Western & Southern Financial Group (Western & Southern) has created a new Institutional Markets business unit and named John H. Bultema as the senior vice president to lead it, effective Sept. 18.
To continue to find ways to grow profitable client relationships, we have formed this new business unit to focus on new markets where the strengths of Western & Southern can be readily leveraged.
"Over the past 30 years, Western & Southern has enjoyed significant growth through the diversification of our businesses," said Jill T. McGruder, Western & Southern chief marketing officer and IFS president and chief executive officer. "To continue to find ways to grow profitable client relationships, we have formed this new business unit to focus on new markets where the strengths of Western & Southern can be readily leveraged."
In his position, Bultema has responsibility for building institutional relationships in the pension risk transfer, bank owned life insurance and other markets, reporting directly to McGruder. Bultema is charged with building "solution suites" for small businesses and mid-size banks to include group retirement and group protection products.
Bultema joins Western & Southern following a 22-year career at Fifth Third Bank and Old Kent Bank, where he held a variety of leadership positions, including regional president and chief executive officer – Central Florida; regional president – Western Michigan; executive vice president – Business Banking Group; and executive vice president – Currency Processing and Treasury Management. He earned a bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University and an MBA from Western Michigan University.
"John's experience in startup operations, business development and strategic execution will be invaluable to our company," McGruder said. "We welcome his expertise and leadership to help ensure Western & Southern continues its growth and profitability."
About Western & Southern Financial Group
Founded in Cincinnati in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern), a Fortune 500 company, is now the parent company of a group of diversified financial services businesses. Its assets owned ($47.2 billion) and managed ($22.3 billion) total $69.5 billion as of Sept 30, 2017. Western & Southern is one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Its six life insurance subsidiaries (The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life Insurance Company, Integrity Life Insurance Company, The Lafayette Life Insurance Company and National Integrity Life Insurance Company) maintain very strong financial ratings and a Comdex Ranking of 96. Other member companies include Eagle Realty Group, LLC; Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.¹ IFS Financial Services, Inc.; Peppertree Partners LLC¹; Touchstone Advisors, Inc.¹; Touchstone Securities, Inc.²; W&S Brokerage Services, Inc.²; and W&S Financial Group Distributors, Inc. For more information on the Western & Southern family of companies, visit www.westernsouthern.com. Western & Southern is the title sponsor of the Western & Southern Open (www.wsopen.com), a premier event in the U.S. Open Series played each August by the world's top-ranked professional male and female tennis players.
1 A registered investment advisor.
2 A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.
For current ratings, please visit www.westernsouthern.com/about/financial-information/financial-ratings.
