In Good Company

At Insurance & Technology, we often exhort insurance executives to do a better job of communicating with their customers. So, in the interest of practicing what we preach, we introduce our new Reader Advisory Board, an assemblage of industry leaders who will provide us with invaluable hands-on expertise and insight.

I&T will rely on this high-powered brain trust to make sure we continue to provide our entire community of readers and attendees with the most timely, focused and critical information about trends and important developments in the insurance technology industry. We will talk to the members of the Reader Advisory Board about the business and professional challenges they face day-to-day; what they view as the most important technology issues; who they look to for best practices and success stories; and how they think Insurance & Technology can best serve the industry.

By picking the brains of...er, interacting with these executives—who represent firms of all sizes and all lines of business—we can be sure we are bringing you the right kind of information, in the right format. Without further ado, here is the inaugural Reader Advisory Board:

-- John Albanese, SVP, customer services & information services, Penn Mutual Life

-- Russell Bostick, CIO, Zurich Life

-- Donald Buskard, CTO and SVP/IT, AXA Client Solutions

-- Kelly Cannon, VP of IT, Nationwide Insurance

-- Daniel Cavanagh, EVP, MetLife

-- William Friel, SVP & CIO, Prudential Financial

-- Lou Geremia, CEO, Insurance.com

-- Barbara Koster, CIO, individual financial services, Prudential Financial

-- Bill Levine, CIO, AXA Client Solutions

-- Craig Lowenthal, 1st VP & CIO, Hartford Financial Products

-- Kevin Murray, CIO, AIG Claims Solutions

-- Wayne Ratz, SVP & CIO, Harleysville Insurance

-- Conrad Rossow, strategic technology consultant, Minnesota Life

-- Ben Salzmann, president & CEO, ACUITY

-- Jerry Sychowski, VP, Allied Information Services/CIO, Allied Insurance

-- Don West, VP of client services, State National Companies

Just as installing a CRM system does not in and of itself make an insurance company a customer-focused organization, nor is the creation of the Reader Advisory Board all I&T will do to get closer to our customers. All of you have insights, experiences and opinions regarding the direction of the industry, and I welcome the opportunity to hear from you via email, telephone, or face-to-face at an industry event or in your offices. As we've been reporting, communications and responsiveness are more important than ever in our industry—and we intend to practice what we preach.

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