THREE SENIOR IT EXECUTIVES JOIN ADVISEN
New York, April 19, 2006 – Advisen, the fastest-growing and leading provider of technology for the commercial insurance markets, announced today the appointment of three key executives whose extensive experience immediately accelerates Advisen’s corporate and product development.
Kenneth Wagner, the former chief operating officer (COO) of Thomson Financial’s Retail Wealth Management division, has joined Advisen as COO and a member of Advisen’s Board of Directors.
Edward Vincent has been appointed global product manager and will lead the product direction for Advisen. Chellaswamy “Kumar” Kumaraguruparan, a technology operations expert with over 15 years of experience, will serve as head of operations and assume operational responsibilities in support of Advisen’s global client base as well as supporting its 24-hour development cycle. Together with Amit Joshi, Head of Development since 2002, Vincent and Kumar round out a management team tasked with continued rapid product expansion.
Advisen Ltd., the leading provider of analytics, benchmarking and market information to the global commercial insurance industry, will leverage the strength of its expanded management team to continue to develop and deliver industry-first functionality through the company’s comprehensive information technology platform.
“With these three experienced industry professionals added to our team, Advisen is even better positioned to enter the next phase of our strategic business and product expansion,” said Tom Ruggieri, CEO of Advisen. “We will continue to deliver on our commitment to help commercial insurance professionals gain access and deep insight into all aspects of the market in order to make more informed business decisions.”
As COO, Wagner brings 20 years of experience in the financial service markets creating software applications to automate workflow processes. In his role as COO of Thomson Financial’s $500M Retail Wealth Management division, Wagner oversaw finance, product development, technical operations and customer service. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at Bloomberg where in his last role he managed the Integrated Products Group for the Americas.
“Success in the next phase of our corporate growth will rely on a robust infrastructure and a rigorous product development process to expand our current product and solution offerings,” said Wagner. “Our clients have come to expect a lot from Advisen, and I’m confident that Advisen’s expanded management team will deliver the most compelling technology offerings in the industry.”
As global product manager, Vincent oversees worldwide product management and data operations, and devises Advisen’s product strategy to introduce new solutions to market. Vincent most recently served as executive vice president and head of segment operations for Thomson Financial’s Investment Banking & Institutional Research group, a $220 million global business unit targeting the corporate finance, capital markets, institutional research, private equity and professional services markets. Prior to joining Thomson Financial, Vincent was a managing director and partner at the Carson Group, where he built and managed the company’s investment banking services business. He is a CFA charterholder and currently serves on the advisory board of Edgeware Analytics.
In his role as head of operations, Kumar is responsible for Advisen’s production, integration, development and corporate technology environments. Prior to Advisen, Kumar served as vice president of technology at SVAM International. He held the same title at Archer Telecommunications where he led the design, development and implementation of a proprietary ERP application. Kumar also served as vice president of technology at Yada Yada and was responsible for primary and co-located data centers, technology, and vendor relations as well as outsourced software development. Kumar held various technology and managerial positions within Unisys Corporation prior to joining Yada Yada.
About Advisen
Advisen Ltd. provides carriers, brokers, risk managers and other insurance professionals with insight to make key commercial insurance and risk management decisions. Advisen's on demand web-based service incorporates real-time analytics and research on 250,000 program transactions, 180,000 claims, 80 industries and 1.7 million companies and organizations. Advisen member firms access benchmarking, submission templates and work-ups, insurance program management, policy & law comparisons, loss & exposure analysis, corporate governance, financial metrics, news and significant case data. Over 35,000 insurance professionals use Advisen information everyday. Visit www.advisen.com or call +1.212.897.4800.