Executive leadership

Rich Bielen is President and Chief Executive Officer of Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective Life in 1991 with responsibility for the company’s securities portfolio and became Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer in 2002. He became Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer in 2007. In January 2016, Mr. Bielen was named President and Chief Operating Officer. On July 1, 2017, he became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Protective.

Mr. Bielen began his career at Arthur Andersen and Co. in 1983 and left as a Senior Accountant in 1986. He then joined Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. as a sales analyst focused primarily on new product development, eventually earning the position of Senior Vice President. He has over 35 years of experience in the financial services industry.

Mr. Bielen serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Children’s of Alabama. In addition, he serves on the boards of The American Council of Life Insurers, United Way of Central Alabama, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Birmingham Business Alliance and Leadership Birmingham.

Mr. Bielen is a Certified Public Accountant. He earned a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University.

Mike Temple is Protective’s Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. He most recently served as Vice Chairman, Finance and Risk. From November 2016 to March 2018, he served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Risk. From January 2016 to November 2016, Mr. Temple served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Risk, and Chief Risk Officer. From December 2012 to January 2016, Mr. Temple served as Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer. Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Temple served as Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at Unum Group, an insurance company in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Mr. Temple is currently active with several industry committees including the American Council of Life Insurers and serves on the Board of Directors for LL Global, the parent company of LIMRA, LOMA and Secure Retirement Institute. He was a founding member of the North American Chief Risk Officers Council.

He has served on multiple community boards and is currently a member of the Vulcan Park and Museum Board of Directors.

He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst.

He graduated with honors from Vanderbilt University, and recently completed the Leadership Alabama program.

Scott Adams is the Executive Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, Strategy and Innovation for Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer in 2006. In his current role, Mr. Adams leads Protective’s community engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility activities as well as oversees several corporate functions, including the Protective Life Foundation, brand and social engagement and corporate communications. In addition, he works with executive leadership on the development of strategy and innovation in support of our growth initiatives.

Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Adams served as an executive search consultant for the wealth and investment sector with Anderson and Associates, a boutique executive search firm. He spent 18 years with Bank of America and predecessor companies. From 1996 to 2004, he was Senior Vice President and Human Resource Executive for the Wealth and Investment Management business of Bank of America.

Mr. Adams serves on the boards of Innovation Depot, The World Games 2022 and the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham. He is also past president of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham.

Mr. Adams earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Washington and Lee University.

Mark Drew is Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective in 2016.

Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Drew was in private practice at Maynard Cooper Gale for 28 years, and he served as the Managing Shareholder from 2006-2016. His corporate work there included counseling private and public companies, including banking and financial institutions, at both the board and transactional level. He has significant experience handling mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures at the international level.

Mr. Drew is a Board member of the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Greater Alabama Council - Boy Scouts of America.

He received his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law and holds a B.S. in Accounting from Wake Forest University as well.

Wendy Evesque is Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Protective Life Corporation. She leads Protective's focus on people and culture, including efforts that support talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and total rewards. Ms. Evesque joined Protective in March 2005 and was named CHRO in 2017.

Prior to joining Protective Life, Ms. Evesque served as Vice President and Human Capital Partner with United Health Group for more than a decade, providing HR and acquisition support to health plans across the country.

She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and is a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Alabama Culverhouse School of Business.

Ms. Evesque earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce and Business Administration from the University of Alabama, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Steve Walker is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective in 2002 as the Chief Financial Officer for the Asset Protection Division. He served as Protective’s Chief Accounting Officer and Controller from 2003 until January 2016, when Mr. Walker was named Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Controller.

Mr. Walker has more than 36 years of insurance industry experience. He served as the Chief Financial Officer for Aon Integramark before joining Protective. He also spent more than 15 years of his career at Assurant Group in various financial and operational roles.

He is a Certified Public Accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Georgia Society of CPAs, and the Institute of Management Accountants.

