David Wroe 

 
    I have worked with technology from the start of my career at Texas Instruments with the task of implementing a national data network. As part of my Operations Research work there, I developed the Predict Times Series Analysis and Forecasting System which won the SBC Pioneer of Timesharing Award for TI. At TI we concentrated on using quantitative techniques to balance inventories, line loads, and workflows. As Manager of Production Control, I had the opportunity to bring a set of innovative products into production such as components for the new TI Calculator, the LEM Apollo Project, and the B1 Bomber. This assignment also brought extensive involvement with the automotive industry delivering critical devices. TI shaped my approach to solving problems to this day.
              
     At Stop and Shop, our development team designed and built a corporate ordering and distribution system. This was excellent exposure to the retail business as the company operated subsidiaries that had interlocking distribution requirements. Again the challenge of managing workflows and reducing cycle times and errors was critical. The lessons learned in these early EDI systems would prove very useful in later work on insurance agency to carrier interface.
         
    I joined Commercial Union in 1978 to lead their pioneering efforts in automating the policy flow from their agents. At CU we coined the word agency company interface and implemented a technology working with the emerging agency management vendors rather than delivering carrier terminals, which had been the costly industry practice. The work done was heavily influenced by two key contributors to the insurance industry. The first was Rob Thompson, the innovator in the agency management space, who automated agency policy servicing for the first time. The second was Lawson Swearingen, the CEO of CU and a former agent, who guided this effort on a course that positioned technology for the good of the entire industry not just CU. The impact of these values would show up in the contribution of our interface work to ACORD to help in the formation of the first insurance standards still in use today. In 1981 Commercial Union acquired Agency Management Systems and asked me to head AMS development. The AMS product soon attracted industry attention and a consortium of what would become seven insurance carriers was formed. This consortium which shared the commitment of supporting the entire independent agent distribution channel would stay together for 17 years until the successful sale of AMS.
        
    As a result of the AMS consortium formation, I became CEO in 1983. Over the next 13 years as CEO and 4 more as Board Chairman, we built AMS into the largest provider of automation services to agents with a customer base exceeding 20,000 agencies. We also continued the value system of serving the industry as a whole when we contributed our interface technology to form the Alliance for Productive Technology. None of this could have been done without the vision, financial commitment, and leadership of Dennis Chookaszian and Phil Engel at CNA, the majority owner of AMS.
        
    If TI had taught me how to be action oriented, it was our customers at AMS, particularly the AMS Users Group, that taught me to have fun. The relationships I have built with the AMS customers have formed the basis of lifelong friendships. I could name so many friends so I shouldn't except I have to acknowledge Jim Phelan, without whom we would never have been so successful. And finally, receiving the Wade Dunbar (another great friend) Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Insurance Industry was a great honor coming from these same clients.
        
    In 1996, I was asked to join the senior staff at CNA as Chief Technology Officer. In that capacity I added the responsibility of the CIO function as well as heading up CNA's venture group. At CNA, thanks to a great IT team, we were able to modernize infrastructure, reduce costs, and successfully implement Y2K changes. On the venture side (where we had an opportunity to invest in the healthcare and consumer insurance Internet space), the returns on a number of investments had a material positive impact on the company. We successfully sold AMS, which continues to thrive today, in 2000 and I retired from CNA to return to Cape Cod in 2001.         
             
    I have started clareworks in hopes of providing valuable service to clients and to be able to do so for a long time to come as there are many more things to build and much more work to be done in the exciting world of technology. But I am also doing this now, at this time in my life, in the context of becoming a one person company so that I can have the time to pursue a technology based charitable project that is very important to me. Hopefully this project will some day be my greatest work.
                       
                                                                             

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Education

Providence College, Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude, Mathematics

Career Positions        

1969 - 1976  Texas Instruments

Systems Analyst, Manager Operations Research, Manager Production Control 

1976 - 1978  Stop and Shop

Director Corporate Distribution Systems

1978 - 1983  Commercial Union

VP Agency Interface, Senior VP AMS R&D

1983 - 1996  AMS

Chairman and CEO

1996 - 2001  CNA

Senior VP and CTO

2002 - 2009  Swingtide

President and CEO

2009 -          clareworks

President

Past Board Memberships

Agency Management Services, Alliance Productive Technology, Quality Insurance Congress, Silverplume, Allenbrook, Insweb, Medicalogic, Home Financial Network, Superior Access Insurance Services, Healthcare Solutions, Apply Yourself, Apostolate Alliance, Catholic University School of Philosophy

Current Board Memberships

Clareworks, Providence College School of Business Advisory Board, Air Maria.com, WPMW Radio, Rogers and Gray Insurance Advisory Board, Genstar Capital Strategic Advisory Board, Insurity, Acrisure Advisory Board

Interests

Church Volunteer Work, Fishing, Boating, Golfing, Jogging, Showing Cape Cod

Phone      603 969 2343

Email       David.Wroe@clareworks.com