As part of an ongoing effort to streamline the insurancestandards development process, ACORD announced a redesign of itsACORD standards committee. ACORD's committees are made up ofmembers who guide the standards development process as well asresolve issues, establish subgroups, and work to supportimplementation initiatives. The ACORD board of directors approvedthese changes making the ACORD standards committee more agile andable to meet the specific requirements of diverse membercommunities.

“In looking at ourselves and our structure, it was clear that weneeded to take a more holistic approach to our standards acrossgroups. What we've done is modify our existing ACORD standardscommittee infrastructure to address the growing and diversecommunities that ACORD serves. Our ASC chairs have the knowledge,the expertise, the strength, and the experience that will guide ourongoing development efforts more efficiently than ever before,”says Gregory A. Maciag, president and CEO, ACORD. Chairing thecommittee is Monique Hesseling, head of personal lines/smallcommercial segment development for Zurich. She has been activelyinvolved with ACORD for many years and previously headed thereinsurance domain steering committee.

Her vice chairs are Joan Falcetta, vice president, informationtechnology group for MetLife and prior chair of the ACORD life andannuities domain steering committee, and Anne Rannie, manager,market operations for Lloyds' of London and previously subcommitteechair for ACORD's reinsurance steering committee. “This newalignment of committees will enable us to more quickly andappropriately respond to industry needs and improve the overallprocess of developing ACORD's standards,” said Hesseling. “Over theyears I've been involved with ACORD, I've seen both ACORD and itsstandards expand in scope, depth, and geography. By reexamining andredesigning the committees in this way, we hope to be more in tunewith industry needs and get even more people involved in theprocess. It will further enhance the Standards while making us moreproactive.”

Also designed to meet the needs of its many constituencies,ACORD formed six standards development groups focused on specificmember communities. These are:

• Life/annuity, chaired by Walter Berkowicz, enterprisearchitect, Allstate Financial
• Property/casualty, chaired by Sandi Perillo, senior businessconsultant, The Hartford
• Reinsurance, chaired by Ian Summers , managing director ofe-business and market reform, Aon Benfield
• Common services, chaired by Jim Brain, director, enterprisearchitecture, CNA Surety Corporation
• Australia committee, chaired by Troy Filipcevic, executivemanager of distribution technology, Suncorp
• South Africa committee, chaired by Jan de Klerk, SantamInternational

“The ACORD standards committee, its members, and all of ACORD'smembers continue to work together to improve the standards as wellas the processes used to develop and implement them,” says Maciag.“This modified infrastructure will be a strong foundation and agreat benefit to ACORD, the industry, and our collectivesuccess.”