Mr. Walker is also actively involved in the community, serving as Board President of the Children's Aid Society of Alabama, Chairman of the Alabama Insurance Planning Commission, and President of the Alabama Insurance & Risk Management Education Foundation.

He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of West Georgia, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgia State University.

In June 2021, Deep Banerjee was promoted to Senior Vice President & Treasurer and is responsible for capital raising and cash management for the corporate holding company and subsidiaries, asset/liability management, managing rating agency relationships, and the institutional funding business segment (Stable Value).

He joined Protective in September of 2020 and served as Vice President, Strategic Risk. Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Banerjee spent over a decade at S&P Global Ratings where he was a credit analyst covering the insurance industry. He is well regarded in the industry as an insurance sector analyst and is a frequent presenter at industry conferences.

Mr. Banerjee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marietta College.

In June 2021, Lance Black was named Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Corporate Development and is responsible for the Company's acquisition and capital markets segments. He most recently served as Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Stable Value Products and was responsible for the institutional funding business segment (Stable Value), in addition to capital raising and cash management for the corporate holding company and subsidiaries, asset/liability management, managing rating agency relationships, and projection of corporate earnings and capital.

He joined Protective in 2003 and served as the Vice President of Investment Strategy. Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Black worked for Wachovia Corporation (now Wells Fargo) for over a decade and was last a Director in the Insurance Corporate and Investment Banking unit of Wachovia Securities.

Mr. Black holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder.

Wade Harrison is Senior Vice President and President, Protection Division. In his current role, he leads sales, new business operations and product development for this business segment. Mr. Harrison also oversees the shared service platforms of underwriting and data science. In 2014, he joined Protective as Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer.

Prior to joining Protective, Mr. Harrison worked for COUNTRY Financial for 14 years, serving as Senior Vice President of Life/Health Operations for six years, and then as Senior Vice President of Financial Services Operations when Life/Health Operations was combined with investment services. Before joining COUNTRY, he was a consultant for Tillinghast – Towers Perrin. Mr. Harrison has over 26 years of experience in the insurance industry.

Mr. Harrison earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Scott Karchunas is Senior Vice President and President, Asset Protection Division. He has been employed by Protective and its subsidiaries since 1988.

Mr. Karchunas has served in a variety of roles within Protective, including Senior Executive Vice President, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Division Vice President and Regional Vice President. He has over 25 years of experience in the automotive finance and insurance industry.

Mr. Karchunas is a member of the Olin School of Business EMBA Alumni Association. He is an accredited member of the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals, as well as a member of the University of Notre Dame’s Sorin Society. He is a regular presenter and speaker for numerous finance and insurance industry events.

Mr. Karchunas serves on the board of Ronald McDonald House Charities of St. Louis and is actively involved in several committees.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Matthew Kohler is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective in 1998.

In his current role, Mr. Kohler ensures Protective’s technical and business strategies align. This includes collaborating with key business leaders to evaluate new technology. Mr. Kohler ensures information technology delivers the tools and data necessary to execute Protective’s objectives, as well as provides direction and perspective across the organization.

He previously served as the head of the Business Solutions department, which provides development support for the Life, Annuity and Corporate business functions of the company. Prior to that, Mr. Kohler served as the application development manager over several systems areas including Agency, Telelife, Illustrations and Agent Support.

Mr. Kohler earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing Research with minors in Mathematics and Statistics from Florida State University, and a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Laura McDonald is Senior Vice President, Chief Mortgage and Real Estate Officer. She is responsible for Protective’s entire commercial mortgage loan and real estate portfolio and building and managing Protective’s Senior Housing Commercial Mortgage Loan portfolio. She joined Protective Life in 2013 and has over 24 years of Seniors Housing lending experience. Previously, she worked for Capmark Finance (formerly known as GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation) assuming a Co-Management role of the Seniors Housing and Healthcare Finance Unit and its $1.3 billion on balance sheet portfolio.

She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center (2019 and 2020 Corporate Fundraising Chair) and on the Beyond Blue 2020 Host Committee benefitting the Mike Slive Foundation. She is also a member of Leadership Birmingham (Class of 2019) and is a current member of the Tocqueville Society of the United Way of Central Alabama.

