Living things grow and growing things change! As a growing organization, we are making some changes to CIG as we continue to scale our organization and become more digitally enabled. With the recent change of Nimesh Mehta to become CIO, we have decided not to backfill the role of Head Customer Service Center (CSC). Instead all the CSC leaders will report directly to me. We are also taking this moment to make a few additional changes which will allow us to develop deeper relationships with our customers and each other.
Underwriting:
Bill Whitsell has been leading a paradigm shift in Underwriting at National Life. It spans our risk management, use of data and technology, and the capabilities of our Underwriters. For the past year he has acted as our Chief Underwriter as we searched for a permanent hire. During that time it became obvious that he has the deep strategic insights, technical skills, innovation, market presence and personal relationships that we need. We are delighted that he will continue to be our SVP, Chief Underwriter and lead the Client Partner function.
To strengthen our Underwriting team, we have asked Kristin Cook to join as AVP, Deputy Chief Underwriter. It’s fitting that Kristin began her career here 13 years ago in the Underwriting department, later moving to New Business, tackling various roles while building high performing teams. She has played a major role in our unification journey, with a deep customer centric mindset. As Deputy Chief Underwriter, Kristin will continue our commitment to the development of an industry leading team.
New Business:
Angela McCraw will replace Kristin Cook as the VP, Head of New Business. Angela is ideally suited for this role, having developed extensive distribution relationships through 18 years of operational experience at National Life. She will bring technical expertise and an extraordinary customer focus to her new role. As the current Head of Customer Experience, she has literally been soaking in our customers’ experience. The Customer Mobile App and Website are examples of the power of the Customer Experience initiative to connect us digitally with our customers, providing them access to information and the ability to complete transactions electronically at any time that suits them. She is also connecting with our teammates through the Great People Great Service dialogues. We will be searching for a Head of Customer Experience and Angela will continue to lead the team in the interim.
In order to digitally enable operations, New Business and Underwriting are working closely together to transform the entire end-to-end process for both our agents and policyholders. This includes replacing eight systems with one modern New Business platform (including Resonant) for both Life and Annuities, from eApp, to automated UW through to ePolicy delivery. The journey requires seasoned leadership.
This leads me to Damian Woodard, who has demonstrated the power of reimagining Contracting and Licensing from an agent’s perspective, and delivered scale with improved timeliness and increased customer satisfaction. In that light we have asked Damian to join the Resonant team as AVP, New Business Modernization. She will work alongside Anu Dixit, who continues to lead from a technical perspective. She will bring business insights, focus and strategic leadership for this multi-year critical initiative. In her new role she will stay close to distribution and operations, delivering a robust platform for our future.
Field Services
Succession planning is a focus for us and we are excited to announce that Caitlin Hull will be promoted to Director, Head of Field Services. During her 10 years at National Life, she has held a number of different leadership roles throughout the CSC – most recently in Contracting and Commissions. Her relationships with our distribution partners and passion for customer experience make her an excellent fit to continue to build our Field Services organization. In her new role Caitlin will lead the Field Services team and play a key role to digitally enable the commissions and hierarchy platforms with the ACE project led by Kerry Jung. We will be searching for a candidate to replace the Head of Commissions role.
The entire Customer Service Center leadership team, with all your support, will lead us in 2019 and beyond as we continue our growth journey. We all need to have a clear focus on execution, as we inch towards the fourth quarter. We will work throughout the balance to the year to ensure an orderly transition. We will not be changing reporting relationships until January 1, 2019, so that all annual performance conversations and development plans for 2018 will take place with the current (not new) managers.
Please reach out to wish all of our teammates success in their new roles. If you have any questions or concerns, we always welcome your feedback.
— Vesta Bovair