses. Most recently, he served as co-founder and CRO at Toronto-based CapIntel, which ranked No. 2 on Deloitte Canada's 2025 Technology Fast 50. Prior to building CapIntel’s commercial engine, he held senior revenue roles at Plaid as head of North American banking and wealth, and Salesforce, where he led strategic sales teams across Canadian and U.S. enterprise banking.

As CRO, Crnkovic will spearhead Conquest's revenue generating initiatives, expanding partnerships with financial institutions and advisors, and drive enterprise growth across the U.S. and globally.

Kristen Winther, Chief Operating Officer

Winther brings more than 20 years of experience scaling global businesses across asset management and financial technology. She joins Conquest from TIFIN, where she held business management roles and served as a subsidiary-level COO, overseeing sales operations, forecasting and launch strategy across several subsidiaries, including early-stage AI-driven companies built for the financial ecosystem. Prior to TIFIN, she held roles at GraniteShares, MSCI and Horizons ETFs (now Global X Canada). She currently serves as global co-president of Women in ETFs.

As COO, Winther will lead the people and culture team, delivery and implementation, IT and security and operational initiatives to support efficient growth and enterprise adoption.

Karen Budell, Chief Marketing Officer

Budell is a marketing executive whose career spans journalism, publishing and two decades of brand and go-to-market leadership at public and B2B technology companies. She joins Conquest from Totango, a leading customer growth platform, where she served as CMO and chief strategy and partnerships officer, leading the company through three M&A integrations and a brand transformation. Prior to Totango, she was vice president of brand marketing at SurveyMonkey, and she held senior roles at Google in the YouTube Ads and Google Marketing Platform businesses. Budell was named one of Pavilion's 50 CMOs to Watch in 2024 and is a member of the Women in Revenue community, dedicated to advancing women in go-to-market leadership roles.

As CMO, Budell will lead Conquest's global brand, thought leadership and integrated marketing strategy, helping articulate the company’s differentiated approach, where AI is embedded within the core planning engine instead of applied as an add-on to existing tools. She will also be tasked with increasing awareness among advisors and institutions across the U.S. and beyond.

Together, these appointments position Conquest to accelerate adoption of its platform among financial institutions seeking to deliver consistent, compliant and scalable financial advice across client segments.

For more information about Conquest, please visit conquestplanning.com.

About Conquest Planning

Conquest Planning is a leading financial planning software company that enables advice delivery across the full spectrum, from digital to hybrid to traditional advisor-led engagements. Powered by its proprietary AI expert system, Strategic Advice Manager (SAM), Conquest combines an auditable, deterministic calculation engine with intelligent, AI-enhanced features to help advisors build better plans, serve more clients and grow their practice. Established in 2018, Conquest Planning was founded by a team of financial technology veterans with a track record spanning more than 30 years in the financial planning software space. Its strategic investors include Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, Canapi Ventures, Citi Ventures, BDC Capital, TIAA Ventures, USAA, BNY Mellon, Portage and Royal Bank of Canada. For more information, follow Conquest on LinkedIn, X and YouTube.