Illumine Ventures, LLC

Founder

Whole Foods Market

- Defined the leadership development strategy and roadmap for the organization.
- Enabled Whole Foods Market leader’s growth, happiness and performance through the successful design, implementation, facilitation and sustainability of unified leadership development programs.
- Responsible for all facets of leadership development for Store, Regional, and Global Support leaders.

Global Director of Leadership Development

• Defined the regional learning & development strategy and led cross-functional efforts to build impactful leadership development programs to enable the growth of leaders of all levels.
• Collaborated with global leaders to champion the “Success Profile” tool that will be foundational to all aspects of talent management at Whole Foods Market. Outputs: EC & RVP Success Profiles.
• Led the Unified Leadership Development working group through multiple strategic iterations. Outputs: virtual TL development workshops and defined competencies for four levels of leaders.
• Partnered with senior regional leaders to define regional strategic priorities as they related to talent management. Outputs: high-potential development strategy & programs, “Leading through Change” strategy, “Speed-to-Floor” & “Always-On-Hiring” mechanisms.
• Led cross-regional effort to build the TL Cross-Training program that was adopted company-wide.

Regional Director of Learning & Development

•	Responsible for developing and implementing the vision and strategy for the following programs: Team Educator, In-Store Educator, NM Onboarding Path, Certified Purchaser.
•	Created a comprehensive training and communication strategy to support the transition of the Team Educator program from a role to an official position with its own wage guideline.
•	Led the region’s Envisioning initiative; developing and facilitating an Envisioning Day for each Regional Support team and overseeing the execution of the Metro Envisioning Days.

Regional Learning & Development Associate Director

•	Demonstrated ability to increase store support for training through effective communication of training benefits, relationship building, and proven leadership development results.
•	Developed Restaurant Venue Orientation in collaboration with store and regional leadership. 
•	Created Metro Educator Guidebook to support new Metro Educator onboarding.
•	Served as a mentor to fellow Metro Educators and ISEs to maximize their effectiveness.

Metro Educator

•	Contributed to a successful new store opening through effective training, leadership, and communication with department team members.  Our department nearly tripled our opening sales projections.
•	Improved team performance through strategic merchandising, diligent inventory management, and by motivating our team to stay focused under the rigorous demands of a new store opening.
•	Focused on training team members to deliver an excellent customer service experience through role playing, recognition, and leading by example.
•	Developed a firm understanding of department operations and financials.

Specialty Associate Team Leader

•	Successfully completed leadership development program designed to prepare Team Members for team leadership.
•	Challenged to execute new product strategies to support regional objectives and increase department sales.

Leadership Development Candidate

Compass, Inc.

•	Responsible for leading all field training efforts; including creating the learning roadmap, content, and systems to support the field in achieving sales objectives.   
•	Increased monthly recurring revenue by 126% in one year by revisiting and adjusting the business system training; then followed through by increasing field awareness of both online and weekly training courses.

Director of Field Development

Ok, let's be real. What comes up for you when you hear the words "spiritual awakening?" 

If you're like I was, the idea of spiritual awakening probably seems like a fringe concept. Something for saints or monks, but not for you. 

It's probably not even on your radar, or if it is, it probably feels completely out of reach. 

I get it. That was me. But, what if I told you that awakening is not the "woo-woo" stuff you think it is?

When you take away all the mental labels, awakening is just about understanding that there is another way to live. A way of living connected to your Creator. You can call it God, Source, Consciousness, Universe, or whatever language feels right. It's not about what you call it; it’s about learning to call on it. Making the effort to get still and learn the truth.
 
Why would you want to do this? Well, it's pretty simple. It is the only way to find lasting peace, joy, and fulfillment in your life. 

How do I know? Because I had to learn this the hard way. By the age of 45, I had achieved all my dreams and reached the pinnacle of my success. I had the dream job, the dream partner, and the dream house.  Then, the bottom began to fall out. 

I was experiencing a sort of quiet misery on a regular basis that began to seep into every area of my life. I couldn't escape the feeling that something was still missing. I looked at my life and wondered "Is this all there is?" 

Let me tell you, it's a rude awakening when you have achieved everything you set out to achieve and you still feel unfulfilled.

Instead of accepting that this was just how life my life was going to be, I decided to discover the source of my discontent.

You see, the problem wasn't my life. The problem was how I was approaching my life. 
•	I was approaching my life from the outside in, rather than the inside it.
•	I saw my life as a grind, rather than a gift.
•	I thought my answers were out there, rather than within.

Everything changed when I learned to do the REAL work of my life. I learned to listen to my inner voice, and it guided me to the truth of who I am, and why I'm here. This was my "awakening," and it's how I was able to finally release the quiet misery and experience the joy, peace and fulfillment I had always been seeking.

