At home, Greg Oberland, the CIO and senior vice president of information systems at Northwestern Mutual, experiments with digital photography, listens to music on a Nano iPod (recently purchasing a docking station that allows him to listen to his iPod no matter where he's located), and uses TiVo to record television programs on his high-definition TV. The father of four college- and post-college-aged children also relies on his Razor cell phone's text messaging feature to communicate regularly with his kids, who live in different parts of the country.

Oberland is the first to admit, however, that using the latest high-tech gadgets does not come naturally. He relies on technology–both at work and at home–out of necessity to be as efficient and productive as possible. "Learning and understanding IT was something I really needed to do in order to perform my job responsibilities," he explains.

Oberland joined Northwestern Mutualin 1982 as an attorney in its law department, after earning his J.D. from Georgetown University Law School. He worked as an attorney for the Milwaukee-based insurer for five years before moving to the business side, where he ran a claims operation, led the disability income product line, and oversaw the company's underwriting function.