Manager Management
Resume:
Chris Steward, Chief Information Officer
* ****** ****, *******, ** 02339
Home Phone: 781-***-**** Cell Phone: 617-***-**** e-Mail: *************@*******.***
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PROFILE:
I am an experienced CIO with a passion for making significant technology leaps to achieve major enterprise
objectives. A leader and manager of harmonious technology change, I am innovative and creative with an ability to
think “outside of the box” if warranted. I possess an extremely rare combination of management skills, high
intelligence and technical prowess, together with a genuinely easy, personable and helpful manner that allows me to
effect major technology changes in a non-disruptive way. I am also highly competitive, with a quietness that belies
a strong will to succeed.
By the end of the first half of my career as an Information Technology (IT) consultant, in a dual role as project
manager and lead architect/analyst, I had successfully managed several large, multi-million system development
projects that were either in serious jeopardy and/or generally felt by many to be perhaps too ambitious. In my later
corporate management career, as CIO at Arbella Insurance, I spearheaded a technology transformation that was
deemed critical to achieving a complete business turnaround. The company went from being close to the brink to
three successive years of record profits in 2005, 2006 & 2007; their technology went from aging, creaky, legacy
systems to prominent Web and Management Information/Business Intelligence systems that won several awards and
received national recognition in the insurance technology press. My own part in this endeavor was recognized by
my election as an “Elite 8” insurance technology leader in 2007 by Insurance & Technology magazine. More
gratifying was the unsolicited feedback from Arbella’s independent agent distribution channel, a prime target user of
this new technology:
“Arbella’s website went from dead last to first place in my eyes.”
“I don’t know what he did or how he did it, but ever since he arrived, things really started to turn around
and Arbella now has the best systems out there.”
Critical to the success I have always enjoyed is a strong focus on building and nurturing outstanding teams. At the
end of the day, the same technology and tools are available to everyone; it’s talented, hard-working people – and
empowering them - that makes the difference. At Arbella, I revitalized an IT organization that many within the
business areas and independent agent sales channel initially held in very low esteem. I create a work environment
that is aptly suited to allowing good IT people to shine. This attracts them, and subsequently keeps them motivated,
interested and engaged. The result is that they are able to achieve their very best work.
Lastly, I am fiscally conservative, getting good value out of every IT dollar spent. I have achieved significant
operational expense savings in IT while simultaneously increasing overall technological capabilities. I also do not
employ technology simply for technology’s sake; rather, I deploy appropriate technology for the most meritorious
cases that will significantly increase the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the organization.
EXPERIENCE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
Arbella Insurance Group; Quincy, MA
4/2002 – 4/2008: CIO & Vice President, Information Systems
As a member of a 12-person executive team, I personally had overall responsibility for the management of all
information systems and technology for the Arbella group of Property & Casualty insurance companies.
• Managed a department of 120 information systems employees and a variable number of consultants (80 at its
peak), as well as outsourcing arrangements for mainframe operations, web hosting and print & mail services. The
largest Information Systems (I.S.) budget was $35MM, $10MM of which was capitalized new development.
• As an Officer of the Arbella group, assisted in the development of annual business plans, with associated
Chris Steward, Chief Information Officer
9 Saddle Lane, Hanover, MA 02339
Home Phone: 781-***-**** Cell Phone: 617-***-**** e-Mail: *************@*******.***
____________________________________________________________________________________________
technology initiatives tied to and enabling the specified business objectives. Also developed and instituted Key
Performance Indicators to more effectively measure I.S. results, and prepared and gave several presentations to
Arbella’s Board of Directors.
• Orchestrated, overall architected and managed a multi-year program called e-SUITE to: (a) provide agent-facing
“once and done” business transaction capability using Arbella’s website http://www.arbella.com, fully integrated
with leading agency management systems; and (b) replace core legacy transactional systems for both personal and
commercial lines. From April 2004 to April 2008, 13 e-SUITE Releases were delivered. Having developed
substantial agent-facing capabilities, as well as enterprise Billing, Claims, Business Partners and Management
Information components that utilize an Enterprise Service Bus for integration and web services provision, the e-
SUITE program was re-focused on Policy Administration Systems replacement as a means of further reducing
ongoing operational costs and enabling future competitive growth.
• In addition to the e-SUITE program, the I.S. department successfully completed over 50 technology-related
projects over my 6-year tenure as CIO. Completion of these projects resulted in the overwhelming majority of the
I.S. objectives in the annual business plans being met. There were no project failures during my tenure at Arbella.
• In June 2002, re-structured the I.S. department for greater effectiveness and efficiency by aligning with the
serviced business markets/departments, together with an associated realignment of I.S. senior management to
enable full accountability for their respective business customers. The re-structuring resulted in a 10% reduction in
force. Subsequently guided I.S. to complete self-sufficiency, eliminating all outside contractors/consultants by year
end 2003. Through employee development, new hires and employee performance management, successively
strengthened the quality of I.S. staff each year, resulting in what became an outstanding and extremely effective
I.S. team.
