Page 59 - Peter Farrelly Issue

heather
After 15 years of holding multiple roles at Voya Financial Inc. (Voya), including executive sponsor of Voya Cares, Heather Lavallee became CEO on January 1, 2023. ABILITY’s Jennifer Goga spoke with Lavallee to discuss her leadership and Voya’s culture of inclusion. Lavallee shared her personal career journey, discussed the value of mentorship,curiosity and listening to the people you serve. She illustrated the transformative effect disability inclusion initiatives had on Voya’s employees as well as business results. Lavallee also described the Voya Cares initiative and its expansive commit- ment to community education, advocacy and collaboration with not-for-profit organizations, like Easterseals, The Harkin Institute, and the National Down Syndrome Society.
Jennifer Goga: It’s great that we’re able to meet today. I know you have a busy schedule.
Heather Lavallee: We all do. But this is a pleasure, and it's a super important topic. I was actually just down in Washington, DC yesterday with one of our not-for-profit partners, National Down Syn- drome Society and Easterseals, and we were lobbying for disability advocacy, so the timing of this discussion is perfect.
Goga: That’s great. To start off, I just wanted to hear about your background and your career trajec- tory. Did you always want to be in the financial world?
Lavallee: It's a little bit of a funny story. When I was little, starting at six years old, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a doctor for probably 15 years. And when I was in college, somebody had a medical event in our dining hall, and I did not react particularly well. And after 15 years of ambi- tion, I switched my major to psychology. And that sort of opened the door for me to ask myself what do I want to do? And so graduated with a degree in psychology, and I got into sales in financial ser- vices. So, I stumbled into the industry. But it was really perfect for me because I realized that I loved how financial services help people when they need it most. And so, I quickly got a passion for the
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