Denise Garth Joins SMA as Partner and Chief Digital Officer

New Appointment Will Support the Broadening Industry Demand for Innovation

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Jan 14, 2014, 12:00 ET

BOSTON, Jan. 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Strategy Meets Action (SMA), a leading insurance strategic advisory firm, is pleased to announce that industry veteran Denise Garth has joined the company as Partner and Chief Digital Officer. Denise will lead SMA's newly formed Innovation Practice and launch the industry's first Innovation Communities, a unique avenue for fostering and facilitating innovation across the insurance industry.

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"We are absolutely thrilled Denise has joined our team. She is a perfect fit for Strategy Meets Action – well known for her strategic thinking, expert insurance knowledge, and professional drive to execution. Our customers and the industry at large are requesting more insights and information about innovation, best practices, and advancing technologies in and outside of insurance. It's exciting to be able to offer a new set of services that will be of great benefit to the industry," said Deb Smallwood, SMA Founder.

The SMA Innovation Practice will provide first-of-its-kind offerings – created via a unique blend of research, services, and community activities that leverage next generation technologies such as collaboration, social media, cloud, and analytics. The Practice will track and evaluate emerging technologies and their uses inside and outside insurance, bringing the industry a fresh, "outside-in" focus on digital strategies and platforms, collaborative tools, transformation progress, and innovation.

"The insurance industry is poised for significant change," said Denise Garth, SMA's new Partner and Chief Digital Officer. "SMA has developed a fantastic foundation of research, thought leadership, and relationships. The Innovation Practice will offer our clients and the industry new ways to collaborate, creating a highly productive environment for rethinking, reimagining, and reinventing a technology-enabled future. I look forward to this exceptional opportunity."

"Denise's vast experience in our industry will bring immediate, significant value to SMA's clients. There is a rapid increase in the volume of insurance client interactions and transactions that are being handled in a digital manner, making major and pervasive innovation possible. To capitalize on this strategic shift, SMA has wisely created a dual role for Denise to head up the Innovation Practice and to serve as the company's Chief Digital Officer. She is ideally suited to step into these roles," said Monique Hesseling, SVP and Chief Standards Officer for ACORD.

Garth joins SMA after five years as a member of the Innovation Group's Global and North America leadership team where her responsibilities included strategic marketing, industry relations, partnerships, and global market strategy. Prior to this position, she held senior business and IT executive positions at ACORD, Mutual of Omaha, and CUNA Mutual.

For insurers, associations, solution providers, and other industry influencers that are interested in learning more and participating in SMA's new Innovation Communities, contact Denise Garth at [email protected] or 402.963.0198.

More information about SMA is available via the following options:

About Strategy Meets Action

Exclusively serving the insurance industry, Strategy Meets Action (SMA) is a strategic advisory firm offering a unique blend of research, advisory, and consulting services to insurance companies and IT solution providers. By leveraging best practices from both management consulting and research advisory disciplines, SMA's advisory service offerings are actionable, business-driven, and research-based – where strategy meets action.

SOURCE Strategy Meets Action