Richard Heft is co-founder and president of Ext. Marketing Inc., a full-service marketing firm that helps financial services firms achieve their marketing strategy, communications and regulatory objectives, and serves many of the world's largest tier-one banks and insurers, mutual fund companies, private equity firms, hedge funds and credit unions. Ext. Digital, Ext. Marketing’s digital arm, has been at the forefront of the investor marketing industry since 2016, enabling new digital ways for Reg A+, pre-IPO and publicly listed companies to syndicate their investment stories to multiple channels, generate corporate awareness and attract potential retail investors. Prior to founding Ext. Marketing, Richard owned and ran Integrated Corporate Communications (ICC), which was launched in 2006 to provide top-quality writing, editing, branding, project management, graphic design, web design and print services to the financial services and insurance sectors. ICC's client list included some of the world's largest companies. In 2021, Richard and his co-author, Andrew Broadhead, published The Ascendant Advisor, which provides financial and insurance advisors with marketing and content strategies they can easily use to grow their businesses. Richard is frequently quoted in the Building your Business section of Investment Executive.