A top leader at Columbus-based Aflac has retired. Here’s how she inspired others.

Teresa White, former president of Aflac U.S., retired Friday after more than two decades with the company, during which time she valued mentoring others and giving back to the Columbus community.

She is succeeded by Virgil Miller, who previously served as the U.S. Deputy President and has more than 30 years of industry experience and joined the company in 2004, according to a news release.

White joined the company in 1998 as a vice president before becoming president in 2014. She’d initially come to Columbus with her husband, who was in the military, and worked for AT&T. After AT&T moved its site from Columbus to Nevada, White wanted to stay in the city.

She had offers to work for other companies, said White, who spoke with the Ledger-Enquirer as part of its ongoing Women’s History Month series. She was attracted to Aflac because White felt that she would be able to excel in its environment.

“When I look back on it, that was true,” White said. “How did I go from being a vice-president over a client services area to being president? I believe that I was given the opportunity to be me.”

White, who was not familiar with the insurance industry before working for Aflac, was given the space to learn and understand the business, she said, before growing the business.

Born and raised in Dallas, White became the first African American woman to lead Aflac’s U.S. operations as president of the company, said Dan Amos, Aflac Incorporated Chairman and CEO.

Under her leadership, Aflac was able to adapt to changing dynamics of the marketplace and expanded technology innovation, according to a news release.

The tools and solutions developed from the technology innovation were designed to support sales growth and to reimagine customer experience. White was responsible for launching consumer markets platforms and onboarding acquisitions including Empowered Benefit, Aflac Northern Ireland, Argus and Zurich.

Aflac had record all-time annual new sales and record premium persistency during White’s tenure, the company said.

She was the recipient of a number of awards that include Forbes’ 50 over 50: Investment for 2021, Savoy’s 2020 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and Black Enterprise’s Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.

“Her career achievements fall a distant second to her quality as a person, a counselor and a friend,” Amos told the L-E.

This sentiment was echoed by Audrey Tillman, Aflac Incorporated general counsel. She was always able to count on White for friendship and advice during their time working together, Tillman said, whether she needed help with major business decisions or matters outside of the office.

“Our work relationship was always superseded by a personal understanding born out of similar responsibilities to maintain Aflac as a leader in our industry,” she said. “As the company continues to thrive, Teresa’s record speaks for itself. That, along with her kindness towards others, will be her legacy.”

How she listened, learned and mentored

When White was focused on learning the business and growing with Aflac, she needed to listen to both customers and employees to understand the vision of the company.

“People who are closest to the customer know more about the business than you know,” White said.

So, she spent time nurturing and talking to employees to understand how they thought the business needed to change in meeting customer expectations. Throughout her time as president, White took pride in mentoring other employees to help them move forward in their careers.

One young woman once told White that she didn’t believe that she could be a manager.

“What is she seeing that I’m not seeing because I think she is cut out to be a manager,” White remembers thinking.

Determined she continued working with the young woman and mentoring her. White remembers fondly the day when the young woman became a manager, she said, but she was even prouder when years later the woman was helping to develop other people to be leaders.

One of the employees White mentored was Miller, her successor.

“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.”

He will always be grateful for White paving the way for other African Americans, like himself, to succeed at Aflac, Miller said.

“I’m proud to have an African American male to take my seat as I leave the company,” White said. “Because number one it doesn’t happen often. And, number two, he’s as smart as he can be.”

Throughout her accomplishments at Aflac, White is most proud about the people she’s been able to help within the organization who will now lead it.

“No one can fill her legendary shoes,” Miller said. “But I will do my best to continue her legacy and make her proud.”

Finding a creative way to give back to Columbus

A busy schedule made it difficult for White to find time to give back to the Columbus community.

“There was a point in my career where I felt really guilty because I traveled so much,” she said. “And I was just never able to kind of set roots in the community because I was responsible for the U.S.”

White went to a group of about five friends and told them that she felt like she needed to be doing more in Columbus, but worried that she wouldn’t be able to commit the appropriate amount of time to work on the project.

“If I’m having this issue, then I’m sure other executives are having the same issue,” White said. “And I started talking to some and realized that it wasn’t just me.”

She found that others she worked with at Aflac and around Columbus wanted to pour more into the community, but struggled to find time between work and their families.

As a solution, White created a leadership program called Bold Moves. Local leaders participating in the program could spend an hour of their time, once a month speaking to young women in Columbus about topics such as branding on social media, writing resumes, discussing college place or learning to be entrepreneurs.

Bold Moves began with five speakers rotating when they worked with the leadership program, White said, which made it easier because she knew when she wasn’t there, others would be. Over time, what began as a group of five women who worked for Aflac expanded to include a former mayor of Columbus, police officers, journalists and others.

“It grew to over a hundred women who were part of the Bold Moves program and lending their time,” she said.

White advises young women to understand what they truly want to do in their life and what is in their ability to do. Once this is accomplished, then they can chart a path to accomplish their goals.

“The key is to not allow people to take you off of your path,” White said. “You chart a path for yourself on who you want to be, what you want to be and then you go and surround yourself with people who can help you on your path.”