Skip to main content

The following announcement was distributed by Chief People Officer Michael Veilleux on Thursday, October 7th, 2021.

I’m happy to announce that we have filled the Head of Organizational Development (OD) role in the People Center.  This role is responsible for guiding the development and execution of the company’s OD strategy to strengthen and align our unique culture with our strategic and growth objectives.

Please join me in welcoming Cheryl Allen to National Life Group.

Cheryl joins us most recently from King Arthur Baking Company, where she held the position of Vice President, Human Resources & Talent Development.  As a member of the senior executive team, she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of human resources, including talent acquisition and talent development for the organization.  In her role, she was responsible for cultivating a high-performance culture and engagement initiatives including diversity, inclusion, and equity focused activities.  While at King Arthur she developed data-driven, future-oriented people strategies to meet future needs such as workforce development, employment value proposition, multi-year talent strategies to include core skills building curriculum, career skills flexibility, leadership development and succession planning.

Prior to joining King Arthur, Cheryl held various senior Human Resources/Organizational Development leadership roles with Kaplan Professional, Mattel and Rockwell Automation.  In these leadership roles, she was responsible for building strategies around talent acquisition, employee engagement, talent/leadership development and in some cases, communication.

Cheryl has a BA, Human Resources Management & Organizational Behavior from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  She holds several certifications including HBDI Assessment Facilitator (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument), 5 Behaviors of Cohesive Teams Facilitator (DiSC) and an Associate Certified Coaching Credential from the International Coaching Federation.

When not at work, Cheryl enjoys spending time on her farm with her horses, dogs and barn cat named Greta Garbo.  She also enjoys travel, reading (she once owned a small-town bookstore), and discovering fun new foodie places and other local adventures.  Cheryl is also a big tennis fan and has been to three of the four grand slams and many other tournaments. Vamos Rafa!

-Michael