From Darlene Flagg, Vice President, Marketing & Brand:
Greetings National Life Colleagues:
It has been another remarkable year for BUILD (Blacks Uplifted in Leadership Development), a National Life Community. In 2022, we focused on excellence in engagements and experiences by connecting, educating, and revolutionizing Blacks partnering to do business with National Life. For the first time in this company’s 175-year history, we hosted fifty top Black agents in Vermont at BUILD’s inaugural Summit. BUILD’s membership grew to over 2,400, and we raised almost $20,000 that was donated to local charities. And finally, our presence at the Conference of African American Financial Professionals (CAAFP) led to professorships with the American College for BUILD members. 2022 was the year of laying the foundation. Now it is time to start BUILDing the framework so that we are ready to jet set in 2023.
Inspired by Mehran Assadi, in 2023 BUILD will focus on recruiting, retaining, sustaining, and elevating our presence in middle America, specifically the Black community. As many of you know, Ne ’Andre Broussard recently left the organization to pursue his dream full-time to grow “BlackMen’s Wear.” Partnering with Lisa Mitchell and me, Louis Puglisi and Frank Lucia will continue to serve as Executive Sponsors supporting the BUILD community and the communities’ efforts focused on its mission to create resources to educate and advance the African American community, through Black agents and non-Black agents, on the value of life insurance with living benefits.
With that, I am pleased to announce the new leadership for BUILD and the 2023 Leadership BUILD Council:
