With the first days of spring have come a pair of significant personnel moves in high-level insurance positions.
Kandarian joined MetLife as the CIO in April 2005, and has enhanced the company’s focus on effective risk management and diversified its investment portfolio, in part through the $5.4 billion sale of Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town in 2006, according to the company. Under Kandarian’s leadership, the insurer says it identified the housing bubble early and reduced its exposure to sub-prime mortgage-backed securities, raised the overall quality of its corporate credit portfolio and increased its focus on low loan-to-value commercial and agricultural mortgages.
In 2007, Kandarian oversaw a comprehensive review of MetLife’s strategic initiatives, which resulted in the identification of key areas of focus for MetLife to achieve revenue growth and expense savings. In 2009, Kandarian assumed responsibility for MetLife’s global brand and marketing services department.
He also will be nominated for election to the MetLife board at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in April.
“During his six years at MetLife, Steve has overseen the strengthening and further diversification of MetLife’s $450 billion portfolio and made significant contributions to the development and execution of MetLife’s strategic initiatives,” MetLife Board Lead Director Cheryl Grisé said in a statement. “The board undertook an extensive process, which included a review of internal and external candidates, and we’re confident that Steve’s wealth of experience and industry knowledge make him well suited to serve as MetLife’s next CEO. His deep understanding of MetLife’s risk management culture and businesses make him the ideal person to take MetLife to the next level of global success."
Similar to MetLife,
In his new position, McKinnon will set Symetra’s technology strategy and direct the planning and implementation of enterprise IT systems in support of company initiatives and business operations. He will report to Margaret Meister, EVP and CFO of Symetra Financial.
McKinnon comes to Symetra from Bleum Software, one of China’s leading IT service providers to American and European companies, where he was SVP and CIO since 2009. At Bleum, he was responsible for software engineering, customer management and technical support for offshore delivery centers.
He previously held IT leadership positions at Expedia, Microsoft, Nationwide Insurance and Hewlett-Packard. As CIO at Nationwide, McKinnon was responsible for all technology operations. He also directed the creation of the company’s customer- and agent-facing website and online quote engine, Nationwide.com, which received accolades for ease of use.
“George has led technology teams at world-class companies in the U.S. and abroad. He knows how to partner with business leaders and deploy technology to drive results and create points of differentiation in the marketplace,” Meister said. “Through his technical leadership, strategic thinking, business savvy and effective teambuilding, George is widely regarded as a strong and visionary leader. We are thrilled to have him join the Symetra team.”
