The Standard Hires John Rucker as Assistant Vice President of Corporate Tax
Standard Insurance Company (The Standard) announced that John Rucker has been hired as assistant vice president of Corporate Tax. Rucker will be responsible for developing and leading a team of dedicated tax professionals who will work with other financial reporting and operations personnel to streamline and achieve efficiencies in The Standard’s tax reporting and information gathering processes.
Rucker joins The Standard with more than 38 years of corporate tax experience with Ernst & Young and Deloitte Tax. Most recently Rucker served as senior vice president of Tax for Lionsgate Entertainment. “I am excited to welcome John to the team,” said Rob Erickson, vice president, chief accounting officer and treasurer at The Standard. “He brings a wealth of tax experience including deep multistate expertise to his role at The Standard.”
Rucker holds a Master of Laws in taxation from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor from Michigan State University College of Law.
The Standard Promotes Maria Gonzalez to Vice President of Retirement Plans Services
Standard Insurance Company (The Standard) announced today that Maria Gonzalez has been promoted to vice president of Retirement Plans Services.
Prior to joining the Standard in 2003, Maria worked in investment banking for Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. At The Standard, Gonzalez has held leadership roles in Corporate Finance, Individual Annuities, Marketing and Employee Benefits. She joined the Retirement Plans division in 2010 and was promoted to assistant vice president in 2014. She was instrumental in transforming the Plan Services division in 2017. In her new role, Gonzalez will be responsible for all service and operation functions for the Retirement Plans division and will continue to serve on the board of Stancorp Investment Advisers.
“Maria has built a reputation as a thoughtful, capable and versatile leader,” said A.J. Ijaz, vice president for Retirement Plans at The Standard. “She has also led the successful deployment of Lean across her organization driving greater customer focus, better problem solving and improved efficiencies. We are excited to have her leadership guiding our service and operations teams.”
Gonzalez received her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.