Awakening is for all of us: the rebels, the skeptics, the never-settlers, the non-conformists, and even the recovering perfectionists. 

I am here to share what I have learned so that we all may awaken to the truth. I am here to help you do the REAL work of your life.

Ready? Go to my website to get started: www.jencarew.com

Jen Carew

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated

Vice President, Business Initiatives, Market Growth

Grange Insurance

Reported to EVP, Chief Distribution and Affiliate Officer.  Managed the Grange Enterprise of Companies brand and reputation management; Modernized the marketing department to achieve business results through robust marketing strategies, actionable go-to-market plans and digital marketing capabilities that consistently delivered business results.

Vice President, Marketing

Reported to President with matrix reporting to Grange Insurance EVP, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.  Led team of internal and external wholesalers in the sale of Term, Whole Life, and fixed Universal Life insurance products through independent agents. Drove sales results in the Grange Life Insurance division, supporting the mutual goals of the Grange Insurance organization and it's independent insurance agents. Achieved record-breaking sales results, a 64% improvement over three years.

Assistant Vice President, Life Sales Leader

Reported to President, Grange Life Insurance.  Led the development and strategic positioning of fixed life and annuity products and services to meet the needs of independent Grange insurance agents and their clients, building company revenues to meet and exceed defined growth objectives.

Assistant Vice President, Life Product Manager

Nationwide

Reported to Vice President, Continuous Improvement. Led cross-functional team in the development and execution of a strategic approach to transforming Property and Casualty service and service recovery communications to better optimize the Nationwide brand investment.  Developed business case and program structure for improvement on both a short-term basis to demonstrate progress and long-term basis to ensure sustainable transformation. Headed the development of request for proposal, and selection of an industry expert for the communications transformation, including rewrite, governance model and process improvements.

Associate Vice President, Staff Administration

Nationwide Financial

Reported to President, Nationwide Financial Network (NFN), the Nationwide Financial affiliated sales organization and broker/dealer holding over $10 billion in assets in under management in fixed and variable life insurance, annuities and mutual funds. Distribution force represented by Nationwide Multi-Line Exclusive Agents, Career Agents and Personal Producing General Agents. Led the transformation of the Strategy and Planning team focused on marketing strategy and go-to-market plans, product development, marketing and sales communications, event planning and sales training.

Associate Vice President, Sales Development

Reported to Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer. Established a newly formed department in leading the development of business strategy capabilities through partnerships with the Nationwide Financial business segments. Co-led the development of a consistent marketing positioning for Nationwide Financial across all business lines, including the study of competitors’ positions, customer interviews, market trend assessments and consumer drivers of behavior; Served as Program Manager for the execution of positioning and overall strategy implementation, “Winning Advisors”.

Associate Vice President, Strategy & Planning

Reported to VP, Strategy and Planning. Developed a corporate capability of a disciplined, consistent approach to business strategy. Co-led the development of a comprehensive market planning training program, “Nationwide Way”, and personally conducted training classes to teach the businesses how to use a disciplined approach to market planning - connecting business strategy to achieving results.  Enabled winning strategies to rebuild market share through facilitation of market planning/business planning sessions across the Enterprise.

Marketing Officer, Strategy & Planning

Reported to Vice President, Individual Annuity Product Management, a product line with over $50 billion in assets under management.  Drove product development, business planning and implementation of new variable annuity and income products to achieve favorable financial results through management and influence of cross-functional teams including product manager, actuarial, channel managers, general counsel, marketing, operations and IT.

Officer, Product Development

Success comes from taking chances and working hard. Growing up I learned the value of both from my grandfather, a navy veteran that had “seen a few things.” He taught me that if you want something you have to earn it. Back then my path was not clear - no one in my family had gone to college, left our town, or even branched out. But I knew that I had to take a chance, and definitely needed to work hard if I wanted success. Even so, there were plenty of failures along the way that have influenced the leader that I am today.

I know my experience as a kid, and the benefit of great mentors, has led to my passion for challenges and opportunities where the path isn’t well defined. That’s how I’ve gained my reputation for getting things done in a complex environment. Over my 20+ years of experience in the life insurance, annuity, and property and casualty industries I’ve successfully lead projects, and high-performing teams, across many disciplines including marketing, sales, product management and operations. Having the benefit of such broad experience allows me to truly think strategically about how the teams that I lead can best achieve business results.

Areas of Expertise:
Marketing | Sales | Operations | Strategy | Go-to-Market Plans | Leading and Developing Teams | Leading Change | Driving Execution | Life Insurance | Annuities | Independent, Career and Captive Distribution Systems

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The Battle

Jen Carew

Jennifer Jennings

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