DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 19, 2025--
Principal Financial Group ® (Nasdaq: PFG) today announced that Deanna Strable, president and chief executive officer, has been elected chair of the board by the company’s board of directors, effective September 2, 2025. Strable succeeds Dan Houston, who will conclude his service on the board of directors after serving as chair since 2016. Houston served as president and CEO of Principal through January 7, 2025, and held many impactful leadership positions during his 40 years with the company.
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"We are grateful for Dan’s leadership and dedication which have advanced Principal and helped our customers build strong financial futures,” says Strable. “I look forward to building upon our foundation of innovation, inclusion, and service to meet our customers’ needs while driving growth and shareholder value.”
"Dan Houston's remarkable 40-year legacy has been instrumental in Principal's growth and success," says Scott Mills, independent lead director of the Principal board of directors. "The board has full confidence in Deanna Strable’s proven leadership to accelerate the company’s future growth while continuing to deliver exceptional value to customers and strong returns for shareholders.”
“It has been my honor to lead Principal and its global employee community for the past decade. With Deanna’s exceptional leadership, instrumental in shaping and executing our ambitious growth strategy, Principal is well-positioned for the future through integrated capabilities which create distinct competitive advantages across high-value markets,” says Houston.
Strable Background
Strable joined Principal in 1990 as an actuarial assistant and held many leadership positions as she progressed in the organization. For more than two decades she has been instrumental in leading business strategy and operations, holding senior management roles as Principal has gone through significant growth and transformation. She helped build the company’s Benefits and Protection business, becoming the first leader of its specialty benefits division before spearheading the integration with the life insurance business. She was named president of Benefits & Protection in 2015. Strable then served as chief financial officer from 2017-2024, when she was named president and chief operating officer. She assumed her current role as president and chief executive officer in January 2025.
Strable is a member of the board of directors for Elevance Health, Inc., and Simpson College. Strable received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
About Principal Financial Group
Principal Financial Group® (Nasdaq: PFG) is a global financial company with approximately 20,000 employees 1 passionate about improving the wealth and well-being of people and businesses. In business for 146 years, we’re helping over 70 million customers 1 plan, insure, invest, and retire, while working to support the communities where we do business and building an inclusive workforce. Principal ® is proud to be recognized as one of the 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies 2 and named as a Best Places to Work in Money Management 3. Learn more about Principal and our commitment to building a better future at principal.com.
1 As of June 30, 2025
2 Ethisphere, 2025
3 Pensions & Investments, 2024
Deanna Strable elected Principal board chair
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.
Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.
Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
