IBC Names Carolyn Luther SVP, IS

Carolyn Luther's 25 years of IT experience would have made her a strong candidate for a senior technology officer position at any insurance carrier. But her status as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution adds a kind of poetic justification for her appointment as SVP of information systems at Independence Blue Cross (IBC; Philadelphia; $10 billion 2006 revenues). "Through my father I can trace to a couple of patriots who fought in the Revolution," she says.

Luther assumes the top technology post after holding leadership positions at IBC since 1990. Most recently VP of application systems, Luther now is focused on a systems revolution of sorts, aiming to streamline IBC's technology environment to help support market demands, such as the increasingly sophisticated self-service levels required within the consumer-directed healthcare paradigm.

That shift will include IBC's move to a services-oriented architecture, according to Luther. "It's a matter of what can you leverage, what can you reuse and how can you get technology to better support the business," she says.

One of the largest initiatives Luther will focus on this year is the creation of a consolidated rating engine for use across both large and small markets, she relates. "We're hoping to leverage some technologies with business-rules engines and workflow to improve the way our systems support the whole rating process," Luther says. --Anthony O'Donnell

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