Anant Bhalla was appointed President of the Company on January 27, 2020 and Chief Executive Officer on March 1, 2020.

Prior to joining American Equity, Mr. Bhalla was a partner of Bhalla Capital Partners, from March 2019 to January 2020.  From 2016 until 2019, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Brighthouse Financial, Inc.  From 2014 until 2016, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Retail business for MetLife. Prior to MetLife, Mr. Bhalla served in numerous senior roles including Chief Risk Officer, Treasurer and other management roles at Fortune 500 companies, including American International Group, Lincoln National Corporation, and Ameriprise Financial.  

Axel André was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company on September 7, 2021. 

Previous to American Equity, André was Executive Vice President and CFO for Jackson National. Prior to that he spent nearly 7 years at AIG. André joined AIG initially as Chief Risk Officer for Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, and Institutional Markets. He was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Individual Retirement at AIG, where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the finance and actuarial value chain for the Individual Retirement business, including asset-liability management, hedging, reporting and capital management. Prior to his time at AIG, André served as a Managing Director on the Global Insurance Strategies team at Goldman Sachs.

Andre holds a PhD in Physics from Harvard University and a Masters in Science in Physics from Imperial College in London.

Kate Etinger was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of the Company in July 2022.

Kate brings over 25 years of experience across all facets of human resources strategy and development.  Prior to American Equity, Kate was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Bank Leumi USA where she was responsible for overseeing all aspects of human resources including talent development, employee engagement, and delivering a strategic people and culture agenda in line with business goals and objectives.  Prior to that, Kate held a broad spectrum of progressively senior-level HR positions at global financial organizations such as Citi, HSBC, Merrill Lynch and others.

Kate completed her undergraduate studies Cum Laude at Long Island University, and received her executive master's degree in human resources leadership from Rutgers Business School.

Jim Hamalainen is Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer

Prior to joining American Equity, he was EVP, Chief Risk Officer, at Brighthouse Financial, where he built a risk function focused on implementing proactive processes to manage risk.  Prior to his time at Brighthouse, Mr. Hamalainen served as SVP, Treasury and Investment Management at Ameriprise Financial from 2010 to 2016.  Before that he served in a number of finance, risk management and investment roles at Ameriprise and American Express Financial Advisors. 

He started his career at IDS Financial Services after earning degrees from the University of North Dakota and the University of Minnesota.

Jeffrey D. Lorenzen, CFA, is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of American Equity Investment Life Holding Company and American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company.

Prior to joining American Equity as Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer in February 2009, he was the President and Chief Investment Officer of WB Capital Management Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of West Bancorporation, Inc. He also served on the board of directors for WB Capital Management, Inc., and was a member of the management committee of West Bancorporation (Nasdaq; WTBA). Prior to 2006, Mr. Lorenzen was President and Chief Investment Officer of Investors Management Group, where he spent 14 years in a variety of investment leadership positions. He started his career at Statesman as a high-yield credit analyst in 1989.

Mr. Lorenzen received his B.B.A. in finance from the University of Iowa and and M.B.A. from Drake University. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1993. Mr. Lorenzen has more than 25 years of experience in the investment and life insurance industries.

Nicholas P. Volpe was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Company in August 2022.  

Prior to joining American Equity, he was the Chief Information Officer, Individual Markets, at Guardian Life Insurance Company since 2016, and held other roles with Guardian since 2010. Previously, Mr. Volpe served in various roles with AXA Group from 2001 – 2010, as well as roles with XCelerate Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Nick graduated from Boston University School of Management with a bachelor's degree in business administration.