• Reduced I.S. annual operating expense by $5.8 million since 2001, while simultaneously maintaining or increasing
I.S. capabilities and service levels.
9/1999 – 4/2002: Assistant Vice President, New Systems Development
Reported directly to the CIO. Responsible for building a team to bring new systems development capabilities to
Arbella, particularly in the areas of Internet-based e-Commerce and Business Intelligence/Management Information.
• Facilitated the development of a business vision and technology infrastructure for e-Commerce at Arbella.
• Recruited and managed a team that designed and implemented Arbella’s new website, which was launched in mid-
December 2000. The Arbella website evolved to provide agents with full access to policy, billing and claims
information for all major lines of business.
• Recruited and managed a team that developed a data warehouse to provide consolidated, web-based financial &
statistical reporting across all States and all lines of business for both our agents and internal business
management. This included the development of a centralized agency database and web system which
synchronizes agency data in multiple legacy transaction processing systems on diverse technologies.
• Facilitated the development of Arbella’s Project Management Framework for better controlling the initiation,
execution and closing of projects. A major contributor to the establishment of Arbella’s Office of Program
Management, providing for the approval, monitoring and control of projects in support of objectives defined in
corporate business plans.
• Principal architect of Arbella’s System Development Methodology.
• Developed an I.S. budgeting and expense tracking system to support activity-based cost accounting, enabling more
accurate allocation of expenditures to the business markets and more effective analysis and control of costs,
initially in I.S., then subsequently rolled out company-wide.
Geac SmartEnterprise Solutions (formerly Dun & Bradstreet Software); Westboro, MA
4/1998 – 6/1999: Director of Information Technology Services.
Reported to the VP of Finance & Administration. Responsible for full life cycle of the technology infrastructure,
including all hardware, local area networks, operating software, database software and office systems for this 1000+
person division of the Geac software company.
Chris Steward, Chief Information Officer
9 Saddle Lane, Hanover, MA 02339
Home Phone: 781-***-**** Cell Phone: 617-***-**** e-Mail: *************@*******.***
____________________________________________________________________________________________
• Managed a group of 60 people, with 5 direct reports and a budget of $9MM. Business focus was on expense
control. Successful cost management initiatives resulted in a budget reduction of approximately $1.5MM
without impacting service levels.
• Re-aligned three disparate technology groups into a cohesive whole. Organized PC, LAN, Server, and Database
services on a customer basis, our customers being the internal Geac SmartEnterprise Solutions departments:
Sales, Marketing, Development, Support, Professional Services, Education, and Finance & Operations.
• Planned and began implementation of Y2K compliance for client/server platforms, which was a significant
effort involving upgrades to the entire technology infrastructure. Converted the local area network operating
system from Novell to NT, and upgraded the mainframe from MVS to OS/390.
• Other successful initiatives: Converted from Token Ring to Ethernet; implemented Compuserve as a standard
remote access method; converted from Notes to Exchange e-mail; implemented the Remedy help desk system;
and evaluated Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions.
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.; Boston, MA
4/1996 – 11/1997: Manager of Systems Integration.
Responsibilities were to effectively integrate systems and technology in a liaison role and to manage several
technology groups, including: Internet/Intranet and client/server systems programming; IT project management;
Notes and e-mail administration; change management; and electronic software distribution.
Fidelity Investments; Boston, MA
12/1994 – 4/1996: Vice President of Data Base Services.
Responsible for providing database services to the Vantage project to develop a complete suite of integrated
client/server trading systems, including the management of information about financial instruments and customers.
Prior to becoming a corporate manager in December 1994, I enjoyed a highly successful consulting career culminating
as the manager and lead architect/analyst of several large systems development projects, particularly specializing in the
use of Software AG’s products. I previously enjoyed great popularity in the Data Management field of expertise,
where I was a highly regarded instructor, data modeler, database designer and metadata repository specialist. Positions
held were:
CANDEC Data Solutions, Inc.; Brooklyn, NY - Director and Co-Founder
Amherst Information Systems; Amherst, MA - Vice President
Price Waterhouse; New York, NY - Senior Manager, Management Consulting Services
DBD Systems, Inc.; Rockville Center, NY - Senior Consultant & Seminar Instructor
Personnel Sciences, Inc.; New York, NY - Senior Consultant
Delphi Associates, Inc.; Boston, MA - Senior Analyst
The John Lewis Partnership; London, England - Programmer
EDUCATION:
1977 Post-Graduate Diploma (Masters equivalent in the USA), Computer Science – Cambridge University;
England
1976 Bachelor of Science, Mathematics - London University; England - Graduated #1 with 1st Class Honors
PROFESSIONAL AWARDS:
2007 “Elite 8” Insurance & Technology leader:
http://insurancetech.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202300139&cid=nl_instech_week
Chris Steward, Chief Information Officer
9 Saddle Lane, Hanover, MA 02339
Home Phone: 781-***-**** Cell Phone: 617-***-**** e-Mail: *************@*******.***
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2007 Celent Communications Model Carrier Award for Agency-Carrier Interface
2006 & 7 Applied Systems Agency Interface Partnership Award
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