Dive Brief:
- Financial services company Northwestern Mutual has appointed Jeff Sippel as EVP and CIO, the company announced Tuesday. Sippel replaced executive Neal Sample, who stepped down "to pursue new opportunities," the company said.
- Sippel, who joined Northwestern Mutual in 2019, most recently served as vice president of client experience. He will report to CEO John Schlifske, the company said in an email.
- In his new role, Sippel will lead Northwestern Mutual's technology organization, the company said. He will also oversee the company's technology architecture, infrastructure and cloud services, reliability, service support, and information risk and cybersecurity.
Dive Insight:
The company has tasked Sippel with leading the technology organization, which is comprised of 1,200 employees.
Amid high demand for technical workers, in leadership especially, the strategy of appointing CIOs by promoting from within can lend stability to ongoing initiatives.
In Sippel's case, his successful leadership in enhancing client experience made him a fit for the role, Schlifske said in the announcement.
"His industry experiences and focus on building technology that is innovative, secure and reliable will continue to have a meaningful impact on our clients, advisors and company in the years ahead," Schlifske said.
Former CIO Sample oversaw broad changes in his nearly three years at Northwestern Mutual. A few months after joining the company, the pandemic forced businesses in all sectors to reimagine their operations.
As the pandemic evolved, Sample helped guide the company toward a partial return to the office, and put in place strategies to navigate the IT challenges of hybrid operations.
“What we’ve really been focused on is: how do we get that hybrid experience to feel as good as ‘everybody’s in the room together’ or ‘everybody’s remote,’ at the very least?” Sample told CIO Dive in July of last year.
