IT Claims Transformation

Karen Chamberlain, the new VP and CIO for IT claims at The Hartford Financial Services Group's ($27.1 billion in revenue) P&C company, comes primed to contribute to the ongoing transformation of The Hartford's technology and culture.

At Allstate (Northbrook, Ill.; $27 billion in 2005 property liability premium), Chamberlain led a drive to instill greater technical discipline into the organization. She then furthered the business/technology alignment and worked on a legacy replacement strategy as SVP and CTO at Chase Insurance (Schaumburg, Ill.) before the company was acquired by Protective Life (Birmingham, Ala.; approximately $29 billion in assets) in 2006.

At The Hartford's claims division, Chamberlain hopes to improve business/IT alignment. "I'm looking for the people in the claim IT organization, as well as the business organization, to understand what we're doing," she says.

Chamberlain currently is driving the implementation of software to support The Hartford's workers' compensation business. Her broader plans include "improving project management capabilities and positioning our employees to have better career opportunities, tying their understanding of the impact of their work on our business to their performance management and rewards system," she says.

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