Friday, March 13, 2020
11:30 am
Krannert Auditorium
Mike Heard, President, Washington National Insurance Company
With 25 years of operations and technology experience, and 20 years in the financial services industry—Mike Heard is the trusted leader for Washington National. He has extensive experience in sales support as well as administrative operations and technology.
After serving for more than seven years in the U.S. Air Force as a civil engineer, Mike joined GE Financial in 1997 as a manager of service quality. From 2001-2005, he led their group life and health operations with responsibility overseeing the service for over 25,000 employer groups and 2 million members. From 2005-2012, Mike led the newly formed Genworth Financial company’s claims operations, including life, annuity and health products. In addition, Mike served as the Chief Fraud Officer for Genworth’s US life insurance companies. Beginning in 2012, Mike led their business strategy & product support organization. He oversaw the development, monitoring, and communication of key product line strategies. In addition, he was tasked with management of policy and contract drafting and filing, the Live+Well wellness program, and the caregiver division that provided assessment tools in support of the long-term care insurance product.
In 2013, Mike joined CNO Financial Group in Carmel, Indiana as senior vice president where he was responsible for insurance operations for more than 3 million customers and over $2 billion in benefits transactions annually. The operations included the support of life insurance, annuity, long-term care, and supplemental health products for CNO’s 3 companies—Bankers Life, Washington National Insurance Company, and Colonial Penn. He led 550+ employees in three locations along with 500+ contract employees in the United States and overseas. Mike Heard was appointed president of Washington National in March 2017. As a leading provider of supplemental health and life insurance, Washington National serves nearly 1 million policyholders and 25,000 employer groups through 2,000 independent agents.
Heard earned both Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in industrial engineering from Purdue University. Mike is a fellow of the Life Management Institute, a registered professional engineer and a Six-Sigma Master Black Belt. Retired from the Air Force Reserve, he has also proudly served as chairman of the board of Circle Center Adult Day Services in Richmond, Virginia and as a board member of Senior Connections (area agency on aging). Mike currently serves his community on the board of the directors of the Pacers Foundation, the advisory council of the Military Family Research Institute and on the dean’s advisory council of the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.
