Michael
D.
Heard

Michael D. Heard

(BSIE 1988, MSIE 1989)
Outstanding Industrial Engineer (2017)
Mike Heard was appointed president of Washington National in March 2017. He served previously as senior vice president of enterprise operations for CNO Financial Group. Prior to joining CNO in 2013, Heard spent eight years at Genworth Financial in senior leadership positions, most recently as senior vice president, business strategy & product support, and has held a variety of claims, service, and operations roles for GE Financial. Overall, he has 25 years of operations and technology experience and 20 years in the financial services industry. Heard earned both a Master of Science (1989) and Bachelor of Science (1988) degrees in industrial engineering from Purdue University. He is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute, a registered professional engineer, and a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He is also retired from the Air Force Reserve. In the community, Mike currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacers Foundation, the Advisory Council of the Military Family Research Institute and on the Dean's Advisory Council of the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.