MICROSOFT TAPS MARONEY TO HEAD INSURANCE BUSINESS

Dennis Maroney, a long-time insurance executive, has joined Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft as managing director for the insurance industry within the company's Financial Services Group. He will assume responsibilities that previously were handled by Kevin Kelly, who now is overseeing business development for Microsoft's entire Financial Services Group.

Both Maroney and Kelly report to Bill Hartnett, Microsoft's general manager of financial services strategy. Maroney's appointment coincides with some other role redefinition within the Financial Services Group, as global capital markets manager Mark Horvath takes on additional responsibilities for setting security strategy within the Group. Horvath, lead technical strategist, financial services, Josh Lee, and global banking manager Kenny McBride, all report to Hartnett.

Among Maroney's priorities in his new assignment will be helping insurers address critical enterprise business process challenges, as well as a range of compliance and regulatory issues. Partnerships with industry-specific software companies will continue to be a priority, as well.

Maroney's experience includes turns in both the carrier and the solutions provider worlds, as co-founder of three different financial services exchanges. On the carrier side, he spent 18 years at Commercial Union, including responsibilities as the executive (reporting to the CEO) in charge of e-commerce. His developmental work at Commercial Union was nominated by Microsoft for a Smithsonian Award.

On the solutions provider/exchange side, Maroney was CTO of The Hartford's ClaimsPlace venture. In the '90s, Maroney was chief operating officer of the ITSA e-commerce venture that aimed to sell insurance through WalMart and Sam's Clubs. He also served as CTO of the XL Capital venture Inquislogic, a risk management exchange.

This will not be the first time Maroney, Hartnett and Kelly have worked together. "I met Bill more than 20 years ago, when the ACORD boards were being formed," Maroney recalls. "And Kevin worked for me at ITSA."

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio