American Family appoints Kristin Kirkconnell senior VP of information services

Madison, Wis. - American Family Insurance has announced the appointment of Kristin Kirkconnell as its new senior vice president of information services.

Kirkconnell, a former senior VP for the Atlanta-based AGL Resources, Inc., was elected by American Family's board of directors. She will begin her new responsibilities on Nov. 29.

Kirkconnell has been hired to help make IS more of a strategic business partner, according to Ken Muth, media relations director for American Family.

At AGL Resources, Kirkconnell was in charge of information technology for a Fortune 1,000 distributor of natural gas services to 2.2 million customers in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia.

A graduate of George Mason University, Kirkconnell also was chief information officer and senior director for BellSouth, which since has been acquired by AT&T. American Family, the largest company in Dane County based on revenue, has restructured its information services division to create two leadership positions. As part of the restructuring, former vice president of information services Byrne Chapman was been reassigned to vice president of technology operations and infrastructure. Chapman had managed the IS division since 1999.

The company decided to restructure IS to mirror other Fortune 500 companies and create an intense focus on both business strategy and operational excellence, concluding that it's impossible for one technology executive to handle both jobs.

American Family has an annual IT budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Strategic partner

Jack Salzwedel, president and chief operating officer for American Family, said Kirkconnell was responsible for all aspects of strategic technology planning at AGL, and she led a transformation of information technology there.

“Under her leadership, information services became a strategic business partner, which is one of the keys to American Family's success in the 21st century,” Salzwedel said in a release.

American Family offers auto, homeowners, life, health, commercial, and farm and ranch insurance in 18 states. The company, which reported $6.9 billion in revenue in 2007, ranks 352nd on the Fortune 500 list.

Related story

• American Family restructures information services; Chapman to assume VP operations lead