Tony DaRe shares his perspective on leadership, growth and the ideas behind this year’s “Beyond Limits” theme (Photo Credit: Caroline Klaar, Paperboy Media Group)

The annual summit brought executives and community leaders together to address healthcare costs, workforce pressures, technology, culture and leadership.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (Sept. 3, 2026) — As employers confront rising healthcare costs, workforce pressures, burnout and rapid advances in technology, nearly 400 business and community leaders gathered in Bethlehem today to consider a different question: What if some of the limits organizations have accepted are not actually fixed?

BSI Corporate Benefits’ 2026 CORE Annual Summit brought together CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, business owners, human resources and benefits executives and community leaders to share ideas, challenge conventional thinking and explore new approaches to building healthier businesses, stronger cultures and more resilient teams.

Held at the ArtsQuest Event Center at SteelStacks, the invitation-only summit centered on the theme “Beyond Limits,” encouraging attendees to look beyond barriers, burnout, complacency and “the way it has always been done.”

“Bethlehem could not be happier to host this group of leaders today,” said City of Bethlehem Mayor Willie Reynolds. “We cherish that BSI chose Bethlehem as its headquarters, and also wants to bring leaders together to plan how we can accomplish goals and keep growing the Lehigh Valley.”

Tony DaRe, founder and CEO of BSI, opened the summit by challenging attendees to recognize the limits they may have inadvertently embraced.

“Some of the most dangerous limits are the ones we don’t even realize we’ve accepted,” DaRe said. “Maybe it’s the way our industry has always done something. Maybe it’s the way we’ve always led. Maybe it’s the pace we’ve convinced ourselves is necessary to succeed.”

DaRe shared how BSI confronted one of its own limits in 2019. Although the company was growing by every traditional business measure, its leaders and employees were exhausted, and the pace was taking a toll on their teams and families. The experience prompted BSI to redefine how it measured success and make caring for its people a fundamental business priority.

Today, BSI retains approximately 93% of its clients. That people-first approach has coincided with sustained business growth, including BSI’s recent recognition on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. The distinction marked BSI’s fifth appearance on the list and followed 68% revenue growth over three years. BSI also has one of the highest client-retention rates in the employee benefits industry, nearly 15 percentage points above the average competitor. For DaRe, the connection is clear: when an organization takes extraordinary care of its people, those people take extraordinary care of its clients.

That evolution also reflects a philosophy DaRe found reinforced through Dave Whorton, founder of the Tugboat Institute, whose work focuses on building enduring, privately held companies through purpose, stewardship, paced growth and long-term value. Rather than pursuing growth at all costs, BSI has continued to invest in its people, leadership development, technology, artificial intelligence and new capabilities while remaining independent.

“Growth matters. But how you grow matters more,” DaRe told attendees. “Who you bring with you matters. How you treat people matters. What you give back matters. Whether your people are better because they worked alongside you matters.”

“Martin [Guitar] and BSI have built enduring organizations because of the passion and love for what we do,” said Thomas Ripsam, president and chief executive officer at C.F. Martin & Co. “We are both active in the community, because without that, you really don’t understand the needs of the people you serve.”

CORE asked attendees to participate in that conversation directly through an Activation Wall titled “The Limits We Are Breaking.” Throughout the day, guests identified their most pressing employee-benefits challenges, added their names and posted those challenges to the wall.

Responses ranged from work-life balance to business growth challenges, providing a real-time picture of the healthcare and workforce issues weighing most heavily on employers. BSI will use the insights to continue conversations with attendees and develop future educational resources and campaigns around the challenges organizations most want help solving.

The program addressed the competing pressures employers are being asked to manage at once, from rising healthcare costs and compliance risks to employee engagement, multigenerational workplaces, artificial intelligence and organizational culture.

New York Times bestselling author Lindsey Pollak challenged leaders to see the five generations represented in today’s workforce not as a problem to manage, but as a competitive advantage. Her presentation and subsequent fireside conversation explored how benefits, communication, leadership and workplace culture can better support employees at different stages of their careers and lives.

BSI leaders and clients also shared strategies for managing healthcare spending, improving compliance, strengthening human capital management and translating benefits decisions into measurable financial and human outcomes. The conversations reflected BSI’s “No Lazy Answers” philosophy and its commitment to challenging accepted practices in search of better options for employers and their people.

Tim Tebow, Heisman Trophy winner, former NFL quarterback, professional baseball player and founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation, delivered the afternoon keynote. Drawing on his experiences in athletics and philanthropy, Tebow explored resilience, purpose and the willingness to push beyond perceived limitations.

Following the keynote, Tebow joined DaRe and event emcee Ashley Russo of Turnstone Creative for a live conversation about how preparation, accountability and adaptability translate from athletics to organizational leadership.

The summit also honored Community Action Lehigh Valley, Northampton Community College and Dakkota with BSI Peak Performer Awards. The awards recognized partnerships that demonstrate long-term commitment, meaningful results and a shared investment in people and community.

BSI supports more than 75 nonprofit organizations, while members of its team volunteer, mentor and serve on boards throughout the communities where they live and work. The company views that involvement as an extension of its broader people-first philosophy and its responsibility to leave the organizations and communities it serves better than it found them.

“BSI’s commitment to the Lehigh Valley is genuine, authentic and consistent,” said Rick Bucher, chief executive officer of Victaulic. “Community involvement brings the BSI team together and it feels good to be a part of that ecosystem.”

Ultimately, the conversations at CORE were not about pretending that the challenges facing today’s organizations can simply be eliminated. They were about encouraging leaders to stop treating those challenges as immovable.

Before attendees left, DaRe asked each of them to consider the limit they had accepted within their organization, their leadership or themselves, and ask: “Does it actually have to be this way?”

From healthcare and workforce strategy to technology, culture and leadership, the message throughout the day was clear: moving beyond limits starts with being willing to question them.

About BSI Corporate Benefits

BSI Corporate Benefits is a nationally recognized employee benefits consulting firm specializing in innovative healthcare, benefits, compliance, wellness, and workforce solutions for employers across the United States. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, BSI is known for its client-first philosophy, strategic consulting expertise, and commitment to delivering customized solutions that improve outcomes for employers and employees alike. To learn more about BSI Corporate Benefits and its people-first approach to employee benefits consulting, visit www.bsicorporate.com.