Northern Lights Financial Group

Managing Director

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As Managing Director, Mike Nelson leads the planning and execution of strategic growth and productivity initiatives for the office. Coaching and supporting our financial professionals both in-person and virtually, he aims to maximize their potential, identify their needs and provide guidance. Mike promotes and encourages the importance and advantages of practice building opportunities, supporting cross collaboration between financial professionals and business partners, and professional education. Mike has been with Prudential Advisors for 32 years, the last 22 have been as the Managing Director of the Northern Lights Financial Group based in Minnesota. Mike lives in Maple Grove MN with his wife Stacey of 32 years, he has two kids, Matthew and Benjamin, and their dog, Dexter. When not working, he enjoys golfing and most activities that involve the outdoors. He also still maintains a farm in Washburn, ND and a hunting property in Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Director, Sales & Support Oversight

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As the Director of Sales Support & Oversight, Greg partners with the Managing Director to provide oversight and supervision in our agency. He adds value by deploying strategies that can help mitigate risk, while supervising teams conducting business activities in an ethical and compliant manner. Greg’s goal is to help financial professionals reach their goals by supporting their business activity and help improve processes to make doing business easier. 

Regional Director

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As Regional Director, David Leflar supports growth of the office through coaching our current financial professionals and identifying new prospects to join our team. The coaching David offers ranges from a variety of topics including, but not limited to, marketing, practice management, team building, financial planning processes and product selection. David’s experience helps him bring value to both experienced financial professionals and those just starting in the business. David has served in several roles in the financial services industry, which helps him bring a unique perspective to Prudential. David got his start in the industry as an advisor with AXA Advisors. He later joined Ameriprise Financial as a National Sales Consultant, then Regional Sales Director. Both roles focused on helping financial professionals to understand financial products and identify growth opportunities. In 2011, he joined Gradient Securities as VP of Marketing, working closely with financial professionals to provide product and practice management guidance, training, and supervision. He also collaborated with the office's leadership to build and improve internal process and functions of the firm. As President of Gradient Securities, Dave led the daily operations. He is looking forward to continuing leveraging his prior experience to support new and experienced financial professionals in the office. Dave lives in Plymouth with his wife and 3 sons. When not working, he is active supporting his boys’ activities in sports, Scouts and the performing arts.

Regional Director

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As Regional Director, Josh Schultheis supports our experienced financial professionals along with identifying new prospects that align with our strategic growth initiatives. Josh provides a holistic approach to financial planning through investment consulting, wealth enhancement, legacy planning, insurance, and asset protection. Josh has over a decade of experience in financial services, primarily in the bond market. Prior to joining Prudential, Josh was Assistant Vice President at Piper Jaffray and Managing Director at UBS. In both roles, he focused on selling fixed income products to financial institutions, insurance companies, and RIAs. Josh graduated from St. Olaf College with a BA in Economics and played baseball all 4 years. He lives in Shoreview with his wife Erin and their 3 girls Piper, Cecelia, and Olivia. Josh enjoys spending time on the lake, golfing, and downhill skiing.

Regional Director

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After 30+ years in a variety of leadership and financial advisor roles, Karen Starr joined Prudential as a Regional Director in early 2023.  Her responsibilities include enhancing our office's capacity to support current financial professionals as well as helping to implement our growth initiatives. Her experience has featured building diverse and high-impact teams of individuals by building trusted relationships. She enjoys coaching people to reach their highest potential through her experience as both an advisor and  leader. Karen is a certified facilitator for Managing Goal Achievement (Integrity Solutions) and The Advocacy Program (Dr. Csaba Sziklai) and is often described a valuable Utility Player. Karen earned a BA in music education from St Olaf College in Northfield, MN, then a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Capital University in Columbus, OH. She began her career in banking as a branch manager in Columbus and discovered an aptitude and passion for teaching people solid and holistic financial management strategies. Karen transitioned to Lutheran Brotherhood (now Thrivent) and spent several years as an advisor and field leader. After getting married to her husband, Dave, she moved back to the Midwest and later joined Principal Financial as an advisor. She created a six-part financial seminar with over 800+ attendees during her tenure in Des Moines. Karen was featured as a keynote speaker for Principal’s Women in Business national teleclass. Karen and her husband, Dave, currently live in Sioux Falls, SD. They have two daughters who are actively pursuing higher education in graphic design and healthcare. Karen serves on the Board of Directors for Sales & Marketing Executives of Sioux Falls, Inc. and volunteers her time to charities like Kids Against Hunger and Call to Freedom. The family enjoys spending time at their cabin in the beautiful Black Hills along with their mini-goldendoodle, Lucky.

Regional Director

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As Regional Director, Kyle Thomas supports our office's financial professionals by coaching them through the financial planning and relationship-based advice processes in selling insurance, investments, and other financial products. Kyle also provides guidance and support around the use of Prudential's technology platforms to increase our financial planners, financial advisors and financial professionals’ operational efficiency and enhance the overall client experience. Kyle started his financial services career in 2000 with a small broker-dealer in Dallas, TX. He was rapidly promoted to vice president and moved back to his home state of Minnesota to open a branch for that office. A few years later, Kyle became an independent contractor with a larger broker-dealer and built his practice as a personal financial representative. After nearly 14 years, he followed his passion for mentoring and training and joined Prudential Advisors where he continues to serve the needs of financial professionals utilizing his experience, compassion, and knowledge of the industry to help them build healthy practices to achieve next-level success. Kyle and his wife Gerilyn live in Rogers, MN,  and have two children who are currently attending college.

Sales Support Administrator

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As Sales Support Administrator, Amiebrooke supports our newest financial professionals as Onboarding Coordinator, guiding our career development recruits through training and licensing, and helping our newest experienced financial professionals successfully launch their new career with Prudential Advisors. She also coordinates office training sessions, office-wide events, and office communications.

Sales Support Administrator

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As a Sales Support Administrator, Kasey supports our newest financial planners, financial advisors and financial professionals in on our onboarding process through guidance in trainings, licensing, and technology support. She serves as a resource to help them stay current on our office communications, events, processes, and trainings. As co-lead champion, Kasey ensures our financial planners, financial advisors and financial professionals are provided with the most up to date resources and training for successful execution of their leads programs.

Sales Support Administrator

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As a Sales Support Administrator, Anthony collaborates with the Director of Sales Support to ensure that all financial professionals receive outstanding operational support. His objective is to provide the highest level of assistance while adhering to the ethics and compliance guidelines.

Sales Support Specialist

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As a Sales Support Specialist, Denise provides policy information for unaligned clients to our financial professionals. She helps representatives stay compliant by preliminarily reviewing incoming and outgoing correspondence, logging registered payments, and ensuring marketing materials in the office are current.  Denise also provides general office functions such as greeting clients and answering the main phone line, ordering office supplies, paying expenses, and troubleshooting printer issues.

Business Development Manager

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Lori focuses on finding well-qualified financial professionals and introducing them to Prudential Advisors’ outstanding value proposition. Whether a financial planner, financial advisor or financial professional is looking to grow, mature with their current clients, or build a succession plan, she helps them transition their practice with confidence. Prior to joining Prudential in 2020, Lori spent nine years with Ameriprise Financial, where she was a senior internal recruiter and helped lead recruiting efforts on a team of eight. She started her career in the financial industry selling and servicing qualified plans. For more than 20 years, her and her husband have lived in beautiful Stillwater, MN. An extrovert with a weak spot for Badgers basketball, good food and wine, Lori tries to get outdoors on a daily basis. She loves spending time with their three adult children.