Get to know CFO for the Strategic Insurance Businesses Jodi Kravitz.

New York Life | July 23, 2025

Kravitz discusses her career path, her role and the importance of moving forward.

Finance’s Jodi Kravitz, who is CFO of the Strategic Insurance Businesses, has spent her entire career at New York Life. She’s always moving forward – even when she thought she had her dream job. We sat down with Kravitz to get to know her and learn about her career journey.

What is your role?

As CFO of the Strategic Insurance Businesses, I work closely with Head of the Strategic Businesses Alain Karaoglan and the business CFOs to oversee the financial strategy across six diverse businesses. Each has its own dynamics and challenges, and my role is to align our financial vision while empowering each business to execute effectively.

Talk about your career path.

My career at New York Life began with a high school math field trip to the Home Office, where I first learned about actuarial science. That exposure led me to major in statistics and take actuarial exams while pursuing my degree, which helped me land an actuarial summer internship at New York Life. After graduation, I returned to join the actuarial development program and spent much of my early career pricing life and annuity products — eventually leading the life pricing team, which was my dream job at the time.

Still, I realized I needed broader exposure to advance further, so I transitioned into financial reporting — a challenging but rewarding pivot that ultimately prepared me to become CFO of Retail Life. From there, I stepped into the CFO role for the Foundational Businesses, and two years ago, into my current role.

How are Continuous Improvement (CI) and AI affecting Finance?

We’re still in the planning phase for CI in Finance, but my experience with CI across the Strategic Insurance Businesses gives me confidence in the value it can bring. I’ve seen firsthand how it can create value as I’ve witnessed the progress of CI across GBS and now Seguros Monterrey.

AI is also beginning to reshape our work. While we’re still in learning mode, I’m already excited by the examples I’ve seen of how Finance employees (myself included!) are deriving value as they find ways to leverage these new tools in their day-to-day work and know we’ve only just scratched the surface. As we pair AI with CI, I think we’ll uncover smarter, faster solutions to some of our most complex challenges.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

Early in my career, I was in what felt like my dream role — head of life pricing. During a career conversation, my manager, Steve Lash, offered advice that has stuck with me ever since: “If you’re not moving forward, you’re actually moving backward — because everyone else is moving forward.”

At the time, I was hesitant to consider roles at the Home Office that would require a much longer commute. But Steve’s words reminded me not to let comfort lead to complacency.

What do you like to do when you’re not in the office?

I enjoy traveling, reading and spending time with family and friends. This summer, I picked up golf — my husband has always played, and now that our kids have developed an interest, I decided to join the fun.

Looking back, the same thing happened with biking and skiing. As the boys picked up these hobbies, I did too — and those shared adventures have led to some of our favorite memories. I guess I’m always up for something new if it means more quality time together.

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