Guardian Life is the fourth-largest mutual life insurance company in the U.S. Life insurance is our middle name, Callahan says, but we also have group medical and dental insurance, group and individual disability, variable annuities, and worksite marketing products. We are a broker-dealer, as well, and we have a trust company, too. Guardian does all this, and significantly more, through a network of more than 2,800 individual agents who operate through a network of nearly 100 general agencies. Supporting those agents has been one of Callahans successes.
Guardian Life is a mutual insurance company, meaning that its policyholders, not shareholders, own it. The insurer also is more than 140 years old and one of the larger companies in an admittedly conservative industry. Given all that, Guardian intentionally had not tried to be on the bleeding edge of technology, but in October 2000, the CEO brought Callahan on board with a clear mandate to take advantage of technology and a free hand to do so. Callahan joined as senior vice president and CIO and today has risen to EVP and CIO with additional responsibilities beyond IT.

Although Callahan points out a number of impressive products hes implemented since joining Guardian, he singles out oneGuardians new component- and service-based Enterprise Architectural Frameworkas the one of which hes most proud. We committed to use technology to reduce IT software implementation and support time and costs by 30 percent overall and simultaneously invested in critical technology for our business, using strategic sourcing techniques to obtain maximum financial leverage of these new investments and to renegotiate our sourcing agreements with current vendors. The Enterprise Architecture, just completed after an on-time and budget-phased implementation over two years, already has generated more measurable cost savings than the entire project cost, he states, proudly.

So what kind of personal technology does Callahan use to keep him on top of so much activity? I use my BlackBerry far more than anything else, he says. After trying two phone carriers first suboptimal attempts at units with built-in phones, he returned to his original BlackBerry about eight months ago. I turn on my BlackBerry when I get up at 4 a.m., he says, and my day often goes through a dinner or evening meeting, so I need a unit with excellent battery life and one that doesnt have re-synch issues after a flight. He quickly points out, however, he just started piloting two new BlackBerry units with phones from two different phone companies, and the early read is theyve eliminated the issues. I also carry an ultra-light HP nc4000 computer and two new pieces of technologya dual-mode cell phone with a built-in digital camera and a tiny 4 megapixel 12x optical zoom digital camera (Pentax Optio S4i) that fits in an Altoids tin.
Playing is not a big part of Callahans life. I usually spend what little free time I have thinking about what Id do if I had free time, he jokes.