Bringing change and insight

FROM GAMES TO VITAL TOOLS: Jeanne Lieb, left, senior vice president of information services and chief information officer for FM Global, helps the commercial insurer use technology as a defensible advantage. With her are Toby Denbow, vice president, shared analytical services manager, and Tina Shah, senior procurement and contracts specialist. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
FROM GAMES TO VITAL TOOLS: Jeanne Lieb, left, senior vice president of information services and chief information officer for FM Global, helps the commercial insurer use technology as a defensible advantage. With her are Toby Denbow, vice president, shared analytical services manager, and Tina Shah, senior procurement and contracts specialist. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Back in the 1950s, it was a want ad in the newspaper that launched Jeanne Lieb’s father’s career in computer programming. He thought that when they were advertising for programmers, they meant radio programming – sending songs and stories over the airwaves. But that misunderstanding would have a ripple effect when a young Lieb, now senior vice president of information services and chief information officer at FM Global, would go visit her father at work in the Honeywell offices.

“It was back in the late ’60s, playing Tic Tac Toe against the computer. Interacting with a computer was basically unheard of back then,” she said, estimating that she was about 10 years old. “They were significant machines. … It looked like something you’d see at NASA during [a rocket] lift off. It was very inspiring.”

Lieb went from Tic Tac Toe to employment with Raytheon during college breaks from Brandeis University, to working in software services after graduation. She would eventually work for one of FM Global’s predecessor companies, Allendale Insurance, as a software engineer. Over time she took on more technology leadership and project-management roles. When it came time for the merger involving Allendale that birthed FM Global in 1999, she was asked to oversee two key functions: insurance systems development and data management.

Lieb has a considerable career to look back on, but both she and her colleagues agree that one of the biggest points of pride has to be her ability to leverage technology not just as a support system for business, but as a driver of business. Simply put: The bottom line at FM Global is better because of Lieb.

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“Jeanne’s primary consideration is always to do what is in the best interest of FM Global,” said Toby Denbow, vice president, shared and analytical services manager, who has worked with Lieb for 12 years.

Annette McLeod, vice president, corporate systems and services, added: “Jeanne has positioned the information services division for success in a manner by which we can effectively support tactical work” – i.e., keeping the lights on – “and strategic initiatives while also performing transformational technology research.”

In an industry full of unsung heroes, it seems fitting that Lieb reached back into those early days gazing in awe at room-sized computers. Where others saw the simple game on the screen, she saw the magma bubbling up within the monolith. And that kind of vision has resulted in successes for FM Global, chief among them the Efficiency Evolved effort, an initiative focusing on process improvement and the creation of the MyRisk client portal, mobile technology that garnered a 2016 risk innovation award from Business Insurance magazine.

“[Technology] is integral in the success of what we do as a company. As a knowledge-based organization, we don’t make widgets. We need to effectively have client relationships and products and services that really differentiate us in the marketplace. And a lot of that occurs through technology,” Lieb said.

It’s clear that Lieb is an agent for change, and not just within FM Global. In 2008, when Year Up, the skills-development and education nonprofit, reached out to her for support, she was all ears. Her support of the organization’s mission started with bringing interns in to FM Global. Over the years the company has had 25.

“I began to recognize that, yeah, there was an opportunity for me personally to get more involved,” she said. “I got involved in the mentoring program, and I found it to be really gratifying on a personal level to see and recognize that you can really impact someone’s life just by taking the time to sit down with them and listen to them … and to provide guidance.”

Her mentoring work earned her the distinction of Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award in 2013.

As many awards as her hard work and generosity might have garnered in and out of the office, Lieb showed the characteristic humility of someone who knows how to make things happen well beyond the reach of the spotlight.

She said of her latest recognition from Providence Business News: “This award is a significant recognition, but it’s really a recognition of just how incredible the talents and capability of the information technology team here at FM Global are.” •

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