Michelle Samuel hired as Nationwide Chief Customer Officer

Michelle Samuel hired as Nationwide Chief Customer Officer

Nationwide has named Michelle Samuelas the insurance and financial services company's next Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer.

An experienced industry and customer experience executive, Samuel will lead Nationwide's customer team as it works to advance customer strategy across the Fortune 100 company's enterprise.

"We are thrilled to bring Michelle into our high-performing customer organization," said Mike Mahaffey, Nationwide Executive Vice President and Chief Customer, Strategy & Innovation Officer. "Based on her extensive track record, I have no doubt that she will help Nationwide enhance our customer focus and provide extraordinary care for our customers."

Samuel joins Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide with more than 20 years of financial services and insurance industry experience in key customer, distribution and transformation roles at Prudential Financial, The Hartford and Unum. She has held leadership positions spanning customer experience, digital transformation, distribution strategy, operations, and sales.

Most recently, Samuel launched and led Prudential's direct-to-consumer business. Previously, she was responsible for developing and implementing Prudential's first customer experience strategy while serving as the executive sponsor for the company's customer advocacy strategic pillar. The team she built and led received industry recognition for its work from the U.S. Customer Experience Awards, including CX Team of the Year, and the American Business Awards for Best in Financial Services/Banking and Product Innovation.

A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Michelle has a Bachelor of Science degree and numerous industry certifications and licenses. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional, has the SAFe/Agile certification and holds FINRA Series 6, 26 and 63 licenses.

Samuel joins Nationwide following the retirement of Amy Shore, who was Nationwide's first Chief Customer Officer and retired on Dec. 31.