CEO Mehran Assadi sent the following note announcing Chief People Officer Sean Woodroffe’s departure.
It is with mixed emotions that I share the news of Sean Woodroffe’s departure from National Life. Sean has accepted an executive position at TIAA, a position that takes him back to his family home in New Jersey.
As some of you are aware, Sean’s family had to move back to New Jersey to care for an important family member. While I am delighted for Sean and his family that he will be moving home, I am very sorry to be losing him. Sean has been a valued friend and counselor to me and an outstanding teammate on our Executive Management Team.
Under Sean’s leadership, we have made tremendous progress in crafting our people vision. He has transformed our Human Resources function into a true People Center.
Sean advanced our cultural transformation by helping to develop and implement our servant leadership tenets. He brought accountability to our senior leaders with the creation of the cross evaluation. He modernized our compensation and elevated our talent acquisition process.
With his help, National Life has attracted top talent in recent years. He has put a swagger into our talent acquisition by making it clear to people inside and outside National Life that we are a world-class organization.
What I especially admire about Sean is his deep personal interest in all of our colleagues. He has made a real effort to know people throughout the company. Sean has a keen ability to show that he truly cares about each of us. In my opinion, there can be no greater compliment for a Chief People Officer.
Sean’s last day with us will be Friday, July 28. I have asked Michael Veilleux to serve as interim Chief People Officer. Michael’s broad breadth of HR experience and his strong PC Business Partner leadership of CIG makes him uniquely qualified to serve the organization while we search for a replacement.
Please join me in thanking Sean, Cindy, Lauren and Nigel for all Sean has done, and wishing them all of the very best.
— Mehran Assadi