Allianz Life Names Operational Excellence Director

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America named Bill Zajac as director of operational excellence (OPEX), organizational sourcing and business reengineering in the administration division. Zajac will lead the OPEX program, based on the improvement methodologies of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and scientific management. He will report to Rollie Renstrom, VP for organizational sourcing and business reengineering.

Allianz Life says Zajac joined the company in 2005 as a principal consultant for the business process improvement department. He trained nearly 200 employees in the OPEX methodology and led the creation of standard operating procedures for product design across the company for more than 140 stakeholders. Most recently, he was a senior manager in quality assurance, whereby he led cost and quality-enhancing analyses. Zajac also improved the quality assurance team processes, reducing cycle time and supporting the lean sigma training for 75 percent of his team.

Before joining Allianz Life, Zajac was a business process engineer with G&K Services Inc. Prior to that, he was a project manager for with Wilsons Leather.