NEW JOB TITLE: Houston-based CEO, Ontellus

PREVIOUS POSITION: Plano, Texas-based insurance division GM, DXC Technology Co.

GOALS FOR NEW POSITION: I have three goals for Ontellus: 1. Grow Ontellus by leveraging its market-leading size to provide better scale and alignment to toptier insurers who require both the highest levels of service and integration with their internal technologies and processes; 2. Expand the Ontellus value proposition to insurers by offering more solutions that make handling complex claims easier with new innovation and expanded partnerships; and 3. Lead Ontellus and the industry into a next-generation model for how insurers and law firms procure medical records and other complex claims data. I’m particularly excited about the third goal. Stay tuned.

CHALLENGES FACING INDUSTRY: Insurers have just started waking up to their needs in this records space and have, only now, started to realize the exposure and opportunity that they have in managing their data retrieval spend more effectively. Until now, there have simply been bigger fish to fry for the industry, such as retooling their back-office claims platforms. When insurers investigate their records retrieval capabilities, oftentimes they aren’t able to quantify their spends because it rarely lives in one place. Probably more concerning to them is that they often find they are partnered with firms that loosely “follow” security standards, but aren’t truly externally audited with SOC 2 compliance that they’ve been requiring in their operations for years. This is arguably the most sensitive data that an insurer handles.

CRYSTAL BALL: Greater abilities to apply intelligence and the ability to digitize the enterprise will ultimately shift the focus of insurers to become even more sophisticated consumers of analytics to adjust their markets and run their operations. Major disruptive changes to distribution.

FIRST INDUSTRY JOB: I started as a software developer helping the insurance industry automate itself. I sort of think of what I was doing as building the second generation of automation that departed from those generation-one mainframe eras. The platforms were just starting to become viable enough for commercial use when the internet became a thing. That was a cool time to be in technology.

ADVICE: Use technology as a weapon but pay attention to regulations. Great disruptive ideas are exactly what the industry needs. Balance those with respect for things like HIPAA, PII and GDPR.

OUTSIDE THE INDUSTRY, A DREAM JOB: Ski instructor — Deer Valley or Vail (I’m not picky)

LOOKING FORWARD TO: When you experience rapid growth like Ontellus has, you get an opportunity to bring on and work with many young people just starting their careers. The energy that brings is infectious.

COLLEGE MAJOR: Computer science

FAVORITE MEAL: Elk steak and vino

FAVORITE BOOK: “A New Earth,” by Eckhart Tolle. Uplifting.

HOBBIES: Guitar and golf, usually not at the same time

CAN’T-MISS TELEVISION SHOW: “Curb Your Enthusiasm”

ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Toss me into a college football scene anytime.