Allianz Life Hires Patrick Christiansen as Vice President, IT Business Engagement

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life^®) named Patrick Christiansen as vice president of IT Business Engagement in the Technology division. In this role, Christiansen will be responsible for managing the relationships of business partners within Allianz Life, as well as Allianz SE Group IT and its North American subsidiaries. He will partner with the business units to maintain strategies, help shape the technological change agenda and the architectural solutions supporting them. Christiansen will lead teams responsible for relationship management, enterprise architecture and strategies, technology portfolio management, in addition to IT marketing and communication. He will report to the Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Jeff Palm.

“Patrick has had an extensive career as a leader within the technology industry”

“Patrick has had an extensive career as a leader within the technology industry,” said Palm. “We’re pleased to have him join the team as we continue to advance the technology that supports our business.”

Christiansen has more than 20 years of technology leadership experience. For the past 10 years he served as co-founder and managing principal with Arctec Group, LLC in Minneapolis, a technology architecture and management consulting company. Christiansen provided IT planning, enterprise architecture, systems evaluation and technical leadership consulting services to many companies including Allianz Life. As a consultant to Allianz Life, he has collaborated with business and IT leadership to govern architectural direction for significant initiatives, and has also provided consulting services to Allianz SE Group IT, Allianz Income Management Services and Allianz of America (including Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company). In addition, his previous clients included various financial services, health care insurance, and manufacturing companies in the Midwest and Northeast regions.

Prior to his role with Arctec Group, he was chief technology officer for HealthNexis, LLC, in St. Louis Park, Minn., and previously held technology roles with Express Scripts and Target Stores in Minneapolis, and Burlington Northern Railroad in St. Paul.

Christiansen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix.

About Allianz Life
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, one of FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2012, has been keeping its promises since 1896. Today, it carries on that tradition, helping Americans achieve their retirement income and protection goals with a variety of annuities and life insurance products. As a leading provider of fixed index annuities, Allianz Life is part of Allianz SE, a global leader in the financial services industry with 142,000 employees worldwide. More than 78 million private and corporate customers rely on Allianz knowledge, global reach, and capital strength to help them make the most of financial opportunities.