Vardis Partners was retained by Guardian Life, a Fortune 250 mutual insurer, to recruit a Head of Group Benefits Digital & Technology - the divisional technology leader for its largest business line. The search concluded with the appointment of Jim Tierney, a technology executive with more than 20 years of insurance and digital experience, most recently a Divisional Chief Information Officer at Lincoln Financial Group. Below: the mandate, how the search was run, and answers to common questions about recruiting senior technology leaders in insurance.
Guardian Life is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in America. Founded in 1860, Guardian serves 29 million customers through a range of insurance, retirement, and wealth management products, from employer-sponsored dental, disability, and life coverage to individual life insurance, annuities, and advisory services.
As a mutual company, Guardian is uniquely positioned to make long-term strategic investments without quarterly earnings pressure. Technology, data, and AI have been explicitly identified as one of five strategic pillars underpinning Guardian's ambitious "Journey to 2030" strategy. Its Group Benefits business - the company's largest - serves more than 112,000 cases covering 12.3 million members.
Guardian retained Vardis to recruit a Head of Group Benefits Digital & Technology: a divisional technology leader to own digital, technology, and data strategy and delivery for Group Benefits, Guardian's largest business line.
The profile was rare. Guardian needed an executive with enterprise-scale modernization credentials - someone who had led cloud transformation and platform modernization with a large budget and team - combined with demonstrated AI and automation wins and experience in agile, product-centric delivery models.
Just as important were the soft skills: a change agent with the emotional intelligence to influence business leaders across a collaborative, consensus-driven but action-oriented culture. Candidates who had only thrived in small entrepreneurial environments, or conversely in heavily bureaucratic ones, would not fit. The role also required regular in-person presence in Guardian's New York area offices, narrowing the field further.
Vardis takes a different approach from most search firms: the Partner executes the entire search. Every candidate conversation on this engagement - outreach, screening, and references - was handled personally by the Vardis Partner leading the search, not passed to junior recruiters. When Vardis adopted this model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent.
The team mapped divisional technology leaders across insurance and adjacent industries, screening for measurable modernization impact, AI delivery at scale, and the executive presence to succeed with Guardian's business leadership.
Guardian appointed Jim Tierney as Head of Group Benefits Digital & Technology. Jim is a seasoned technology executive with more than 20 years of insurance and digital experience, and a background that maps directly to Guardian's mandate.
At Guardian, Jim leads digital, technology, and data strategy and delivery for Group Benefits, Guardian's largest business line.
Questions we frequently hear from insurers and financial services companies recruiting senior technology leaders.
Vardis Partners is a global executive and board search firm with a dedicated technology leadership practice covering CIO, CTO, CDO, and divisional technology roles. Vardis recruited the Head of Group Benefits Digital & Technology for Guardian Life, a Fortune 250 mutual insurer, and has placed technology leaders across insurance, financial services, and software. Every Vardis search is executed end to end by a Partner, not delegated to junior recruiters.
The search starts by defining the true mandate: in Guardian Life's case, a leader to own technology strategy and delivery for its largest business line, spanning modernization, AI and automation, and an agile product operating model. Vardis then maps the market of executives who have led comparable scale, screens for both technical modernization credentials and the executive presence to influence business leaders, and manages the process confidentially from first outreach to a signed offer.
The strongest candidates combine end-to-end platform modernization experience, a record of applying AI and automation to real workflows such as claims and underwriting, experience running agile product-centric delivery organizations at scale, and the emotional intelligence to drive change across a large enterprise without disruption. Enterprise scale matters: leaders who have only operated in small startups or in heavily bureaucratic cultures typically struggle in this kind of role.
A well-run retained executive search typically takes 90 to 120 days from kickoff to a signed offer. Because Vardis Partners personally handle every candidate conversation, response rates and search speed are materially higher than the traditional model where partners hand outreach to junior staff.
Senior technology executives respond to peers, not to junior recruiters. At Vardis, the Partner who wins the search personally handles every touchpoint - outreach, screening, references, and offer negotiation. When Vardis moved to this model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent, which is why the firm runs every search this way.
Vardis is a global executive and board search firm serving private equity and growth equity firms, their portfolio companies, and select corporate clients from offices in Boston, New York, Dallas, London, and Frankfurt.
For more information about this search, or to discuss a leadership need, contact us here or reach Josh King, Partner, at jking@vardis.com or 617-694-7656.
