Financial services market forces and the aging of the baby boomers continue to reshape the leadership teams at U.S. life insurance, health insurance and annuity issuers.
Lincoln Financial Group showed how much interest rates and other investment and accounting trends are affecting the life sector earlier this month by naming Randal Freitag, the company’s chief financial officer, to oversee the life insurance business.
(Related: MetLife Hires HR Head)
Mike Burns, the head of the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based company’s life business, will continue to manage product development, underwriting, new business operations and financial management, but he will now report to Freitag.
Freitag has been working at Lincoln since 1995. He became the chief financial officer in 2011.
Before Freitag became the CFO for the parent company, he was the chief risk officer, Lincoln says. Freitag was responsible for keeping tabs on capital and liquidity management, and equity risk management.
Michel Khalaf to Lead MetLife’s U.S. Business
MetLife Inc. has picked Michel Khalaf, the president of its Europe, Middle East and Africa business, to be the president of its U.S. business.
Khalaf will continue to run the EMEA business as well as the U.S. business, MetLife says.
Khalaf started out at a unit of American International Group Inc. He began working for MetLife in 2010, as the result of an acquisition. He has been running the EMEA unit since 2011.
Khalaf will succeed Maria Morris, the interim head of the U.S. business.
Morris, who has also been the head of MetLife’s global employee benefits business, is retiring after 33 years with the New York-based company.
MetLife also announced that:
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Marty Lippert, the head of global technology and operations, will oversee MetLife Holdings. MetLife Holdings contains the “closed-block business of the company’s former U.S. retail segment.” MetLife hopes to spin off the former retail unit as a separate company, Brighthouse Financial.
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Ramy Tadros will succeed Stan Talbi as the chief risk officer. Talbi is retiring after 43 years with MetLife. Tadros previously was global head of insurance at Oliver Wyman, a unit of Marsh & McLennan.
Dianne Bogoian to Run Prudential’s Annuity Workshop
Prudential Financial Inc. has named Dianne Bogoian senior vice president and head of product Prudential Annuities.
Bogoian will be in charge of annuity product development and management for the Newark, New Jersey-based company’s annuities unit. She will work directly under Lori Fouche, the president of the annuities unit.
Bogoian previously was senior vice president of retirement product management at Voya Financial. She is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. She has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Fairfield University.
Mutual of Omaha Hires Vibhu Sharma to Be CFO
Mutual of Omaha has hired Vibhu Sharma to be executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer.
Sharma will succeed David Diamond, who is retiring after 12 years with the Omaha, Nebraska-based company.
(Image: Thinkstock)
Sharma previously was head of the United Kingdom general insurance unit at Zurich Insurance Co. Ltd.
Sharma has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southern Methodist University. He spent about 17 years at KPMG, and he was a partner at KPMG when he shifted into the insurance industry.