As Susan Neely prepares to retire after nearly 20 years as an association CEO, she has this advice for other group leaders: Think of the sweet spot for advocacy as the middle of a Venn diagram of sometimes conflicting interests.

“You’ve got what public policymakers are concerned about, you have what consumers are concerned about and then you have what your member businesses need to be successful,” she told CEO Update. 

“The sweet spot among those three circles is what your ‘for position’ needs to be,” she said.

“For position” is a term Neely coined, meaning the place where members should be advocates on important issues that affect their industry and society at large.

Neely is CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), which announced in March that she would retire at year end. Recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles is assisting in the search for her replacement.

“In the life insurance industry, ‘for positioning’ means we’re going to be front-footed about closing retirement savings gaps and advancing policy that does that, we are going to be front-footed on advancing paid family and medical leave policies that help the caregivers in this country, and we’re going to be front-footed on advancing tax solutions that allow businesses to work to support consumers’ needs,” she said.

Neely has led ACLI since 2018. In her previous role as CEO of the American Beverage Association for 13 years, she responded to concerns about childhood obesity (and proposed soda taxes) by leading competing soda makers in an initiative to reduce calorie and sugar consumption from soft drinks.

“Susan brought vision, strength, and purpose to her leadership of ACLI,” board Chair Paul A. Quaranto, Jr., CEO of Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company, said in a statement. 

Neely has been president of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations since 2022.

Benefits of volunteerism

Neely has been active in the association community. She was named Trade Association CEO of the Year by CEO Update in 2017. She has been chair of ASAE and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Committee of 100. Neely also earned ASAE’s Certified Association Executive credential.

Such activities “have been very important opportunities for me personally, and I highly recommend them to others in our community,” she said.

“It provides great professional development, and you can learn through formal education and networking with your peers. That’s where great ideas come from, and you learn things that you should be worried about that maybe weren’t even on your radar, and learn what others are doing about them.”

After retiring, Neely plans to remain active in civic and philanthropic organizations including the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation.    

Before becoming the beverage association’s CEO in 2005, Neely was special assistant to President George W. Bush and helped create the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11, later becoming its first assistant secretary for public affairs.

Before that, she worked in top advocacy roles for the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Health Insurance Association of America, one of the two organizations that merged in 2003 to create what is now known as America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Earlier in her career, Neely was a press secretary and campaign manager for then-Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.