Staff

Trent Lakes serves as a Paraplanner for Ballast. He is a 2022 graduate of the University of Kentucky with degrees in Accounting, Finance, and Management. He is excited to use his educational background and experiences to bring value to Ballast and our clients.

Trent is a Kentucky native, born and raised in Richmond. When he is not in the office, you can find him at Lafayette High School, serving as the Head Coach for their Swim & Dive Team. He has also coached the Swim & Dive Team at Idle Hour Country Club since 2019. You can catch him playing a round of golf, enjoying time with friends and family, or watching the Wildcats bring home a victory.

Christopher Benge is a client services associate at Ballast with 10 years of experience in both the public and private sectors. Specific experience highlights include budgeting, contracts, policy development, and client relations. Mr. Benge specializes in financial systems management and has a talent for building strong relationships with clients and fellow associates.

Christopher is an avid lover of music and can often be found playing selections from Mozart’s piano sonatas or enjoying live opera performances. As a Lexingtonian, Christopher is interested in local lore and history and frequently takes part in historical tours of Lexington and the surrounding regions.

Dereka Bradley serves as a Client Services Associate. Before joining Ballast, she spent most of her professional career in retail banking where she worked the last 10 years in management. Dereka is originally from Pikeville, KY but now resides in Richmond, KY with her husband, Bryan, their three daughters, and their dog, Target. Dereka enjoys many outdoor hobbies including golf, bow hunting, and snow skiing.

Madeline Flynn serves as the firm’s Director of Communications. She focuses on the firm’s internal and external communications, events, sponsorships, and media. Before joining Ballast, her experience includes marketing at Red Mile and most recently at Leadership Kentucky. She previously studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland, and was a snow ski and sailing instructor.

Madeline graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Integrated Strategic Communications.  She lives in Lexington and enjoys painting, UK football, and being outside with her Boykin Spaniel, Tilley.

Jeff Lehmann is the firm’s Director of Operations and Chief Compliance Officer. He plays an important role in ensuring the efficiency of the office’s operations, policies, and procedures. Jeff also manages and coordinates all of the firm’s compliance activities.

With 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Jeff brings valuable experience in business operations, reporting, policies, and compliance.

Jeff is originally from Paris, KY where he grew up in a Thoroughbred-oriented family. He attended Lexington Community College as well as the University of Kentucky where he obtained a degree in Business Management with an emphasis on Economics. He now resides in Lexington with his wife Beckie and their 4 kids. Jeff enjoys watching his kids play sports, taking family trips, and playing tennis in his spare time.  Jeff is involved with the USTA Tennis Association, Maxwell Elementary School, and is a Finance and Insurance Sub-Committee Board Member of Commerce Lexington.

Christine McCabe serves a number of roles for Ballast. With over ten years of experience in financial services, Christine provides skillful solutions to insure that our clients are always taken care of. Her efforts are essential to the financial success of our clients.

S. Kristopher Bowerman serves as a Systems Consultant for the Department of Criminal Justice Training located on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. In this capacity, Bowerman provides agency-level planning, management and coordination of personnel, hardware/software installation and upgrades, implementation and configuration of networks, digital security, physical security, mobile device management and support(Apple/Android/Microsoft/G-Suite) for Law Enforcement Training, serves as assistant to the Information Systems Manager and the Law Enforcement Training & Reporting System (LETRS) Project, Reviews IT/IS use for the agency and all IT/IS expenditures. Provides liaison services to Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, Commonwealth Office of Technology (COT), DOCJT Leadership, and COT Field Services.

Bowerman started at the Department of Criminal Justice Training as an undergraduate student intern in the Fall of 1996. During his tenure, he has held various positions related to the field of information systems at DOCJT and COT. Bowerman recently completed the Office of the State School Marshal’s School Compliance Certification.  He held an adjunct position at Midway College from 2010-2014, and currently holds adjunct positions at Eastern Kentucky University teaching in the areas of Information Systems, Information Systems Security, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Vulnerability and Risk Assessments, Physical Security, and Criminal Justice. His consulting firm, Kentucky Systems Solutions, provides IT/IS services to firms in the financial and medical industry.  Bowerman holds a Master of Science degree in Loss Prevention and Safety from Eastern Kentucky University as well as a Bachelor of Science in Police Administration with a minor in Assets Protection Management from Eastern Kentucky University.