Sapiens has appointed Paul Hutchison as Chief Delivery Success Officer and Michael Rieder as Chief Customer Success Officer as part of a reorganisation at the insurer software group.
The changes are intended to reshape customer-facing operations as Sapiens builds a suite of agentic AI products for insurers around a single insurance ontology. The new structure is designed to create clearer accountability across delivery and customer support as the company expands that platform to more than 600 insurers in over 30 countries.
Hutchison will lead a Delivery Success function that includes a Delivery Factory, solution architects, a Partner & Ecosystem Delivery team, and specialist teams covering life and pensions, property and casualty, and reinsurance. The unit will focus on delivery consistency, customer adoption, and a more scalable service model.
Rieder will take charge of customer support, customer success managers, enablement, customer health analytics, and the creation of a customer community. He joins from Finastra, where he served as Chief Customer Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the payments business unit.
The overhaul comes as insurance technology suppliers respond to rising demand from insurers for AI tools that can be integrated into existing systems without disrupting core operations. Sapiens linked the changes to broader shifts in technology adoption across the insurance market.
According to the company, Hutchison brings more than 25 years of experience in delivery and operational leadership. His previous roles include senior positions at BECU, IBM, E*Trade, and Northgate Arinso, and he holds a doctorate in Organisational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California.
Rieder spent much of his career at SAP in senior leadership roles focused on customer success, services, and support. His remit will centre on helping insurer clients manage the implementation and ongoing use of Sapiens' AI-related products and services.
Leadership shift
The appointments come during a broader period of change for the company. Sapiens recently established a global headquarters in London and opened an AI Customer Experience Lab, steps management has presented as part of a wider effort to sharpen its AI strategy for the insurance sector.
Mike Ettling, Executive Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer, said the new structure is intended to improve consistency in how the company works with customers. "We are delighted to welcome Paul and Michael at a pivotal moment in Sapiens' evolution," he said. "Having established a global HQ in London and opened our first AI Customer Experience Lab, we want to ensure our teams are delivering value in a consistent way. With their vast experience, Paul and Michael will play defining roles in helping our customers navigate towards the goal of agile intelligence."
Sapiens has been positioning itself around the use of AI in insurance workflows, with a particular emphasis on products that can work from a shared data and process model. The company argues that a single governed insurance ontology can help insurers deploy AI tools more consistently across underwriting, claims, and policy administration.
That approach puts pressure on software vendors to show they can not only build AI products but also implement and support them within the operational realities of insurers, many of which still run long-established core platforms. The split between Delivery Success and Customer Success suggests Sapiens is seeking to separate implementation discipline from ongoing support and adoption.
Hutchison pointed to the operational side of that effort in his remarks on joining the business. "I'm thrilled to be joining Sapiens at a time when AI has the potential to radically improve how insurers deliver value to their customers," he said. "By creating a unified suite of agentic AI products, we will give customers the assurance of consistency, which also makes it easier to deliver solutions in a standardised, effective way."
For insurers, the immediate significance of the changes may lie less in the executive titles than in whether the new teams reduce the complexity of deploying AI tools into existing technology estates. Large insurers typically need software suppliers to manage integration, governance, and support alongside product development.
Rieder said that challenge would sit at the centre of his remit. "Customer success is ever more important as insurers get to grips with the potential of AI," he said. "Ensuring AI tools integrate correctly with existing core systems and can rely on a single, governed insurance ontology requires careful planning, and this will be a key priority for the Customer Success team."