IT talent and professionals are reshaping the InsurTech landscape

Rapidly evolving technologies are disrupting the insurance value chain. At Munich Re, innovative minds spearhead its transformation and make change happen.

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Meet IT experts at Munich Re

As Munich Re continues to reinvent itself, it pushes the evolution of its entire industry. Stepping away from the traditional view of IT as an internal service provider, Munich Re has set up its global IT as a formidable driver of its own transformation. Its IT nurtures innovation power and a healthy competitive spirit to measure against the world’s best IT shops. Meet three IT movers at Munich Re who make digital change happen – Karveen, Kerstin, and Sarah.

Driving transformation projects in service delivery

Karveen K. Baines, Munich Re UK, London, Global Head of Service Delivery Projects

Karveen’s background is in delivering change in large Blue-Chip FTSE 100 companies, creating change centres of excellence, and developing people across a broad set of disciplines.

Karveen’s impact reaches far beyond the walls of her London office. As the global head of service delivery projects, she leads a team that drives transformation projects and delivers lifecycle enhancements to Munich Re’s globe-spanning IT infrastructure. From building a new network to updating workplace capability for over 20,000 people, through their service delivery projects Karveen and her team shape how people work across the organisation.

Conference calls, steering boards, budget and planning forums shape Karveen’s schedule. Two or three times a month, work takes her away from London. While an ambassador for the digital workplace, to her, meeting face to face remains a decisive tool in making delivery happen. As the owner of the 3-year rolling roadmap of change for IT service delivery, Karveen is responsible for networks, workplaces and infrastructure projects and their associated budget, resources, and governance. The change agendas she delivers have a massive impact – a job she compares to changing the engine of a car going 70 miles per hour.

I’m always looking for tenacious project professionals – PMs, BAs, programme leads. I want gifted collaborators who can retain focus on the big picture and know how to up the delivery clock speed while delivering quality change.

Karveen K. Baines

Munich Re, London, United Kingdom

Global Head of Service Delivery Projects

What do you enjoy about your work?

I love working in a truly global organisation. At Munich Re, we’re not anchored to a desk – we can add value, no matter where we’re sitting. The organisation encourages us by offering opportunities for mobility. Many companies have a global footprint. At Munich Re, the very culture is global.

Offering efficient services colleagues can trust

From accounting to underwriting, from services to communication, at Munich Re, a host of applications and tools enables the digital workplace. The requirements they need to meet: cost efficiency and stable performance. For Europe, part of the responsibility for their operation and management lies in the hands of the head of Run Applications EMEA. Make that four hands and two heads: Kerstin and Sarah co-lead over a dozen service managers and application support specialists. These allrounders have been cherry-picked for their analytical and communication skills. With their help, the two experienced IT managers leverage service providers to offer reliable application services their internal customers can trust. Sarah and Kerstin work with other IT towers, such as Business Solutions and Business Technology, to transition innovations into their highly cost-effective operation.

Potrait photo of Sarah Braun and Kerstin Hammer — Sarah Braun and Kerstin Hammer co-lead as Head of IT Sub-Section Run Applications EMEA

With a background in business informatics, Sarah joined Munich Re in 2008. Kerstin followed in 2011, armed with a degree in business information systems. She and Sarah had been with Munich Re IT departments for over a decade before venturing into co-leadership.

Sarah and Kerstin apply the joint responsibility model to all aspects of managing the department. “Of course, we don’t want our colleagues to sit in front of two bosses for every conversation”, Kerstin explains. “Not to mention the impact doubling up would have on our schedule”, Sarah adds. To ensure transparent chains of command and efficient time management, they have split the department’s purview by topic – along with the responsibility for the staff assigned. While each oversees topics of her own, Kerstin and Sarah collaborate closely on one overarching issue. It’s an opportunity to synchronise, tackle challenges together and build on each other’s ideas.

Sharing a leadership role comes with unique benefits – a built-in sparring partner, a sounding board, and a peer to brainstorm with. We share our strengths – that’s what Munich Re’s IT is all about.

Kerstin Hammer

Munich Re, Germany

Head of IT Sub-section Run Applications EMEA

leadership role

women job sharing

staff

300+

applications

In our experience, co-leading boosts productivity. But you need to be on the same page, speak with one voice and make joint decisions.

Sarah Braun

Munich Re, Germany

Head of IT Sub-Section Run Applications EMEA

How did you two come to share a leadership role?

Kerstin: Sarah and I realised we had reached the same point in our lives. We were part-time working kindergarten moms who wanted to keep up the momentum in their careers. The idea to apply together just popped up. We’re a natural fit – equally qualified, the same mindset and goals, and compatible leadership styles.

Sarah: Proactivity was the key. Kerstin and I drew up a concept to show how we would bring our shared-responsibility model to life. Of course, each of us still had to make it through the selection process on her own merit. We succeeded. Co-leading has allowed us to take the next step in our careers as mothers and professionals.

How do you make shared leadership work in the day-to-day?

Sarah: We make the most of our 60:60 position, with time-boxed days and calendars brimming. We cover for each other on our days off and during vacations. Our colleagues appreciate the enhanced availability. With two people at the helm, they always have one of us to turn to for guidance.

Kerstin: We catch up on Monday mornings. Sarah and I take more notes than most peers to bring each other up to speed. Access to the latest tools for information sharing and collaboration keeps our process efficient. If we need to touch base in between, we find a way to make it work.

Kerstin and Sarah’s results have surpassed my expectations by far. The co-lead model is a win-win – for all of us, and for Munich Re. It has allowed us to promote two talents and deliver proof of concept for a leadership model with the potential to improve the future of work.

Andreas Michel

Munich Re, Germany

Head of Run Applications

Changing the future of Re/Insurance with Digital Technology and Platforms

Srinivas’ role as Munich Re’s Head of Digital Business Platforms sees him handle a diverse range of challenges across the insurance value chain. A critical aspect of his job is to identify opportunities working with business leads to create and deliver on technology roadmaps that aligns with business plans.

Srinivas Pulijala, Munich Re, London, Head of Digital Business Platforms

With a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and over 16  years of delivery experience in consulting and strategy support roles in the financial industry, Srinivas has been shaping digital platform innovation at Munich Re Group since 2012.

Srinivas’ focus is on crafting business solutions that provide efficiencies to the insurance value chain. As a consulting expert, the senior IT architect and digital platform lead supports business and IT clients in non-life reinsurance who seek to expand their underwriting and business capabilities. Srinivas shares his insight into technology stacks that have the potential to enhance their competitive edge. His solutions leverage modern insurance core platforms and augment them with additional services that offer superior client experience As a delivery expert, he leverages a validated approach to delivery which includes techniques like “Walking Skelton” or “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) to ensure business goals are validated early-on during the execution. His delivery toolkit for the business solutions includes Cloud computing, Data and Analytics Services, Web/Mobile Apps and Modern Insurance API’s

40%

Consulting

Collaborate with Re/Insurance business leads who seek to expand their digital technology capabilties and co-develop IT Roadmaps

40%

Technical Delivery

Leads IT Delivery and Systems Architecture collaborating with key IT specialists

10 %

Management

Manage and serve staff needs including mentoring them

10%

Traveling

Representing Munich Re’s Global IT and Business Technology

What do you enjoy about your work?

Being part of a global organisation that harnesses Munich Re’s scale of digital transformation potential for clients and partners gives me immense satisfaction – and the motivational strength to succeed.

Srinivas Pulijala

Munich Re, Princeton

Head of Digital Business Platforms

Munich Re offers a world of career opportunities in information technology

Seven powerhouses stand at the heart of Munich Re’s transformation – Office of the CIO, Enterprise Architecture, Service Management, Service Delivery, Business Solutions, Business Technology, and IT Risk and Security. These IT towers run innovative projects, leveraging disruptive technologies. Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, big data and data analytics are revolutionising the transfer and management of risk.

Build, forge ahead, innovate and co-create with business experts in environments with a galvanising start-up dynamic. Europe, Singapore, Australia or in the United States: Join one of our global IT hubs to make an impact!

Munich Re’s Tech Trend Radar 2019

Gain a first impression of how we kickstart our innovation agenda with research into tech trends revolutionising the insurance industry