Meet Our Staff

Cindy Hynes is a principal of Hynes Benefits Consulting, LLC. She founded the company in 2003 after a successful 18-year career as a senior employee benefits consultant, auditor and business executive.

When she established HBC, Cindy was determined to free the company from the quarter-to-quarter pressures to reduce costs and maximize billing that can lead other firms to assign their most experienced consultants to managing client relationships while delegating the actual consulting work to junior staff. “At Hynes Benefits Consulting, all of the strategic day-to-day work is performed by the principals in partnership with senior executives from the account teams we assemble for each client,” says Cindy. “ This high level of support is simply not possible when you retain a very large firm.”

Prior to launching HBC, Cindy served as a Client Manager at CIGNA Healthcare of Arizona, where she provided the seamless delivery of services to such key accounts as Intel, Motorola, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter and Del Webb.

Cindy first moved to the Valley in 1992 to work as a vice president in the Phoenix office of Johnson and Higgins. During her tenure at J&H, she managed a host of major accounts including Yokohama Tire, Scripto Tokai, Double Tree Hotels, Fennemore Craig and Giant Industries. She was subsequently tapped to serve as an internal auditor for J&H’s National Middle Market Employee Benefit practice, with responsibility for quality control audits on the policy and procedures used by J&H offices nationwide.

Cindy launched her consulting career in 1982 in California, where she held positions of increasing responsibility at Crown Valley Insurance, Sedgwick/James, MassMutual Financial Group and the Costa Mesa office of J&H, a Chairman’s Cup Award winning office. She is also a Group Benefits Associate (GBA), a designation issued by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in association with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The GBA credential indicates a high level of academic and professional achievement in the areas of group health plan design, group benefits management and health care financing, quality and reform. GBA designees must successfully complete a series of rigorous national examinations and agree to abide by the organization’s high ethical standards and Principles of Conduct.

Cindy earned her Business Finance degree from Arizona State University.

Bernie Hynes has over 30 experience years in the employee benefits field. Bernie began his career at Mutual of America in New York and held a variety of home office and field positions for this leading provider of pension and group plans for major not for profit organizations.

In 1985 he relocated to Phoenix where he joined Johnson & Higgins of Arizona as a senior benefits consultant and eventually led the Employee Benefit services operation. Clients included Doubletree Hotels, Magma Copper Company, Tucson Newspapers, University Medical Center, Bryant Universal Roofing, and Giant Industries.

Bernie joined Buck Consultants in 1996 as a Principal and Employee Benefit Consultant where he consulted and managed relationships with major clients including BHP Copper, Tosco, The Scotts Company, PetSmart, Giant Industries, Grossman Properties Company, Maricopa Community College District, and C.H. Guenther & Son.

Bernie joined Hynes Benefits Consulting in January 2007 to further our vision for this business. Bernie is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he received his BA. He received his Master’s Degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He holds the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) designation and is a Fellow of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists. Bernie is a past President of the Greater Phoenix Association of Health Underwriters and the 2020-2021 President of the Arizona Association of Health Underwriters.