Fusura Taps E-Business Heavyweight for CEO

Fusura, the Wilmington, DL-based online personal lines agency backed by AIG, Prudential Financial and Kemper Insurance Companies, has named Mark Parsells president and chief executive officer.

Parsells, former chief operating officer of Citibank Online, brings heavyweight e-financial experience to Fusura. Under Parsells, Citibank Online achieved number-one rankings as an Internet bank from Gomez Advisors, Forbes and Forrester Research. Parsells also held executive positions with Wingspan, the online banking division of First USA Bank, Bank One and American Express. Acting Fusura president Rick Bender will return to AIG and will resume his executive responsibilities.

Parsells is confident his experience at other large financial companies will help him in his current role. "I have a good sense of how to move in a nimble way, but to work within the framework that large businesses have, such as AIG, Kemper and Prudential," he says.

"At Wingspan I did a lot of research in online insurance while we were trying to decide the best business model for insurance," says Parsells. "The insurance industry needs to commit to making the online insurance experience real time. Right now, except for AIG Prudential and Kemper, the industry is not."

Parsells' immediate priority is "to do some personal due diligence, go through all of the research and evaluate the business model at Fusura," he says. "That is not to say the company has not done its work and a good job, but I have to understand the value proposition." Parsells also is working to understand the needs of Fusura's customers, including other financial institutions, agencies and policyholders.

Fusura is creating a personal risk management portal that will be offered to consumers through financial institutions and Web-based properties. The site, expected to launch late this year, will initially offer automobile insurance and expects to later offer additional personal lines insurance and financial services products.

Parsells and Fusura are currently evaluating the work of ChannelPoint (Westminster, CO), Fusura's primary vendor. "ChannelPoint is doing an excellent job, but we just want to validate our choices," the new president/CEO says.

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio