In the latest episode of the CBJ podcast, “Diversity Straight Up,” hosts Sarika Bhakta and Anthony Arrington talk with Amy Friedrich, president of U.S. Insurance Solutions with Principal Financial Group, about moves at the company aimed at increasing inclusion, addressing long-standing biases in financial services and thinking globally.
“How do we make sure that we’re hearing voices that we haven’t heard as much before?,” Ms. Friedrich said. “One of the things that’s particularly important to us is making sure the decisions we make don’t feel overly ‘Des Moines-centric.’ So that they speak to the populations we have in Latin America or Asia. We want to make sure that we’re doing things that are truly representative of Principal as a whole, and not Principal as a Midwestern company.”
Listen below or subscribe to the show at SoundCloud, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Stitcher. Diversity Straight Up is presented by Collins Aerospace, the city of Cedar Rapids and Alliant Energy.
About Amy Friedrich:
Amy Friedrich is president of U.S. Insurance Solutions with Principal Financial Group. She joined Principal in 2000 in a performance improvement role for Corporate Strategic Development. Later, as a director in that division, she helped define a long-term strategy for the specialty benefits division and in 2004, she moved into that area. Since then, she’s held many leadership roles, including second vice president in 2006 and vice president of group benefits in 2008. She took on oversight of individual disability insurance in 2015 when she was named a senior vice president. She assumed her current position in 2017.
Prior to joining the company, she was a change management manager with Accenture.
Friedrich has served as a Trustee of Buena Vista University since 2015. She’s a native of Van Meter, Iowa, and earned her bachelor’s degree in mass communication and philosophy from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa and her master’s in organizational communication from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
About the hosts:
Sarika Bhakta is president of Nikeya Diversity Consulting and a Certified Diversity Executive with more than 20 years of experience in leadership, management, talent attraction/retention and resource acquisition/development. Born in Gujarat, India and raised in the Midwest, Sarika empowers leaders to identify their authentic self to be successful change agents in today’s global economy.
Anthony Arrington is co-founder and managing partner with Top RANK Professional & Executive Search and Consulting, a search firm focused on helping companies acquire professional and executive-level talent, with a special emphasis on diverse and inclusive leadership. He has more than 20 years of experience in management, strategic planning, leadership and staff development in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.
