Taking over the reins at one of the largest black businesses in the nation’s financial services industry, Otha “Skip” Spriggs has been elected president and CEO of Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Inc.
Spriggs will report to Roosevelt Giles, who will remain executive chairman.
Atlanta Life is a 114-year-old life insurer specializing in group re-insurance and distributing a range of group life and dental insurance in the U.S. to institutional clients largely for use within employee and membership benefit plans. Selling those and other products in 17 states, the company is a part of Atlanta Life Financial Group.
A seasoned business executive, Spriggs brings Atlanta Life extensive leadership experience in insurance, human resources, and operational expertise with a proven track record of transforming companies and driving meaningful growth to create value for stakeholders, the company stated in a news release.
“Skip is the right CEO for the next era at Atlanta Life,” Giles stated. “He is also a superb operational leader, able to win today while building the business of tomorrow.”
Through his diverse experiences running businesses, Giles added Spriggs has built an outstanding track record of bold transformations and proven business results and is an authentic, values-driven leader. “He is well-positioned to lead Atlanta Life and its clients into the next era. Skip will be a great partner in the next step of this journey.”
For his part, Spriggs stated, “I am honored and humbled to have the
opportunity to lead Atlanta Life and I appreciate the confidence the Board of Directors have placed in me. I am excited about the opportunities for growth and understand how vital our culture of client execution and teamwork is to our success.”Efforts to get additional comments from Spriggs and Atlanta Life on his new role were unsuccessful.
Spriggs has an extensive and impressive résumé of leadership from working in corporate America and being a big advocate for black business. He formerly was president and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the preeminent membership organization for black CEOs, board directors, and senior-most executives at Fortune 1000, Global 500, and equivalent companies. He led the group’s efforts to increase the number of global black executives in C-suites
, on corporate boards, and in global enterprises. ELC members have landed over 220 corporate board seats since 2013, in part due to the efforts of the organization’s Corporate Board Initiative.Spriggs has served in senior business roles at several Fortune 500 companies across diverse industries over the last 35 years, according to his biography. He most recently was senior executive vice president and chief human resources officer at TIAA, where he led all aspects of human resources strategy and execution for the company’s global workforce. He joined TIAA from Boston Scientific, where he was chief human resources officer and a member of the executive management team.
Spriggs has held executive leadership roles at The Home Depot, Levi Strauss & Co., and CIGNA Corp., where he was senior vice president of Human Resources, chief diversity officer, and president of the Cigna Foundation. He started his career in human resources with United Parcel Service.
Spriggs now serves on the board of ProSight Global Inc. and the Washington Nationals Philanthropies Board. His past board service includes the boards of TIAA, FSB (TIAA Direct), Savannah State University’s College of Business Administration, the Institute for Corporate Productivity, and the human resources advisory board for the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. He is also the former board chair of the Philadelphia Urban League. Spriggs has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Towson University.