From the Beginning: Symetra
Headquartered in Bellevue since 2004, Symetra has actively engaged with the Eastside community for many years. The financial services company has been a committed Leadership Eastside supporter from the very beginning, through board service and its sponsorship of more than 30 employees’ participation in the Adaptive Leadership or Executive Insight programs.
Symetra Chief Human Resources Officer Anne-Marie Diouf currently serves as Leadership Eastside board chair and is an Executive Insight program alum. Symetra Chief Marketing Officer Trinity Parker was a member of Leadership Eastside’s first graduating class and has served on several local boards including the Bellevue Downtown Association and KidsQuest Children’s Museum.
Below Anne-Marie shares how Symetra’s values align with the principles of Adaptive Leadership and why supporting Leadership Eastside is an investment that yields dividends for everyone, while Trinity connects Leadership Eastside’s emphasis on coalition-building and inclusivity to Symetra’s approach to reimagining its community and advocacy programs.
Anne-Marie Diouf
SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer, Symetra
Executive Insight Program, 2024
Leadership Eastside Board Chair, 2025
Over the 20 years that Symetra has worked with Leadership Eastside, a big part of why our partnership has been so successful is grounded in our shared values. Symetra’s principles around how we do business, how we engage with our workforce, and how we show up in our communities just align so well with the guiding principles of Leadership Eastside and Adaptive Leadership.
When we look at candidates to send through the program, we often begin with individuals that are really starting to dip their toe into people-leadership. We look for folks who have a real sense of understanding that in order to effectively tackle Symetra’s business challenges and arrive at viable solutions, you need multiple viewpoints.
Adaptive leadership is about ensuring all of the right people are at the table. It’s about learning how to get inclusive input and the importance of relationship-building. And it’s about creating leaders. I also think it helps to bring an “I’m interested in learning how to solve problems with people who are not always like me” mindset, whether that’s different professional or socio-economic backgrounds.
From a skills perspective, it is all very transferable to the corporate world. Bringing nonprofits, corporate entities and the public sector together to solve complex problems together.
Do you have an interest in really pulling in as many voices as you can when you’re solving problems? If so, understanding Adaptive Leadership is only going to help amplify your capabilities. Today, maybe more than ever, this is an investment that benefits everyone—program participants, the organizations and entities that sponsor them, and our greater community!
Trinity Parker
SVP & Chief Marketing Officer, Symetra
Leadership Eastside, Class of 2008
It’s hard to overstate the impact that Leadership Eastside has had on our Eastside community and on me personally. Walk into a local civic group meeting, look at a nonprofit or corporate board’s members, or attend a community event or city council meeting and you are bound to encounter leaders who have been through a Leadership Eastside program. I’m proud to call myself one of them.
The lessons I learned at Leadership Eastside about servant leadership, coalition building, about ensuring all stakeholders have a seat at the table, about inclusivity and working together to achieve positive impacts inform my role at Symetra, where our vision is to create a world where more people have access to financial freedom.
Access and service are also at the heart of our public affairs and community programs. When we started to reimagine and build out our programs five years ago, we looked at where we as a company could have the greatest impact, and what issues held the largest needs in our communities. Our goal was to shift from a transactional giving mindset to a more transformational partnership model that would be focused on deepening our impact with community organizations and serving those most in need. We wanted to support our partners by building meaningful relationships and engaging in their work in an intentional way.
Our approach was really straight out of the Adaptive Leadership playbook. Before launching our new program, we did our due diligence by speaking with different community and business coalitions, nonprofits, elected officials and community leaders, to help inform where the program would focus. When it comes to public advocacy, we look for opportunities to find broad alignment with business organizations, nonprofits and the public sector.
Ongoing relationships with all of these stakeholders continues to be foundational to Symetra’s community engagement strategy, both in our Eastside hometown and across our national footprint. Programs like Leadership Eastside help companies like Symetra build leaders in our business and in the community that strengthen and enrich both!
