MassMutual announces new appointments in Customer Analytics and Research Division

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) has announced the following appointments in its Customer Analytics and Research division:

• Amit Phansalkar, Vice President and Chief Data Scientist, will lead the data analytics team in developing insights to help drive continuous improvements to the company's customer experience model.  He will report to Gareth Ross, Vice President, Analytics and Research.  Mr. Phansalkar has more than 15 years of big data experience and most recently served as the global head of data sciences and advanced analytics at Kantar Media.  Prior to that, he was a co-founder and VP analytics at Cognika.  Mr. Phansalkar holds an M.S. in Statistics from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from University of Pune in India. 
                  
• Sears Merritt, Assistant Vice President and Data Scientist, has joined the data analytics team to extract knowledge from consumer data sources.  He will report to Mr. Phansalkar.  Mr. Merritt has nearly a decade of experience working with big data systems and modeling complex systems, most recently serving as a consulting data scientist and researcher at the University of Colorado. Mr. Merritt holds a PhD in computer science, an M.S. in telecommunications and a B.S. in electrical engineering, all from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Additionally, Trevor Morgan has joined the data analytics team as a consultant.  Before joining MassMutual, Mr. Morgan worked as an analyst and data scientist at a market research company.  He received a PhD in particle astrophysics and a B.S. in physics from the University of New Hampshire at Durham.

"These gentlemen bring another level of depth to MassMutual's ability to access, analyze and interpret massive amounts of non-traditional data to help us make the right decisions to continuously improve the experiences our customers have with us," said Michael Fanning, Executive Vice President and head of MassMutual's U.S. Insurance Group.  "I am confident that their conceptual thinking, logic and data-driven analysis skills make them excellent additions to our company, valuable resources for our business and assets for our policyowners."

About MassMutual

Founded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyowners. The company has a long history of financial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyowners consistently since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company's strong and growing network of financial professionals helps clients make good financial decisions for the long-term.

MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliated companies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and its major affiliates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Investors Services, LLC, Member FINRA and SIPC; OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.

For more information, visit www.massmutual.com or find MassMutual on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+.

SOURCE MassMutual