Dive Brief:
- Noelle Eder has been appointed as Cigna's global CIO, the company announced Wednesday. Eder's appointment is effective Sept. 14, and she will report to David Cordani, president and CEO at Cigna.
- Eder last held the role of EVP and chief information and digital officer at Hilton Worldwide Holdings. Prior to Hilton, Eder held leadership roles at Capital One and Intuit.
- At Cigna, Eder will lead the company's global technology strategy, overseeing "the development and delivery of leading-edge capabilities and solutions," the company said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
CIOs appointed during the pandemic join companies at a time of transformation and disruption. Executives are tasked with adapting to their roles right as companies adjust to new context.
Faced with disruption across industries, CIOs are favoring the kind of technology that can help reduce spend and improve efficiency. Technologies with the fastest return on investment such as automation are preferred while costly upgrades to legacy systems get pushed back.
In Eder's case, she's departing an embattled hospitality sector, hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. In Q2, Hilton Worldwide Holdings posted net losses of $432 million as systemwide occupancy rates sunk to 22.3%, down from 56.1% in the same quarter of 2019.
The narrative is different for insurers, which play a key role in the coronavirus pandemic. Many are cautiously optimistic about the outcomes 2020 might bring, as patients postponed non-urgent care during the peak of the pandemic in an effort to avoid exposure to COVID-19.
Cigna's Q2 earnings topped Wall Street projections with revenue of $39.27 billion, Healthcare Dive reports. The company's net income rose 25% year-over-year to $1.75 billion. Anthem and UnitedHealthcare also posted favorable Q2 results.
