Press release
Principal Financial Group ® Announces New Head of U.S. Retirement Business
Renee Schaaf to retire after more than 41 years DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Principal Financial Group® today announced Chris Littlefield, executive
About this update from Principal Financial Group Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"\nRenee Schaaf to retire after more than 41 years\n\n DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\n\nPrincipal Financial Group® today announced Chris Littlefield, executive vice president, general counsel is named president of Retirement and Income Solutions (RIS) effective April 1. This follows the decision of Renee Schaaf, current president of RIS, to retire after more than 41 years with the company.\n\nPrior to Principal ®, Littlefield served as president and CEO of two life insurance and annuity companies – Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Holdings (2014-2018) and Aviva USA Corporation (2009-2013). When he joined Principal in 2020 as general counsel, he was responsible for leading the legal, government relations, and compliance departments. He also served as corporate secretary to the Board of Directors.\n\n“When we asked Chris to join Principal as general counsel, we were keenly aware of his depth of operational and leadership experience, in addition to his legal expertise, and considered this in our succession planning,” said Dan Houston, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Principal. “Chris has a proven track record of leading large, complex financial organizations and teams. I’m confident he’s the right leader to grow our retirement business, create value across our lines of business, and champion digital transformation for the benefit of our plan sponsors and participants.”\n\nIn Littlefield’s new role, he will be responsible for leading the retirement business at Principal, serving the retirement savings and income needs of over 40,000 employers and 10 million individual customers. Together with his leadership team, he will focus on continuing to advance the company’s industry leading position in a full spectrum of retirement plan types, along with trust and custody and income solutions.\n\nMark Lagomarcino, who previously served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel, will step into the general counsel role as part of Littlefield’s transition. He will also serve as corporate secretary to the Board.\n\nSchaaf departs Principal after serving in key leadership roles across the organization. Most recently, she led Principal through the transformation of its retirement business with the acquisition and integration of the Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. This doubled the size of the comp...