Sanjay Pandey Named CIO of National Life Group

Pandey seeks to build on his successful enhancements to agent ease of doing business undertaken during his tenure as CIO of Donegal Insurance Group.

National Life Group (Montpelier, Vt.) has announced the appointment of Sanjay Pandey as senior VP and CIO, effective May 13. Pandey will be responsible for the carrier's IT operations and will report directly to president and CEO Mehran Assadi. Panday was most recently senior VP and CIO of Donegal Insurance Group, a Marietta, Pa.-based regional P&C carrier.

Sanjay Pandey, National Life Group

Pandey's successful work enhancing agent-facing capabilities at Donegal played a role in National Life Group's interest in him, acknowledges Assadi. “What makes Sanjay a special leader is his passion for leveraging technology as a competitive edge,” Assadi comments. “He understands that ease of doing business is critical to a successful business.”

Pandey told Insurance & Technology that he seeks to apply his distribution technology experience at National Life Group, given a sufficient degree of similarity in the new business process between P&C and life. "P&C may be slightly ahead when it comes to underwriting automation but life is getting there with electronic applications and straight-through processing," Pandey says. "I believe that the life insurance industry is poised for some very exciting times from an IT perspective."

In recent years, National Life has been growing at a rate of 25 to 30%, and Pandey will be tasked to align IT to support that growth, he notes. "The company is also in the midst of a major IT transformation, and my goal is to oversee the initiative through completion," Pandey adds.

National Life Group underwrites what it characterizes as a comprehensive portfolio of life insurance, annuity and investment products to help individuals, families and businesses pursue their financial goals. The company employs roughly 950 employees, with most located at its home office in Montpelier, Vermont. Group companies also maintain offices in Addison, Texas, New York and San Francisco.

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