Selective IT Head Richard Connell to Retire April 2011

Richard Connell, senior EVP and chief administrative officer for Branchville, N.J.-based Selective Insurance Group, will retire April 1, 2011, according to a company release.

Connell joined Selective as EVP and CIO in 2000, and was promoted to his current position in 2007. To fill the vacancy, Selective says it is looking for a CIO.

"It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Richard has chosen to retire as of April 1, 2011," Selective chairman, president and CEO Gregory Murphy says in a statement. "Richard has played a vital role in the development of our Information Technology Services group, bringing our 'high-tech, high-touch' strategy to new heights. He put equal effort into his administrative responsibilities and we will miss his wisdom and guidance. We wish him all the best in his retirement."

Insurance & Technology named Connell an Elite 8 this year, because in his 10 years at the company he helped modernize Selective's infrastructure, core systems, agent-facing technology and underwriting capabilities. The company completed a rebuild of its commercial lines policy administration system in 2004 and by 2006 did the same for its personal lines and surety business systems. Web enablement in the rebuilds supported the carrier's xSELerate agency integration platform.

Currently, the company is working on retiring legacy business intelligence systems of which Connell has led the replacement through the Knowledge Management Initiative. He credited his team and the corporate alignment with IT with the success of these moves.

"All of our accomplishments are because we have a great organization that we built over time," Connell told Insurance & Technology. "There were some great people already here; we brought some great people in, matched our objectives to the business strategy, implemented best practices that fit our size and type of organization, and then expected results to follow -- and that is, in fact, what happened."

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio