Hiscox replaces chief information officer with new hire from Barclays

Bermuda-based specialist insurer Hiscox has appointed Ian Penny as chief information officer (CIO) for the Hiscox Group. He takes over from interim CIO Gareth Wharton who is joining a new Hiscox cyber initiative.

Penny was most recently the chief technology officer at Barclays, where he was responsible for the group's IT infrastructure development and has led the bank’s cloud computing initiatives for three years.

Prior to that, he was global head of distributed engineering and architecture at JPMorgan and was based in the US for seven years, designing platforms for risk analytics, cloud development, and high-volume customer channels. He has also worked at Pfizer and Goldman Sachs.

At Hiscox, he will be responsible for the group’s IT, leading a team of 300 employees and reporting to CEO Bronek Masojada.

"Ian's appointment is an important step in our evolution," Masojada commented. "We continue to invest heavily in our rapidly-growing retail businesses, and Ian will be critical to a number of significant multi-year business and IT transformation projects which will power our future growth. I have no doubt that his diverse experience, including with Chase.com, a high-traffic banking website, at Bear Stearns supporting their dealing rooms and with Barclays in cloud computing, will prove invaluable."

Penny said: "I am pleased to be joining Hiscox at a time when there is significant investment to support the business evolution. Technology will be a core partner in the execution of the strategy, whether that be digital customer journeys or data analytics, and I look forward to getting started."

Today’s top stories

UK regulator unveils insurance pricing practices review

Athene raises €2.2 bn capital to invest in the European run-off life market

Towergate backers snap up Ryan Specialty's UK insurance services unit

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.