New CIOs in Insurance

If there’s one industry that’s hungry for new CIOs, it’s insurance.

Consider the following IT management changes that took place in the insurance industry earlier this spring:

In March, Robert Ingram III joined Argonaut Group as the insurance products underwriter’s new senior VP and CIO. Ingram, who reports to Argonaut’s CEO, previously worked for USAA as its senior VP for IT. In the same month, New York City–based Amalgamated Life hired Raghubar Singh as its new VP and CIO, and Stewart Gibson accepted the senior VP and CIO post at USI Holdings in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. Gibson reports to the company’s CFO.

Meanwhile, in April, Oliver Bussman started his new job as the CIO of Fireman’s Fund, replacing Fred Matteson, who left the company in January. Bussman came from parent company Allianz Group where he was Allianz Germany’s executive VP of IT.

Also in April, William Jenks replaced Yom Senegor as CIO of Safeco. Senegor retired after five years with the company. Jenks previously worked for ad agency Publicis Groupe.

Insurance companies’ appetite for new blood is driven by the many changes taking place within the industry, says Marc Cecere, a vice president with Forrester Research. These changes, which include corporate restructurings and IT modernizations, demand a different kind of CIO from the technical problem-¿solvers of the past. For example, Cecere says, because some companies are outsourcing more IT work as part of their business transformation efforts, they need CIOs who know how to manage contracts and service levels, as well as work with multiple service providers.

Cecere adds that the new insurance industry CIOs are also big-picture thinkers: “The CIOs I meet today tend to be concerned about their entire enterprises, rather than just a particular line of business, and they’re more concerned about architecture.”