Drawing on his extensive experience in both the insurance and financial services industries, Mark Saunders is helping Sun Life Financial reassess how IT can best support the organization's current and future business initiatives.

Based in Toronto, Sun Life is a global financial services organization that serves customers in 25 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The company offers a range of wealth, protection, and retirement products to individuals and corporations.

Saunders joined Sun Life as chief technology officer in March 2009 and was promoted to executive vice president and CIO six months later. In addition to overseeing the company's IT department, which consists of about 1,600 employees, he is responsible for leading the enterprise services organization, which includes procurement, real estate, financial shared services, a service center in Asia, and development teams in India and the Philippines. When Saunders came onboard, his first priority was clear-cut.