Dive Brief:
- USAA appointed Dan Griffiths as its CIO effective Feb. 5, the company said Tuesday. Griffiths replaced Amala Duggirala, who is now chief digital and technology officer at Delta. He will report to Juan Andrade, president and CEO at USAA, according to a company spokesperson.
- Griffiths brings to the role more than 20 years of technology experience in the financial sector, including as CTO of TD Bank Group in Toronto and, most recently, as Group CIO at Santander US and Santander Bank globally. At USAA, he’ll be responsible for platform modernization, bolstering cybersecurity efforts and scaling digital services, according to a press release.
- USAA underwent a significant leadership restructuring in September, five months into Andrade’s tenure as CEO. The company announced Duggirala alongside executives overseeing transformation, brand and strategy, and life insurance would depart the business, a spokesperson confirmed in an email to CIO Dive.
Dive Insight:
A private company serving military personnel and families, USAA has made a name for itself as a customer experience leader, often tied to its position as being on the leading technology edge. In his role as CIO, Griffiths will be tasked with continuing that legacy as he strives for “every interaction [to feel] effortless, protected and personal,” he said in the release.
The 103-year-old company has consistently invested in information technology as a way to serve its now 14 million members. It was an early provider of online banking and is widely considered a pioneer of mobile banking, offering the first mobile check deposit feature in the U.S. in 2009. Bucking against a surge in shadow IT brought on by cloud and mobile devices, former USAA CIO Greg Schwartz distributed iPads to top executives soon after the tablet’s unveiling in 2010.
The company sustained its investment in cutting-edge technology as the financial services industry turned to AI. In its inaugural benchmark of 30 of the largest non-health insurers across North America and Europe, Evident Insights ranked USAA as the third most AI mature provider after AXA and Allianz. In a couple of categories, most notably AI talent density, USAA outpaced its rivals.
Chief Data Analytics and AI Officer Ramnik Bajaj, who joined the company in 2021, is a member of that pool of talent. One of Bajaj’s early projects was a multiyear data modernization initiative to create a “unified data environment” by migrating disparate data sources to a centralized location in the cloud, providing employees with access to data critical to AI’s success. He used a “carrot-and-stick approach” to encourage progress.
“We had a sunset date for each environment,” Bajaj told CIO Dive in 2024. “The sunset date was the stick and the carrot was the analytics and reporting tools available on the cloud environment.”
As CIO, Griffiths will help deploy initiatives like these with an emphasis on member services. “We will prioritize secure platforms, intuitive digital journeys and the engineering rigor that keeps USAA always-on,” he said in the announcement. “My goal is to translate reliability and simplicity into member value, so every interaction feels effortless, protected and personal.
