By Jasmine Browley ·Updated April 3, 2023
Growing up, many of us were taught that hard work would beget great fortune. That being a good steward would lay the groundwork for a beautiful life. Teresa White is a living example of that formula and after more than 20 years, she’s reaping the fruits of her labor.
A labor of love to be exact.
She’s the first woman and first African-American to serve as president of Aflac U.S., the supplemental insurance firm worth nearly $40 billion.
She’d first joined the company in 1998 as a vice president leading payroll administration, policyholder administration, and overseeing new business operations. By the end of her tenure, left an imprint that led to 65 percent of Aflac’s 5,700 employees being women, and nearly 50 percent people of color. She’s won a slew of awards and recognitions, including the honor of being added to Forbes’ 50 Over 50 list in 2021.
With that, she says she ready to pass the torch.
“Jasmine, I have two more days!” she said at the beginning of our call giddily. Her retirement was that next week and she was feeling mixed emotions. “I am so very excited,” she said when I asked how she was feeling. “At first, I was very just kind of somber a little bit about it—did I make the right decision? Now I don’t even know the feeling. I can’t really capture it, but I’m very excited, I think about just the journey forward.”
That journey mostly consists of spending more time with her family and watching the leaders she helped groom, soar. Throughout her career, Teresa has mastered the delicate dance of lifting as she climbed, and named one of the proudest outcomes of her time at Aflac as being able to help another person of color flourish in leadership.
“As I was preparing myself to leave, I wanted to make sure I have the appropriate people in the wings to pick up our vision, our strategy, and to continue to move them all forward,” White said. She’d been been mentoring a younger colleague,Virgil Miller, to take over and I “felt like he would be ready. Being able to confidently name him as Deputy President has been one of the proudest achievements of my career.”
“When I came to Aflac 19 years ago, waiting for me was a blessing that I could never have imagined,” Miller said. “That was Teresa White. She was once my boss but always my mentor, my friend and frankly, the sister I never had. As an African American woman she blazed a trail that paved the way for people like me to succeed at Aflac and for that I will always be grateful. No one can fill her legendary shoes, but I will do my best to continue her legacy and make her proud.”
She says she often thinks about the new workforce—the people who are coming out of school right who dream ofbuilding such a career that would, similarly, allow them to pave ways for others.
“Things aren’t very very different from when I was first starting out,” she said, acknowledging that Gen Z have identified parts of the traditional corporate structure they’d like to rework. But according to Teresa, some things will always remain the same.
“I’d encourage them to, first of all, find the skills they’re really good at, that they and search that call for those skill sets,” she advised. “And it doesn’t have to be specific to an industry,” admitting she wouldn’t have chosen the insurance industry for herself after coming out of business school. “What I chose is opportunity with a skill set. I came with a skill set and I chose to align myself with a company I felt had the same values I prioritized.”
This sentiment was echoed through her entire team, which I suspect is because of the type of person she is in and out of the office.
“I’m spiritual and I do turn to God for every important decision I’ve made—I let that faith lead me. I look over at my life and I know I’m incredibly blessed,” pointing out that she is a part of a small group of Black Americans (especially a Black woman) able to comfortably retire. “I don’t take lightly that I’m in a very fortunate position.”
Now that she’s effectively retired, I asked her the million-dollar question. What’s the first thing you’re going to do now that you don’t have to go into the office?
“I’m going to my grandson’s birthday,” she said smilingly. “That’s what I get to do now.”
The post The Exit Interview: Aflac’s Long-Time President Talks Her Retirement & What She Wants Gen-Z To Know About Working appeared first on Essence.
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