RSA appoints former Santander Germany CIO as its new COO
Darren McKenzie will be part of the team leading a transformation in RSA's operational, IT and procurement strategy
Global insurer RSA has appointed former Santander Germany CIO Darren McKenzie to the newly created role of chief operating officer for the UK and Western Europe.
McKenzie will report directly to Steve Lewis, chief executive of UK and Western Europe and will be part of the team leading a transformation in RSA's operational, IT and procurement strategy.
As CIO of Santander in Germany, McKenzie was responsible for the integration and migration of millions of customers to new systems and processes, RSA said. Prior to this, McKenzie was CIO at Alliance and Leicester where he implemented its new IT operating model after the firm was acquired by Santander.
RSA is the midst of a dramatic shift, and in 2014 decided to replace the entire technology leadership across the entire group, a process that is largely complete.
CIO Darren Price told Computing in January that the change was necessary because the firm had a gap in senior leadership when it came to technology, and because it needed a leadership team that could interface with the regional executive team on a business level.
"We changed the leader in Canada, made an internal promotion in Scandinavia, got a new COO in Ireland, and we're still looking for a COO for the UK and Western Europe," Price said at the time.
That hunt is now over, with McKenzie starting in his role on 1 July.
Commenting on the appointment, CEO Lewis, said:
"I'm very pleased to appoint Darren to my team. To successfully compete in the UK and European market, we need the very best operations and IT processes.
"I'm committed to investing in and significantly improving how we use technology to benefit our customers and employees and I know Darren is the right person to help us achieve this. Having been responsible for all aspects of transformation programmes, he's got exactly the experience and skills we need."