Laura earned a B.S. degree in accounting from The University of Alabama. She is also a Certified Public Accountant – State of Alabama (inactive).

In June 2020, Phil Passafiume was named Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer. He most recently served as Senior Vice President, Director of Fixed Income and was responsible for general account investments pertaining to Corporate Bonds, MBS, ABS, CMBS, CLO’s, Private Placements and Bank Loans. He joined Protective Life in 2003 and has over 23 years of investment management experience. He currently serves on the ALM Committee, Investment Policy Committee and Retirement Committee. Previously, he was a senior analyst/portfolio manager for ING Investment Management in Atlanta, GA.

Phil has a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Kentucky and a M.S. in Finance from Georgia State University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designations. He is on the United Way of Central Alabama Investment Committee and serves as Vice President/Board Member of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama.

In June 2021, Pooja Rahman was named Chief Risk Officer at Protective Life Corporation. She is responsible for leading the Company’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program and overseeing implementation of the Company’s strategic risk appetite. As part of this mandate, Ms. Rahman leads the ERM group in managing programs covering insurance, actuarial, product design and pricing, credit, interest rate, equity, trading and hedging, operational, regulatory and reputational matters.

Prior to joining Protective, Ms. Rahman served as Head of Financial Risk at New York Life. Prior to New York Life, she worked in international policy and analysis at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Ms. Rahman’s previous experience also includes Director & Senior Corporate Counsel at Aviva, In-house Counsel at Iowa Insurance Division and Lead Technical Analyst at Principal Financial Group.

Ms. Rahman earned her JD from Drake University Law School, her MBA from the University of New Orleans, and her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai.

Aaron Seurkamp is Senior Vice President and President, Retirement Division. He joined Protective in 2004.

During his tenure with Protective, Mr. Seurkamp has served in various leadership positions for both the life and annuity product lines, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Life and Annuity Executive. Prior to this, he served as Protective’s Chief Distribution Officer for life and annuity. In his current role, Mr. Seurkamp leads all new business aspects of the retirement business lines, including product development, sales and new business operations. He also directs the shared service platforms of marketing and distribution operations and oversees management of Protective’s three distribution companies: ProEquities, Inc., First Protective Insurance Group and Protective Distributors.

In addition to his role at Protective, Mr. Seurkamp participates in various industry committees, including the ACLI Distribution Committee and the LIMRA Distribution Leadership Roundtable. He is also active in the community serving on the Board of Trustees for the American College of Financial Services and the Board of Directors for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy.

Mr. Seurkamp earned Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Xavier University. He will also complete his Executive Scholar Certificate with a concentration in Finance from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 2020.

Paul Wells is the Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer for Protective Life Corporation. Mr. Wells joined the company in 2004 as Assistant Vice President, Manager of SEC Reporting and became the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Life and Annuity Division in 2007. He also served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Life and Annuity Division from 2014 to March of 2017, when he was named the Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer and Controller.

Before joining Protective, Mr. Wells worked for BBVA Compass Bank as well as PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and currently serves on the board of The Bell Center as well as the Accounting Advisory Board for Samford University’s Brock School of Business. Mr. Wells earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Samford University and received a Master in Accountancy from the University of Alabama.

Cissy Williams is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for Protective Life Corporation. In her current role, she is responsible for the strategic vision of customer experience and accountable for collaborating with enterprise-wide business owners to execute on strategy. Ms. Williams oversees operations of the annuity business, life insurance administration, licensing, contracting and compensation, and claims. In 2015, she joined our organization as Protective’s first Customer Experience leader.

Prior to joining Protective, Ms. Williams served in leadership roles in the development and delivery of operational strategies at Unum. She led strategy development and planning, enabling Unum’s three companies to leverage more enterprise assets to create and sustain business value.

Ms. Williams earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University and Master of Business Administration from Wake Forest University.