At Blue Frog Solutions, Transition from Levine to Smith Is Completed
November 16, 2008
Blue Frog Solutions, one of two software companies whose order-entry systems are central to the ongoing effort to automate the sale of variable annuities, announced that its new president and CEO will be Dan Smith, Blue Frog’s chief operating officer since 2007.
Smith had been interim CEO since last July, after Blue Frog founder and former CEO Brad Levine sold a controlling interest in his Pompano Beach, Fla.-based company to Bluff Point Associates, a private equity firm in Westport, Conn. Bluff Point CEO Tom McInerney is now Blue Frog’s chairman. Levine remains an executive vice president at the firm.
Blue Frog and competitor EbixExchange (formerly Finetre) are key participants in the variable annuity straight-through-processing (STP) pilot program that is led by Merrill Lynch and is expected to initiate the paperless processing of variable annuity contracts in the first quarter of 2009.
Since joining Blue Frog in 2003, Smith oversaw the development and rollout of the flagship Affirm product to the industry's largest insurance carriers and distributors. He received the 2005 Founders Award and was responsible for all client-facing activities prior to becoming COO.
Previously, Smith served as vice president of Technology for New York-based BISYS Insurance Services, which operated as the largest national distributor of life insurance, annuities, long-term care and disability insurance.
Smith came to BISYS from Claimtrust, Inc., where he was COO and member of the board at the Internet-based service provider to hospitals. He also has held senior IT positions at Interim Healthcare, Inc., and System One Amadeus, a travel reservation system.
Smith received a BA in data processing from the University of Central Missouri and holds his life, health and variable annuity resident licenses from the Florida Department of Financial Services.
Bluff Point Associates focuses on financial services companies that have gained efficiency through proprietary technology solutions. Its other affiliated companies include Matrix Financial Solutions, Inc., Matrix Communications Technologies, InvestLink Technologies, Innovest Systems and Wealth Management Systems Inc.For more information on related topics, visit the following:
