Kaufman did not begin his career on the technology side of the business. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1981, where he played point guard on the basketball team, with an undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics. He began his career with Connecticut General in Hartford and started taking actuarial exams. Kaufman then spent a few years with Capital Holding as an analyst, earned his ACAS (Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society) designation, and joined Motorists Mutual Insurance Company in 1986, becoming vice president of the actuarial division in 1989.

Over the years, Kaufman has had responsibility for many disciplines with Motorists. He was vice president of the commercial lines division; played the lead role in identifying and analyzing potential acquisitions and affiliations; and was chief financial officer for American Hardware Insurance Group in Minnesota after that organization affiliated with Motorists. Upon his return to Columbus in 2000, he took on his current title for all companies in the insurance group.

To a certain extent, my experiences as a point guard have been [quite] relevant to managing my current responsibilities. We have grown a lot, and I direct a broad portfolio of projects with many players, he adds.

Currently, the organization owns five property/casualty insurance companies, one life insurance company, two insurance brokerages, and a reinsurance company. Motorists also actively pursues growth through affiliation, a unique approach to growing in a mature industry that usually focuses on mergers and acquisitions. Motorists affiliation model allows mutual insurance companies to join the group and gain access to significant financial strength, an excellent A.M. Best rating, and a wealth of technology and insurance resources that might not be available to them otherwise.

The other companies become part of our team under a management contract, with the underwriting results pooled through a reinsurance agreement, Kaufman says. That allows them to retain their identity while gaining access to the full benefits of being part of a larger organization.

The affiliations have allowed The Motorists Insurance Group to grow its geographic presence, improve its spread of risk, and gain access to promising markets. Each companys product portfolio, geographic market, and distribution system add diversification to the group. Including its affiliations, the insurance group serves more than 1,100 independent agencies with operations in 35 states.

Technology is a very important part of our growth strategy, asserts Kaufman. When Motorists management decided to implement a completely paperless claims environment, built on IBMs Content Manager with a Web-based front-end from Siebel, Kaufman got responsibility for the project. This ultimately will be the claims system for all the companies in the group, he states. After claims, we will extend the same technology to other companies and product lines as we migrate the organization to a less paper-intensive environment.

Another major project is the groups agency Web portal. We are heading toward our goal of having real-time Web access to policy rating, policy issuance, billing inquiry, and claims inquiry. We want to have all this available regardless of what agency management system is in place, Kaufman says.

Motorists also rolled out wireless technology about three years ago with wireless cards in notebook computers for claims field personnel. That strategy has worked extremely well, Kaufman says, and now the company is starting to replace the notebooks with tablet PCs and additional software to extend the technology.

From actuarial work to CFO to IT and claimsit should be interesting to see what comes next.