Meet Our Team

Raju (Raj) T. Varma was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of AAA Life Insurance Company in September 2025, bringing more than 27 years of leadership experience across the AAA federation.

Before joining AAA Life, he served as Executive Vice President of Operations at Auto Club Enterprises (ACE), following earlier roles as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. He has also contributed to governance across the federation as a member of the AAA Life Board of Directors since 2018.

Raj began his career in finance at KPMG before joining the Auto Club of Southern California as a Financial Analysis Manager. As the organization expanded into ACE, he advanced through a series of executive positions spanning finance and operations.

He holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor of Commerce from Loyola College in India.

Michael Vellat joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Chief Operating Officer in April 2024. With a rich background that spans both L&H and P&C insurance, strategy, and enterprise transformation, Michael is responsible for setting the long-term direction for our Operations teams, ensuring efficient and effective execution of business processes.

Prior to AAA Life, Michael served as Chief Growth Officer at Companjon, Europe’s leading B2B2C embedded insurance provider. Before that, he held senior roles at Swiss Re, Ernst & Young, and Munich Re. With nearly 15 years of experience, Michael has a proven track record of commercial success across the fields of (re)insurance and technology.

Michael holds a Master of Philosophy in bioscience enterprise from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Science in information systems and management from the Warwick Business School, and an M.A. in business studies from the University of Edinburgh Business School. In his free time, Michael enjoys spending time with his wife, Anna, and their son, as well as engaging in all kinds of outdoor sports (especially skiing).

Betty Schick joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Chief Marketing Officer in November 2013. She has over 30 years of marketing leadership experience in the financial services industry, serving in business- and consumer-facing roles. Prior to AAA Life, Betty led marketing efforts as Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer at The Auto Club Group from 2004-13 and held a variety of leadership positions during her 14-year tenure at Discover Financial Services.

Betty is responsible for AAA Life’s Brand & Integrated Marketing, Corporate Communications and Customer Experience teams, with oversight of portfolio engagement, user experience, customer-based insights and competitive analysis. She also serves as a Senior Marketing liaison with AAA club marketing and sales leaders to enhance awareness of the life business in the AAA ecosystem.

Betty graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in marketing.

Ric Surowiec joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Senior Vice President, Head of Distribution, in December 2022. Prior to arriving at AAA Life, Ric spent more than seven years as senior vice president, head of Transactional Markets at AIG. He was responsible for working with the product teams to price and develop products, build sales, and cultivate distribution partners and channels in new markets. Ric developed a fully accretive independent and captive agent distribution channel of 90,000 producers, driving sales from $0 to $75 million of annual premium in six years.

Prior to that, he served as vice president of marketing & strategy for the Direct Marketing & Sales Division at Mutual of Omaha. There, Ric was responsible for life and supplemental health product sales of $1 billion in renewal premiums, $200 million in first-year premiums, and a direct response advertising budget of over $170 million.

Ric graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in finance, and received his MBA from Illinois Benedictine University.

JJ Carroll joined AAA Life Insurance Company in January 2020 and currently serves as Vice President, Claims and Claims Experience. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, JJ is responsible for developing and implementing AAA Life’s product and innovation strategy. She helps create the company’s innovation roadmap to support member penetration and profitable growth, and provides strategic direction on member-focused product design.

Prior to joining AAA Life, JJ was the Senior Vice President of Swiss Re’s New Solutions Group, an innovation team dedicated to developing underwriting and customer experience solutions in life insurance.

JJ graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in mathematics and holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois.

Tyffani joined the AAA Life Insurance Company in September 2019 and currently serves as Vice President, Human Resources, People & Culture. In this role, Tyffani is responsible for overseeing all aspects of human resources which includes the development, design, and execution of HR services and programs for talent management, learning and development, compensation and benefits, and diversity and inclusion.

Prior to joining AAA Life Insurance Company, Tyffani spent 20 years at Ford Motor Company in various human resources leadership roles, partnering with the corporate staff, manufacturing, and finance organizations.

Tyffani has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Hampton University, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Howard University, and a Juris Doctor degree from University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.

Jason Edgeworth joined AAA Life Insurance Company in September 2014, and currently serves as Vice President, Process Optimization and Automation. He is responsible for application processing and underwriting for all Agent Sold, Direct Mail, and online applications. Prior to his current role, Jason worked primarily in Information Technology, overseeing infrastructure, development and customer support.

Previously, Jason was Senior Director, Data Collection and System Support at Market Strategies International (MSI), guiding the company through mergers and acquisitions and directing the development of a new sales recognition process. He relocated from Canada in 2008 in order to play a more active role in assessing IT capabilities in mergers and acquisitions.

Jason graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in computer science.

Sally Murphy joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary in May 2023. With over 25 years of experience counseling insurance companies, she counsels the President & CEO, senior management and the Board of Directors on legal implications of company activities, and keeps all parties abreast of legislative and administrative regulatory development and issues. Sally is also responsible for compliance strategy, structure and processes.

Prior to AAA Life, Sally held leadership positions at MassMutual, AIG, USAble Life, Royal Neighbors of America and USAA Life Insurance Company. She specialized in corporate governance, compliance, product development, advertising, anti-money laundering and fraud, and was also responsible for the management of legal and regulatory risk.

Sally earned her J.D. from Western New England University School of Law and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in Elementary Education. She also served six years in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

John Steber joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Vice President, Direct Marketing, in August 2023. An industry veteran of over 20 years, John has deep experience creating world-class product, marketing and CX strategies to engage customers and drive growth. John is responsible for AAA Life’s direct marketing efforts, focusing on delivering high quality and relevant insurance offers to AAA members through a variety of marketing channels including direct mail and digital.

John joined AAA Life from Voya Financial, where he served as Vice President of Customer Solutions since 2016. Prior to Voya, he held senior level marketing roles at Cigna, AXA, and The Hartford.

John graduated with honors from Wake Forest University where he earned his MBA in Marketing & Quantitative Analysis. He also graduated Magna Cum Laude from Kutztown University with an undergraduate degree in Marketing.

Rylee Allan joined AAA Life Insurance Company as Vice President, e-Operations and Digital Experience in November of 2023. She brings nearly 20 years of experience in digital experience, operations, and technology. Rylee leads a team dedicated to enhancing our digital customer experience for new sales, existing policy holders, beneficiaries and all AAA members.

Prior to her arrival at AAA life, Rylee was with Covr Financial Technologies, where she was the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product. She has experience with many major insurance carriers across Life, Disability, Long Term Care as well as Medicare Supplemental products. She has held various leadership positions in the mortgage and real estate technology industries leading technology and digital experience.

Rylee has her Computer Science degree from Colorado State University and graduated Cum Laude. She started her career as an engineer and quickly expanded into digital and leadership roles, bringing unique thinking to businesses and driving transformation.

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Meet Our Team

Get to know AAA Life's executive leadership team.

Meet Our Team

Get to know AAA Life's executive leadership team.