Sun Life names replacement for retiring CIO

Sun Life Financial, the international insurance group with a presence in Bermuda, has appointed Laura Money as executive vice president and chief information officer. She takes up her post on June 29.

She succeeds Mark Saunders, who currently holds the role of chief information officer but who is due to retire at the end of April 2021. Saunders will support Money in her transition to CIO and continue to lead in areas including real estate, procurement and shared business services as they evolve in the coming year.

Money joins Sun Life from a major Canadian bank where she was senior vice president and CIO corporate centre technology. She has held various senior IT and business roles throughout her career in Canadian banking and at a global consulting company.

She will report to Kevin Strain, chief financial officer and executive vice president at Sun Life. Saunders will have spent 12 years with the company by the time he steps down, and more than three decades in technology leadership positions. Most recently, Mark oversaw the business continuity efforts that allowed Sun Life to seamlessly transition 95 percent of Employees globally to work from home and continue to support Clients successfully.

Dean Connor, president and chief executive officer of Sun Life, said the company has made significant progress in digitising the business, which Money has been hired to help accelerate. “Our focus on investing in technology over the years has been a tremendous benefit in continuing to serve our clients in an uninterrupted way and this shift to everything digital is an outcome from the pandemic that is here to stay,” he added.

Strain said Saunders had taken innovation to new levels at Sun Life, predicting Money will build on that momentum, allowing the insurer to develop new technologies for clients, such as mobile and advisory apps and virtual health care. “We're focused on our company purpose of helping our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives, which is more important than ever before during these difficult and physically contactless times,” he added.