Suncorp Group on the hunt for a new CIO

Suncorp Group has announced that its chief information officer (CIO), Sarah Harland, will be leaving after four years with the company, effective March 27.

Harland joined Suncorp from Medibank Private where she succeeded Matt Pancino who had resigned from the CIO role. Since taking on the CIO role, her responsibilities have included overseeing the group’s digital transformation, cloud and infrastructure, security services, and data and innovation labs. 

“Ms Harland has made a significant contribution in strengthening Suncorp’s technology and led Suncorp’s digital transformation over the past three years, including the development of the award-winning Suncorp app that brings together transactional banking, insurance, and rewards for our customers,” Suncorp CEO Steve Johnston said. 

“Sarah has also driven the development of Suncorp’s leading API layer, which gives the group flexibility as we adapt to rapidly changing customer and community expectations.” 

It has not been disclosed about where Harland will be moving to. 

Suncorp’s executive general manager of digital, labs, and insurance technology Darren Abbruzzese has been appointed as acting CIO while the group hunts for a permanent replacement. 

The company recently announced that during the latter half of the 2020 financial year it will continue to leverage its investment in digital and data to improve the group’s operations and enhance the customer experience.

The group highlighted how it would use artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to try to improve its “competitive advantage and drive improvement in the core business”.

It added that the group would also continue to invest in digital self-service capabilities to increase efficiency, scalability, and speed for customers, such as by using its existing Suncorp app to create a dedicated insurance app on the same platform, commencing with AAMI in the second half of 2020.

During the half year, Suncorp reported a net profit after tax of AU$642 million to 31 December 2019, up nearly 157% from the same period last fiscal year where it recorded AU$250 million.

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Article source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/suncorp-group-on-the-hunt-for-a-new-cio/#ftag=RSSbaffb68