Great American Names Singh CIO

Great American Insurance Group (Cincinnati; $2.5 billion in net written premium) has appointed Piyush Singh to the post of senior vice president and CIO.

The former RLI Corp. (Peoria; $820 million in annual premium) CIO's "strong mixture of technological and business experience," particularly with regard to specialty P&C lines, helped to make Singh a good fit for Great American, according to the company's CFO, Keith Jensen, to whom Singh will report.

Singh looks forward to the challenge of operating on a larger scale, but emphasizes the importance not only of what he will bring to Great American, but of the existing organization that he will direct. "When the organization is larger, you need to adapt to ensure that people-orientation still takes top priority," he says. Singh sees his leadership as one contribution within a larger technology organization replete with talent. "At the end of the day my sitting in an office in the corner is not going to transform the technology environment; The people at Great American will transform it.

"What I will provide is thought leadership and vision, and I will ensure that efforts are channeled into a business-enablement approach," Singh adds. "I think the business is looking forward to more work dedicated to their ends, which will in turn help them to transform the way they do business."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio