Grinnel Mutual Reinsurance’s Mehmen Expands Focus on Business Partnerships

Dennis Mehmen, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company's CIO, says his responsibilities haven't changed over the past year, although the number of enhancements, changes and requests have increased dramatically.

"As the business units continue to view technology as a business partner and asset to their initiatives, the partnership between the business and IT remains stronger than ever," Mehmen reports. "Changes in the insurance and financial sectors over the past year have created a continual focus on speed to market, branding, cost containment, business continuity and competitive advantage. As projects become more integrated into the business processes, the collaborative efforts of planning, processes and user responsiveness are the key to success verses failure for both the operations of the company as well as IT."

Mehmen believes the biggest technological development in the past 10 years is the collaboration of business and IT. "The move of IT from back office support system, to business partner developing unique approaches to provide solutions through marketing, presentation, ease of doing business and the user experience," he says.

Elite 8 2007: Where are They Now?

At Aetna, McCarthy Introduces New Techonologies to Empower Customers

Web Now More of a Focus for Allstate's Brune

Jackson's Napoles Aims to Integrate U.S. Businesses

Mutual of Omaha Made Most of Hanson's Experience Before He Moved On

Morris Leads Technology Initiatives at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

After a Summer Break, Steward Searches for his Next Challenge

Boxer Transitions to Academia

Peggy Bresnick Kendler has been a writer for 30 years. She has worked as an editor, publicist and school district technology coordinator. During the past decade, Bresnick Kendler has worked for UBM TechWeb on special financialservices technology-centered ... View Full Bio