Meghan Meyer recently announced a plethora of exciting news about New Business.
The year 2022 is a year of transformation for many of us in our personal and professional lives. Within New Business and Underwriting, this is the year when we will see our biggest transformation yet come to fruition. Many of you are aware of, and have been a part of, the foundational work that has been done to prepare us for the exciting move into Resonant and our Future State Business Model. It has taken a village to get to a place where we are ready to step into this new world that will support our growing business in a scalable and customer-focused way.
To prepare for our first steps into the new system, there are a few structural changes that will take place at the end of this month, to set the department up for the highest level of success.
First, I am excited to share that Rachael Blanchard has been promoted to Team Manager. Rachael will be leading our Life Quality team, formerly reporting to Christine Gloor (as you may recall, Christine stepped in to lead this team for an interim period). Rachael has been with National Life for the past 10 years. She joined us after graduating High School as a Policy Support Tech. After two years in that role, she transitioned to Life Transfers and Replacements where she worked her way up into a team lead role where she’s spent her last 3 years. Rachael has stood out as someone who drives for results and digs in to ask why. She is not one to shy away from feedback and has learned to crave it. Her work with documenting processes for NuBiz along with creating a process for group submission of business shows her commitment to improving the National Life experience for both internal and external customers. Rachael is local, in Barre VT, and has recently welcomed her daughter, Charlotte (Charlie), with husband PJ. Rachael will report to me.
A key element for success in our future state will be dependent on how we as an organization establish a feedback loop based on trends within our business. Christine Gloor, Beth Gould and Katy Bickford will be shifting from their current responsibilities and focusing on bringing to life the future state vision for the New Business Audit Team. They will be working together to develop a comprehensive audit program that will analyze our processes for effectiveness, efficiency, and compliance with business guidelines as well as state and regulatory policies. Due to their experience in various roles within the department, technical expertise and strong understanding of the customer, agent, and employee needs, we are confident they will be able to execute this effort in a truly transformative way. Christine, Beth, and Katy will report to Alice Frederick who will continue to lead the PFA case management team. Alice will continue reporting to me.
For several years, Christine has led a team of case managers supporting Louis Puglisi. She has developed a high-performing team and has strong relationships with our distribution partners. While she transitions to developing the Audit world, her current team of case managers will realign to Abe Bartlett. Abe currently supports Eric Lopez’s business and bringing the Puglisi field leaders together with Eric will be complimentary to the type of work these groups support. We are excited to merge these two groups of case managers under Abe’s leadership. Abe will report to Senait Menghes.
Rosie Kreis, who was recently promoted to Senior Team Manager, is currently leading the Life and Annuity Replacements teams. This will continue in 2022 with Rosie shifting to report to Senait Menghes.
We are also excited to welcome Nicole Hicks to the New Business Leadership team and to NLG! Nicole will be leading the Annuity Quality team and will report directly to Senait Menghes. Nicole comes to us from Goosehead Insurance leading teams in ops and project-based teams. She resides in the DFW metroplex and will be on our Addison campus.
Jodie Lajeunesse has accepted a position with the Business Solutions Team reporting to Laurie Trombly. With her vast knowledge and expertise, she has been a pivotal member of the Lopez Case Manager team and will be missed but we are excited for her in her new role. Jodie brings a deep knowledge of our current systems and processes to the Business Solutions Team along with her past experience with Resonant. As we prepare to move into the Future State Business Model and Resonant, Jodie’s unique skillset and versatility will help to position us for a successful transition.
In addition to the above changes, we’re pleased to announce the promotion of Heather Dickinson to Team Lead under the leadership of Abe Bartlett. For the last 5 years she has been an instrumental member of many New Business teams, but most recently on the Lopez Case Manager team. In this new role she’ll be able to use her strong workflow management and growing leadership skill set to help lead this newly expanded team into the Future State Business Model.
The above changes will be effective on 1/31/22.
Please join me in congratulating these individuals on their new roles.
Sincerely,
Meghan