Suren Gupta, EVP of Technology & Operations at Allstate Insurance Company

Episode Overview

Among other topics, Suren discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:

• The innovative ways in which Allstate has structured its organization to most effective facilitate a significant business transformation, specifically the various mechanisms used to capture and fund innovative ideas from the ground up
• The importance of sourcing technologists that are first and foremost businesspeople when building talent
• Suren’s hesitance, throughout his career, to focus on getting to that “next level” and his prescribed alternative
• The increasing importance of a flexible and effective organizational structure through which the key principles of operation, execution, enablement, development, innovation, and differentiation are supported
• Eye on Trends:The societal changes and possibilities that will come with leveraging data for wisdom; Allstate’s “innovation councils” composed of senior technology and business leaders with the purpose of bringing new ideas to life

Suren Gupta’s Biography

Suren is the Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations for Allstate Insurance Company, the United States’ third largest personal lines insurer. Suren is considered an innovative force in enhancing delivery capabilities that support a 24/7 global operation, a topic we cover in some depth in this interview.  Among other responsibilities, Suren leads a global organization that delivers innovative and transformational technological solutions for Allstate’s customers, agency owners and employees.

Prior to his tenure at Allstate, Suren served as Group Chief Information Officer and Executive for Wells Fargo, the American multinational banking and financial services holding company, where he was responsible for the re-engineering of the real estate lending division’s service delivery. Under his leadership, new delivery capabilities enabled the field sales force to serve customers more effectively with just-in-time information.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Gupta also served as a founding member of the corporate executive team of Airclic Inc., a start-up wireless Internet venture and was senior vice president, informational technology and operations for GMAC Residential, a division of General Motors.

Suren is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and received a master’s degree in computer engineering from West Virginia University, as well as an MBA from George Mason University. In addition to these accomplishments, he serves on the Chicago Public Library Foundation Board as well as the board of the American chapter for Pratham, a nongovernmental organization that provides pre-school education to children in India’s slums.

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