Deanna M. Mulligan is chief executive officer of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian). She is also a member of Guardian’s Board of Directors.
Mulligan was named CEO in July 2011 and from 2010 had served as president and chief operating officer. She joined Guardian in 2008 as executive vice president in charge of the company’s individual life and disability business. In this role, she was responsible for developing and leading Guardian’s product and business strategy to drive the company’s continued growth in these markets.
Mulligan’s background is in both strategy consulting and operational management. She founded DMM Management Solutions, LLC, a life insurance consultancy, and was a principal at McKinsey & Company. While at McKinsey, she also served as co-leader of the North American Life Insurance Practice and was a member of the firm’s Organizational Performance Practice. Mulligan has held senior positions at AXA Financial, New York Life Insurance Company, and ChannelPoint, a technology enterprise.
Active across the industry and in the community, Mulligan is a board member of The Vanguard Group, Catalyst, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the New York Department of Financial Services State Insurance Advisory Board, the Partnership for New York City, the Economic Club of New York, Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), and the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. She is also on the Board of Trustees for New York Presbyterian Hospital. Mulligan was appointed to, and served on, the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans from 2014 to 2015; she was chair of the ACLI board from 2015 to 2016. She is a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council and served as a director on the board of Arch Capital, a publicly held Bermuda-based re-insurer.
In 2019, Fortune named her for the fifth time as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” In 2019, Crain’s New York Business recognized her as one of “The 50 Most Powerful Women in New York” for the fifth time since 2011.
Mulligan graduated from the University of Nebraska with High Distinction and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.