2024 Men of the Year: Ryan Hurn

After more than 20 years as a professional musician, Ryan Hurn traded travel and performing for insurance and securities.

“As a result of my unusual background, I have a great amount of experience and knowledge in running and marketing an independent small business and managing irregular cash flow effectively,” says Hurn, a financial services professional with New York Life. “The advanced education I’ve since obtained enables me to work with clients in conventional settings, but my past professional experiences leave me well equipped to work with clients in a variety of unconventional settings and situations.”

Hurn – a drummer with a bachelor’s degree in music performance and jazz studies from the University of North Texas – toured and recorded with artists and organizations as varied as Ann-Margaret, the B-52’s and Emmy winners The Texas Tenors to the Boston Pops and the Salt Lake Symphony. In 2008, he hit the seas and spent four months performing aboard Cunard’s Queen Victoria.

Hurn didn’t escape the family business. With six family members in education, Hurn says teaching is a gene he inherited, having spent five years as an adjunct professor at Evangel University – which explains his penchant for pulling out a whiteboard to illustrate how a financial product works. The first time he did this – to explain how mutual funds work to a young client investing in his first IRA – the client suggested Hurn continue this kind of education.

“At the end of the 30 minutes, the client asked if he could take a picture of the diagram, smiled, shook my hand and thanked me several times for taking the time to explain everything to him, and that that was the first time he ever understood those concepts,” Hurn recalls. “He then advised me that I should do that with every client, because he had never worked with someone that easily explained such difficult concepts.”

Hurn, who holds the certifications of a chartered financial consultant and is a candidate for CFP certification, mentors people new to his industry in study groups and one-on-one sessions, and he’s active outside of work in such groups as Rotary Club of Springfield Sunrise and Springfield Sertoma.

Hurn’s career switch took a leap of faith during an otherwise stressful time.

“I began this process in the spring of 2020 after having left my former profession and income of 20 years at the beginning of a pandemic and with a newborn baby,” he says. “This was the same year in which I lost my best friend, and my wife lost her father. Frankly, it was the most difficult year in our lives, but with her unwavering support, I never gave up on my business, my education or my certifications.”

For Hurn, leadership shows itself in simple gestures, from encouraging a struggling colleague to listening intently when someone needs a sympathetic ear.

“In my view, we most effectively lead others not by the values we profess to hold but by the values we live in the conduct of our business and personal lives.”