Connolly Broadens Vision

Last year's Elite 8 honorees continue to pursue technology excellence and innovation.

Since earning 2004 Elite 8 recognition, Michael Connolly, CTO and deputy CIO for Aetna (Hartford), has been promoted and assumed additional responsibilities. "Prior to this, I was in charge of strategy planning technology," he says. "Now, my position has grown into overseeing solution development, and managing here and offshore e-commerce."

This year, Connolly has sought to balance his business knowledge and operational skills to improve Aetna's end-to-end technology strategy, restructure and broaden his teams' knowledge of strategic architecture, and improve core technology with new product capabilities. "By integrating new product capabilities, we have made significant strides in investments to improve our integration with constituents," he explains.

Currently, Connolly is focused on managing the complexity of a multiproject program to drive efficiency and create technology investments with positive ROI. "There are a lot of opportunities, and we have to make sure we are picking the very best ones," he stresses. "If you have a vision, you can lead - you just have to take baby steps day to day."

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