New York Life Furthers Commitment to DE&I with Two New Leadership Roles to Advance Efforts within Workforce and Field Force

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New York Life, America's largest¹ and most admired² mutual life insurer, today announced two appointments to newly created roles focused on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DE&I) within the company’s workforce and agency field force.

Appointed to Vice President, Talent Management and DE&I, Cathy Council will head New York Life’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Center for Awareness & Advocacy (DE&I Center). The DE&I Center represents an evolution and expansion of the Office for Diversity & Inclusion (ODI), established 15 years ago, and will support the company’s inclusive culture by further integrating DE&I into New York Life’s approach to educating, engaging, and developing employees.

In particular, Ms. Council will be responsible for leading the company’s efforts in launching a formalized career advocacy and support program for diverse talent and continuing to expand awareness initiatives. Previously, Ms. Council was the company’s CEO Action for Racial Equity fellow. In that role, Ms. Council worked with other CEO Action signatory companies to identify, develop, and promote scalable and sustainable policies and corporate best practices to address systemic racism and social injustice, and improve societal well-being.

The company has also appointed Eric Jackson to Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Agency. Mr. Jackson will lead efforts focused on equity and inclusion, talent, and more effectively advancing the cause of social justice specifically within New York Life’s industry leading agent force³ of over 12,000 financial professionals.

Mr. Jackson has been a key leader in shaping New York Life’s social justice efforts and in advancing the partnership between the company’s agency field force and what is now the company’s DE&I Center. Most recently, he oversaw the overall market strategy for New York Life’s African American Market Unit. In his new role, Mr. Jackson will be responsible for the development of a strategic roadmap for advancing DE&I throughout the field force and ensuring the appropriate governance of these efforts.

“The new roles that Cathy and Eric have taken on will further strengthen the partnership between corporate DE&I initiatives and those of New York Life’s field force,” said Kathleen Navarro, Senior Vice President, Head of Talent Management and Chief Diversity Officer. “By working more closely together and enhancing our DE&I programs and strategy, we can ensure that we continue to mirror the many communities that we serve, identify and support diverse talent, build greater awareness, and fulfill our mission of bringing financial protection and peace of mind to a broad range of consumers.”

ABOUT NEW YORK LIFE

New York Life Insurance Company (www.newyorklife.com), a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States¹ and one of the largest life insurers in the world. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life has the highest financial strength ratings currently awarded to any U.S. life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies⁴.

¹ Based on revenue as reported by “Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual),” Fortune magazine, 6/1/2021. For methodology, please see http://fortune.com/fortune500/.
² As reported by “Fortune 2021 World’s Most Admired Companies ranking within Insurance (Life and Health),” Fortune magazine, 2/1/2021. For methodology, please see https://fortune.com/franchise-list-page/methodology-worlds-most-admired-companies-2021/.
³New York Life leads U.S. membership in the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), the Premier Association of Financial Professionals®.
⁴Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 9/30/2021: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).