NOLHGA’s 2025 Annual Meeting

Roger W. Crandall is Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts, and with a significant presence in Boston.

During Crandall’s tenure as CEO, MassMutual has solidified its industry-leading position as a financially strong mutual company run for the benefit of its policyowners and customers. The company has grown to provide more than $1 trillion in life insurance protection to its policyowners, strengthened its financial position by more than doubling its total adjusted capital to more than $33 billion, and enhanced its customer experience to provide personal guidance and digital capabilities to meet people on their terms. MassMutual offers a wide range of holistic financial solutions—including protection, accumulation, wealth management, and retirement income products—through its domestic insurance business and global asset management operations. The company also maintains a portfolio of investments in global insurance and financial services firms that are strongly positioned in their respective markets, helping to generate additional value to its policyowners.

Crandall first joined MassMutual in 1988 as a real estate investment trainee and spent the first 12 years at the company in its Investment Management Department. In 2000, he joined Babson Capital, a MassMutual subsidiary which is now part of Barings, where he gradually assumed broader management responsibilities in such areas as public and private bonds, bank loans, and private equity investments. In 2005, Crandall was appointed Chairman of Babson Capital and MassMutual’s Chief Investment Officer, and in 2007, he added the role of Co-Chief Operating Officer. He was named MassMutual’s President and joined the company’s Board of Directors in 2008, and he was named CEO in 2010.

In addition to his role at MassMutual, Crandall takes an active leadership role in industry, civic, academic, and economic development organizations. He is Chair of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a member of the Business Roundtable, and also serves on the Executive Committee for the American Council of Life Insurers, the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, the Board of Governors for the Boston College Chief Executives Club, the Board of Trustees for The Jackson Laboratory, the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board, and the University of Vermont Foundation Leadership Council. Crandall, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Maddy Dychtwald is a national bestselling author and co-founder of Age Wave, the world’s leader in understanding the social, lifestyle, and economic implications of longevity. For decades, she has been a pioneering voice in aging and longevity—bringing both a seasoned perspective and a forward-looking lens to how longer lives are reshaping our world.

Recognized by Forbes as one of the top 50 female futurists globally, Dychtwald is the author of four books, including the national bestseller Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan, which is being published in 12 languages; and the award-winning Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better. Her work blends breakthrough science with real-world insights to help individuals and organizations thrive in a longer-lived, more chaotic world.

Through Age Wave, Dychtwald has partnered with almost half of the Fortune 500 in industries ranging from healthcare and medical technology to financial services and consumer products.

With women at the forefront of the longevity revolution, Dychtwald has dug deep into their specific longevity-related wants, needs, challenges, and opportunities. As a thought leader and researcher, she has led numerous acclaimed studies, including the landmark Women, Money and Power sponsored by Allianz and Women and Financial Wellness: Beyond the Bottom Line for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In addition, she has been involved in more than 25 thought leadership research studies worldwide on longevity, aging, retirement, health and wellness, family and social connections, purpose, caregiving, finances, and leisure, which have garnered over 20 billion media impressions.

As a member of The Wall Street Journal’s Expert Panel, Dychtwald’s insights on leadership, longevity, and wealth management have ranked among their most-read lists. Her expertise has been featured in prominent media outlets, including Fortune, Forbes, LA Times, Newsweek, Time, CNBC, NPR, and more.

Married with two adult children and a grand dog, Dychtwald has become part of the age wave and has experimented personally with how to increase her healthspan, brainspan, and lifespan. She is a co-founder of the nonprofit Women Against Alzheimer’s and previously served as a Board member of the BrightFocus Foundation, which funds research to cure diseases of the brain and eye. She is also a lead partner in Portfolia’s Active Aging and Longevity 2 Fund, the largest community of women investors in the world.

George Nichols III currently serves as the 10th president and CEO in the storied history of The American College of Financial Services. He continues to draw motivation from founder Solomon S. Huebner’s pioneering 1927 vision while empowering The College to usher in the next century of excellence.

A life of private sector experience and public service brought Nichols to The College, and he shares its commitment to benefit society by educating and influencing the financial services profession. He joined The College after a 17-year stint at New York Life, where he held principal roles in sales, P&L, strategic initiatives, and public policy. In 2007, Nichols was named to the company’s executive management committee, a group of senior executives tasked with assisting the CEO in setting company policy. As a special assignment, he led an effort to identify the leadership traits of the New York Life executive of the future. Nichols also served as Executive Vice President in the Office of Governmental Affairs, a position encompassing all the legislative, regulatory, and public policy issues at the company.

Prior to joining New York Life, Nichols was the state of Kentucky’s first Black insurance commissioner, leading regulation of the state’s $10 billion insurance industry through his expertise in health insurance reform and financial services integration. He gained this knowledge through stints as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Health Policy Board, Vice President of Marketing for Athena of North America, Executive Director of Product Development with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kentucky, CEO of Central State Hospital in Louisville, and Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Mental Health Services. In 2000, Nichols was also named the first Black president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Nichols has been acclaimed for his efforts to drive transformative change in the financial services profession and elsewhere. Savoy, a leading Black business and lifestyle magazine, named him among the “Most Influential Black Corporate Executives” twice, in 2012 and 2018, and among the “Most Influential Black Corporate Directors” in 2021. He was also named to Forbes’ inaugural 2021 edition of “The Culture 50 Champions,” which identified models of business excellence in various industries who uplift Black and Brown communities through their craft and philanthropic efforts.

Because of his bold leadership in launching The College’s Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality and its Four Steps Forward plan to promote upward mobility and wealth creation starting with Black America and expanding to all underserved communities, Nichols was honored as one of “The Ten to Watch in 2021” by WealthManagement.com. In 2022, he won a ThinkAdvisor Luminaries award for Executive Leadership, followed by InvestmentNews’ recognition in 2023 for the year’s See It, Be It role model. Additionally, Nichols is the inaugural recipient of the Alonzo Herndon Award by Business Insurance Magazine. This award is in honor of the founder of Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the United States’ largest and most successful Black-owned businesses.

Nichols currently serves as Chair of the National Board of Trustees for City Year, a nonprofit organization committed to partnering with teachers and school leaders in urban areas to provide high-impact student, classroom, and school-wide support. He sits on the Board of OneAmerica Financial. Nichols also serves on the Board of the Cobbs Creek Foundation, which seeks to provide opportunity for the diverse youth of Philadelphia through a state-of-the-art golf and educational campus at the site of the city’s first public golf course, founded in 1916.

Nichols received his associate degree from Alice Lloyd College, a faith-based liberal arts school in eastern Kentucky, before earning his bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University. He began his career in financial services after receiving his master’s degree from the University of Louisville. Nichols earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation after completing The American College of Financial Services’ program for philanthropic planning in 2023.

He continues to lean on the love of his family—wife Cynthia Jean (“CJ”) and three adult children—and his unyielding faith to navigate the journey that brought him to this distinguished institution.