Regards to Unum's Bob Best on His Retirement

The trajectory of Bob's career brought him through increasingly broad responsibilities and tested him through the rigors of major mergers and acquisitions. His continued eminence from Colonial Life, through UnumProvident to Unum, demonstrated his outstanding worth to those organizations through all their changes.

This week Unum (Chattanooga, Tenn.) announced the retirement of Bob Best, the company's executive VP of Global Services. Bob had a long and distinguished cross-disciplinary career that exemplified business engagement with technology before it became as commonplace as it is today. The trajectory of Bob's career brought him to increasingly broad responsibilities and tested him through the rigors of major mergers and acquisitions. His continued eminence from Colonial Life, through UnumProvident to Unum, demonstrated his outstanding worth to those organizations through all their changes. Over the years, Bob was an excellent source for Insurance & Technology, dating back to his years at Colonial and through to recent years. He received I&T's Elite 8 Award in 2004.

Bob Best

Unum CEO Tom Watjen said in a company statement that, "Words can't express how valuable Bob has been to our company over the years...Bob has for so many years guided our Information Technology efforts and most recently launched our Global Services initiative that is critically important to our future success." Given Bob's contributions, there is no doubt about the heartfelt sincerity of Mr. Watjen's statement.

As the Unum statement notes, Bob began his career with Columbia, S.C.-based Colonial Life, where he rose to executive vice president and chief operating officer. He later was named senior vice president and chief information officer for Provident, followed by executive vice president and chief operating officer for Unum US. In 2010, Best was named executive vice president of Global Services for Unum. In this capacity, he oversees information technology as well as the development and execution of a global operating model across all Unum companies. The statement quotes Bob on his career:

"As I look back on my 39 years with Unum, Provident and Colonial Life, I'm proud to say they've been both satisfying and rewarding," said Best. "We built a global IT organization that is the backbone of Unum and that has allowed the company to launch innovative products and services. We also embarked on a groundbreaking globalization initiative to find ways we can operate more effectively throughout the company.
"In short, there is much to be proud of, and none of it would have been possible without the support of the many outstanding people here at Unum," Best continued. "I'm fortunate to have had so many wonderful opportunities during my career, and I wish Tom and the company well in the years ahead."

Maybe Bob will turn up in some other industry role - it seems hard for distinguished technology leaders to stay retired these days. Whatever the case, we celebrate the career of this outstanding leader, disciplined manager and real gentleman with warm appreciation.

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