Jackson Named CIO at Triad

Big changes have been afoot at Triad Guaranty ($1.1 billion in total assets) over the last several months. In June, the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based mortgage insurer announced that it would go into "run-off," a plan under which the company would stop booking new business and generate revenue only off existing policies. And in October, the company appointed its CFO, Kenneth W. Jones, as it's new president and CEO.

Included among those major changes in strategy and leadership was the appointment of George Jackson as the insurer's chief information officer (CIO) in late July. Jackson is a ten-year veteran of the company and most recently had served as vice president of information services. As CIO, Jackson is part of the company's executive committee and will be responsible for IT operations, systems development, business intelligence efforts, data warehousing, IT security, and coordinating the company's business continuity plans from a technology perspective.

The CIO position is a newly created role at Triad and Jackson has indicated that his early responsibilities will center around business and IT alignment. "We've always had an information technology strategy, but I think its becoming a lot more integrated with the strategic priorities of the business," the 42-year-old Jackson says. "There's a better synergy between business unit strategy and IT strategy and trying to focus resources and better prioritize projects."

As part of the strategic shift, Jackson's team is making changes to its project management and development processes. "We are integrating principles of the Agile development methodology into our software development environment," says Jackson, adding that the team is also working to become more focused on collaborating, coordinating and communicationg with business users, three areas where he feels IT groups have historically struggled.

As a result of the company's run-off decision and other economic factors, Jackson and other Triad execs expect technology to play a critical role in the company's future. "The new focus is to integrate our technology with the strategic initiatives of the company and make sure that we're aligned properly with loss mitigation and loss management," he details. "As we shift gears into a more loss mitigation, loss management role -- just because of the economy -- it's increasingly important to have all the systems working efficiently and effectively, [while providing] information, analysis and the ability to look at trends, statistics and indicators to know where things are going."

To that end, Jackson will look to his IT team to innovate at Triad. "Our technology employees have been the backbone of our IT operations and as a company we have always had robust and efficient systems and architecture due to their skills, knowledge and innovation," he says. "Leveraging that innovation will be integral to future success."