Nationwide Hires New CAT Head

Kevin George has joined Nationwide Insurance (Columbus, OH) as director ofcatastrophe management after holding a similar role at USAA.

George, who began his career as a multi-line adjuster in the 1980's for auto and other areas of P&C, has been working in insurance catastrophe response since '93 and realizes the value that IT plays in responding to catastrophes, such as hurricanes, tornados and other severe events.

"I take a great interest in keeping up with the latest technology because it can gain you many efficiencies in customer service," George says. "Catastrophe management is the best place for Nationwide to demonstrate it's value...because often it is during a tough time in our policyholder's lives. That is the time that Nationwide's catastrophe response team is there to put them at ease."

Although Nationwide currently uses technology for its CAT team, George is looking at additional technology to make it even more effective. "The most important thing in hurricane catastrophe response is aligning your resources to quickly and efficiently respond to the landfall of the hurricane," George says. (For more on Nationwide's CAT response, see p. 7) "We are currently looking at software that will allow us to place our policyholder locations and the path of the hurricane on a coastal map," George says, ultimately improving deployment to the damaged areas.

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