Tech Guru on Selective's Board

Branchville, NJ-based Selective Insurance Group has fortified its technology expertise at the leadership level by appointing John F. Rockart, Ph. D., to its board. Rockart is a senior lecturer of IT at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he has taught and conducted research on the management and use of information technology since 1966. Additionally, he founded and served as director of the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at the Sloan School for 25 years, from 1975 to 2000.

Rockart will serve on the board's audit and finance committees and will provide feedback on major technology issues. "I believe I will be useful in understanding, and perhaps in communicating to the rest of the board, issues concerning IT," he says.

During his time at CISR, the center worked with a large number of sponsoring companies—many of them leading financial services companies—in planning and conducting research into the problems of managing information systems.

Rockart traces his relationship with Selective to the mid-'90s when Greg Murphy, now the carrier's CEO, attended a course on IT at MIT. "He was a business manager in a course intended for IT people!" Rockart says. "Shortly after he assumed the top position at Selective, Greg hired Richard Connell as CIO. I have known and respected Richard as a top IT manager for many years."

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