Evolved model will position Voya’s Retirement, Employee Benefits and Investment Management businesses for continued growth
Michael Smith and Charles Nelson named vice chairmen
Heather Lavallee named CEO, Wealth Solutions and Robert Grubka named CEO, Health Solutions
Voya Financial, Inc., announced several updates to its operating model and leadership team. The new model is designed to advance Voya’s workplace and institutional client-focused strategy and growth plans, as well as ensure a customer-centric focus on health, wealth and investment solutions.
“Voya concluded 2020 with strong momentum across our businesses and, already in 2021, we have made further progress in increasing our company’s focus on providing leading health, wealth and investment solutions through our Retirement, Employee Benefits and Investment Management businesses”
“Voya concluded 2020 with strong momentum across our businesses and, already in 2021, we have made further progress in increasing our company’s focus on providing leading health, wealth and investment solutions through our Retirement, Employee Benefits and Investment Management businesses,” said Rodney O. Martin, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Voya Financial, Inc. “Going forward, we see increased opportunities to leverage our unique capabilities, scale and reach to meet the increasing needs and demands of both employers and their employees. We are focused on how customer and client needs will continue to evolve and – importantly – how we can expand the solution set we offer to drive a more coordinated and integrated experience through the workplace. The operating model changes we are announcing today will put us in a strong position to execute our growth plans and to expand our capabilities.”
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New vice chair roles
In addition to his role as chief financial officer and overseeing Voya’s Finance and Risk areas, Michael Smith also will now serve as vice chairman. This reflects Smith’s role leading Voya’s enterprise strategy as well as his recently expanded responsibilities for technology, data science, transformation, continuous improvement, procurement, sourcing and supplier management, and real estate. Michael Katz, Voya’s chief strategy, planning and investor relations officer, and Santhosh Keshavan, Voya’s chief information officer, also will join Voya’s executive committee. Katz and Keshavan will continue to report to Smith.
Charles Nelson will serve as vice chairman and chief growth officer and will shape Voya’s growth strategy, including customer segmentation. This includes an enterprise focus on better integrating across customer segments to expand Voya’s reach in the workplace as well as beginning to target new customer segments and solutions and build upon the more than 13 million individual and institutional customers and approximately 55,000 employers that Retirement and Employee Benefits already serve. He will oversee enterprise revenue-growth activities, including sales and distribution, relationship management, health and wealth marketing and customer solutions. William Harmon, who will continue to report to Nelson, will also assume a new role as Voya’s chief client officer, leading the health and wealth sales, distribution and relationship management teams.
New CEOs of Health and Wealth Solutions
Heather Lavallee, who currently serves as president of Retirement Tax-Exempt Markets, will become CEO of Wealth Solutions and Robert Grubka, who currently serves as president of Employee Benefits, will become CEO, Health Solutions.
Grubka and Lavallee – who also will join Voya’s executive committee and will now report to Martin – will collaborate with Christine Hurtsellers, CEO of Investment Management, to accelerate Voya’s enterprise business growth. Hurtsellers will continue to advance Investment Management’s momentum, while collaborating with Grubka and Lavallee to deliver integrated customer solutions across Voya.
“As we saw during the unprecedented challenges of last year, Voya’s unique portfolio of workplace and institutional businesses – combined with our brand and culture – have enabled our company to stand apart in the industry. As we look to the future, the opportunities to continue our growth momentum are exciting – with our unique capabilities, expertise and scale, we are well positioned to continue to meet the important and growing needs of our workplace and institutional clients,” added Martin.
