Welcome to Vesta Bovair, who started work this week as head of our Customer Innovation Group.
Vesta, who is executive vice president and a member of the Executive Management Team, joined just in time to participate in the culture sessions on the Vermont campus with Jackie Freiberg.
Vesta was most recently the Managing Director for Global Business Solutions at Swiss Re Group, where she led strategy and delivery in 10 countries. Before that she held a variety of leadership positions at GE Capital Corp. for more than a decade.
Vesta and her husband, Greg, have two children and have relocated to Vermont from Connecticut.
Even though she is just getting settled into her new role with us, we wanted to take a minute to introduce Vesta to the rest of the National Life family and get her perspective on her first impressions.
“If I were to start with anything in terms of my initial impressions it’s been just how warm the welcome has been. There’s been an awful lot of hugging and smiling that’s been going on. That’s just fantastic. And that’s not normal that people are so welcoming. So that’s just fantastic
“There’s also been a lot of reflection that’s been going on this week, particularly with the culture sessions, thinking about what is CIG’s role in that. I came to National Life Group because of the purpose that we have: Bringing peace of mind to everyone that we touch. So (I was) consciously choosing National Life Group.
“When I left Swiss Re I bought 25 copies of “CAUSE!” and distributed them to my leaders all around the world and told them: ‘Don’t cry that I’m leaving because I’m going to a great organization. And I expect you continue to live to the leadership standards that we partially have in place. But it’s always a work in progress and that you should ask of yourself that you create these kind of environments for employees and I expect nothing less of you. And you’re ready. So go make that happen.’
“Seeing Jackie was like being with a rock star and I took a selfie with her and sent it around. The purpose really speaks quite loudly to me and I chose National Life Group for that reason.
“And the mission that we deliver on our promises. What’s been evident to me in the last couple of days meeting so many different teams and people in CIG (is that) every day in so many ways the teammates in CIG are delivering on those promises. It’s not just one big promise. It’s a lot of different promises all along the way, all the promises that we make to buying and the selling customer. CIG makes a significant difference in helping NLG fulfill its destiny.
“The other reflection, I shared it with Mehran today: For as long as we’ve been around, we’re still a teenager. We’re still learning, growing and we’re destined to be something much bigger than we are today. So if you think about the care and nurturing, especially for those of us that are parents, that a teenager needs, well we need to help the organization in that way. Because we will be much bigger, much more capable in many, many different ways, our life experience and what we are called to do will be much different when we’re 25 than when we’re 15. So how do we prepare now for what we’ll grow into and really quickly grow into.”