Corporate Vision life, accident, and health today. Bolstering this claim is the fact that more than 40 customers in North America rely on FINEOS, including 7 of the 10 largest employee benefits insurers in the U.S. and 70% of group insurers in Australia. Diving a little deeper into the processes behind this success, Joanne told us: “Our FINEOS Playbook serves as the guiding internal compass that clearly articulates our purpose, vision, and mission – defining not only what we aspire to achieve, but why we exist and how we create value for our customers and each other.” The company’s values are an extension of this, shaping how the company operates, signalling the behaviours and mindsets it strives for, and setting the tone for both how it works and how it develops its culture. Headquartered in Ireland but working across the globe, FINEOS encompasses a diverse range of perspectives and experiences, which strengthen its capacity to deliver high-calibre solutions to its international customers. This is where FINEOS’ greatest asset – its people – really comes into play. As the Chief People Officer at FINEOS, Joanne is responsible for leading company-wide HR, learning, talent, development, and transformation programmes, delivered with the goal of nurturing a high-performing, employeeoriented workplace and sustainable growth. Exploring this further, Joanne told us: “We pride ourselves on encouraging people to see potential in themselves that they may not recognise at first, and on creating an environment where they feel supported to stretch, grow, and step into new challenges.” She continued: “When individuals lean in, get a little uncomfortable, and discover what they are capable of, they not only transform their own careers but also contribute to transforming the business. That is where the magic happens.” “When people are engaged, aligned with purpose, and enabled to thrive, strong business performance naturally follows.” Given she has been with FINEOS since 2000, Joanne has had ample opportunities to demonstrate how aligning talent strategy with business goals can accelerate growth and drive innovation, something which has been an interest of hers since she began her career in HR. As a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, she works closely with senior colleagues to ensure talent initiatives are fully integrated into the company’s strategic direction. Over the last 25 years and counting, Joanne has had the privilege of taking part in a number of key initiatives across FINEOS, initiatives that were not only important strategically but which were also connected to the wider sense of purpose the company has always had. Discussing some of the most pivotal milestones achieved over the course of her career, Joanne mentioned international expansion, IPO execution, and helping to lead the acquisition of two organisations during the pandemic as personal highlights. In fact, navigating COVID more generally was a transformative time for FINEOS, which had to support customers and claimants alike during a period of unprecedented uncertainty. Looking back, Joanne commented: “It reinforced just how essential our purpose is and why our values matter.” The pandemic is hardly the only development or challenge FINEOS has faced over the last few years, with the conversation more recently turning to the use of AI. This, of course, is an ongoing shift that is happening as we speak, meaning it is impossible for Joanne or any other HR leader to know the impact it will have long term. However, what it has shown is the importance of having a change-ready mindset. Again, this involves focusing on the people behind FINEOS, creating an environment where they can thrive no matter what. Joanne is certainly not alone as she continues to refine this culture within FINEOS, and she credits the advice given to her by CEO Michael Kelly as being vital in her recognising the true Leveraging the Power of People to Transform Business Our 2026 HR and Employment Awards feature is a great way to celebrate the intrinsic link between people and business success. Having served as the chief people officer at FINEOS, a technology solutions provider for life, accident, and health insurers, for more than 25 years, Joanne McMullan understands this link better than most. With FINEOS being named the Best Life, Accident & Health Core Insurance Technology Provider 2026, we profile the company below, before sharing some of our catchup with Joanne about how her work has helped position the company as a leader. The world of employee benefits and life, accident, and health is one that has long struggled with moving past outdated legacy systems and into the modern world. As a global software company providing modern, customer-centric software to this space, FINEOS has helped these companies adopt purpose-built, customer-centric technology to empower their operations. This has been made possible through its FINEOS AdminSuite, which covers everything from billing, claims, and absence through to policy administration and underwriting. Before we dive into this, it pays to go back to the beginning – to when CEO Michael Kelly established FINEOS in 1993. At the time, Michael introduced a suite of modern technology to help life insurers provide exceptional service to their customers. The first product provided a single view across all channels, with this enabling the delivery of enhanced customer service in an environment that was becoming increasingly competitive and technologically advanced. This success fuelled FINEOS to amplify both its tech and its expertise. Working across absence, billing, claims, payments, and policy in subsequent years, FINEOS then set about creating its full-service, quote-to-claim solution, adding quote, rate, and underwriting to the areas mentioned above. It is this impressive product lineup that makes FINEOS a global market leader in the field of life, accident, and health insurance technology. With FINEOS AdminSuite being designed to manage the modern, complex structures of both group and individual insurance planning, optimising plan, coverage, and data management as well as operational processing and business intelligence in the process, adopting it quickly leads to increased efficiency and enhanced customer care. Aiding this is the fact that the system can be implemented and integrated within a company’s existing system before FINEOS AdminSuite takes over, enabling faster deployment in critical areas. Impressively, this is just the beginning, with the FINEOS Platform, which blends the features of FINEOS AdminSuite with FINEOS Digital and Data, and Platform Capabilities, being more than the sum of all these parts and standing as the single most modern SaaS core insurance platform across employee benefits and
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