Angela Kates serves as JES Holdings’ senior vice president of operations and chief of staff. In her role, she directs and optimizes core business processes, ensuring teams execute efficiently, meet performance targets and deliver on the organization’s strategic objectives.
Previously, Angela held roles at Owners.com, ADP and Virginia Tech where she increased employee engagement, provided strategic counsel to leadership and improved performance within teams of up to 800 employees and organizations earning as much as $3B in revenue.
Angela started her career at Aflac, a leading provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. In her decade-long tenure, she directly supported the $5.4B U.S. operation as vice president and chief of staff to the president. She was later promoted to vice president of communications and events, leading a team of 18 employees charged with driving engagement among the company’s 70,000 sales agents.
A graduate of Wharton’s Executive Education programs in both marketing and finance, Angela also holds a master’s degree in communications from Wake Forest University and a bachelor’s degree in the same field from The College of Wooster.
She has served on the board of trustees of the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia, as well as the alumni board of trustees for her undergraduate alma mater, The College of Wooster.
