National Life Group Foundation Trustees

Tom MacLeay, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Life Group Foundation, is the former President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of National Life Group. Tom is also currently Lead Director of the Board of National Life Group and serves on the Board of Directors of Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company, eSec Lending, Inc., and Let’s Grow Kids.

Tom is passionate about early childhood development and works tirelessly to educate others on the importance of early, quality childcare.

Beth Rusnock, President of the National Life Group Foundation, is also the Head of Corporate Communications and Community Relations for National Life Group. In this role, she leads internal and external communications, corporate sponsorships, and employee and community engagement.

Beth co-founded Do Good Fest, a benefit music festival held in both Montpelier, Vermont and Arlington, Texas; established ending childhood hunger and addressing children’s mental health as National Life’s corporate causes; and has secured local, regional, and national media recognition for the company.

In addition to her day job, Beth is the Chair of the Board for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. She also serves on the Working Communities Challenge Steering Committee led by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

John Mullett, Executive Director of the National Life Group Foundation, is also Director of Community Relations for National Life Group. In this role, he drives community engagement, builds community partnerships, and leads Do Good Fest for Texas and Vermont.

John is passionate advocate for mental health. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Make-A-Wish Vermont.

Mehran Assadi is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of National Life Group. Mehran joined National Life in September 2003 as the Executive Consultant to the Chief Executive Officer charged with overseeing strategic initiatives. Since becoming President and Chief Executive Officer in 2009, Mehran has led major growth in both top and bottom-line results of National Life’s life and annuity products and has worked to build a culture of collaboration, engagement and empowerment among employees.

In addition to being an active member to the National Life Group Foundation, he joined National Life’s corporate Board of Directors in 2009 and was elected Chairman in 2017.

Nimesh Mehta is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of National Life Group. He focuses on all aspects of technology operations to effectively align business and technology strategy with a customer centric focus. He was previously the Head of Life & Annuity Operations and also served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer at the company.  Before joining National Life in 2008, he served in various leadership positions at Lincoln Financial Group for over 14 years.    

Nimesh is involved with multiple nonprofit organizations in his community and has a particular interest in children’s mental health.  

Dawn Lee Minter joined National Life Group in 2009 as Executive Assistant to the Chief Marketing Officer. In 2015, she was promoted to Executive Assistant to the Chairman, CEO and President. She serves as a member of the leadership team, lead to National Life’s administrative professionals, and liaison to the National Life Group Board of Directors. 

In addition to serving on the board of the National Life Group Foundation, Dawn also serves on the Board of Directors of Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation.

Scott Rogers joined National Life in 2018 as the Head of Facilities. He is an active volunteer and has helped organize the free Thanksgiving meals in Vermont since 2020.  Scott also helped organize the first annual Do Good Fest in Texas, and serves as the Incident Commander for Do Good Fest Vermont. In 2020, Scott was chosen as part of the inaugural group of Culture Fellows.

In addition to being an active member of the National Life Foundation, Scott is also a member and past President of the Vermont Society of Engineers.

Eva Zhang joined National Life Group in April 2024 as Associate Director – Tax Accounting, responsible for corporate tax planning, compliance, and reporting for the organization. Before joining National Life, Eva was a tax manager at Ernst & Young, handling various federal and state tax projects. She also served as a tax lead at Incline P&C Group and Continental Insurance Group.

Eva is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified management accountant (CMA). She also actively volunteers at her local school district and library.

Shannon Salembier currently works as Legal Counsel to the operating companies of National Life Group and serves as Secretary and Chief Legal Counsel of the National Life Group Foundation.

In her role as Secretary and Chief Legal Counsel to the Foundation, Shannon advises the board on its roles and responsibilities, attends and records minutes of all board meetings, facilitates board communications, and maintains governance policies, records, and documents of the Foundation and its Finance Committee.

Greg Mateja joined National Life Group in 2014 where he currently serves as Vice President and Treasurer and his responsibilities include Capital Management, Rating Agencies, Reinsurance, and Corporate Insurance in addition to his treasury responsibilities.

Prior to joining National Life, Greg served as Head of Risk Integration for ING U.S. (now VOYA), where he was responsible for economic capital, asset-liability management, and risk reporting.

Greg is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), a CFA charter holder, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics/Economics from Union College.

Donna Lasick joined National Life Group in March of 2023 as Vice President and Controller. In this role, she oversees all aspects of GAAP & STAT Financial Reporting, Investment Accounting, and Corporate Accounting for National Life.

Since joining Donna has represented National Life Group as an active volunteer in the community. In September of 2023, Donna was elected to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library Board. Prior to joining National Life, she was with Global Atlantic and its predecessors for 16 years contributing to several initiatives including their transition to a public company.

Donna is a native Vermonter who grew up in Vermont and graduated from Trinity College in Burlington.

Joe Heaslip is the Investment Officer for the National Life Group Foundation and the Head of Risk and Quantitative Analytics for National Life Group. Joe joined National Life Group  in 2008 by working in Sentinel Investments.

Joe manages the endowment for the National Life Group Foundation with a focus on leaving a legacy of doing good.