Nationwide Creates Enterprise Innovation and Digital Organization

Columbus, OH - Nationwide is making some organizational adjustments to enable the company to further enhance and accelerate its focus on innovation with an emphasis on digital interactions.

Chetan Kandhari, Chief Digital Officer, will lead a new Enterprise Innovation and Digital organization, aligning all of Nationwide’s innovation and digital teams into one and accelerating delivery of innovation and digital experiences across the company.

“This evolution will give Nationwide even more focus and enable us to bring new customer solutions and experiences to market more quickly,” said Nationwide CEO Kirt Walker. “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solutions by consumers and organizations. Never have the opportunity and urgency been greater to position our company for long-term success. Aligning these teams will be a force multiplier.”

Kandhari was named Nationwide’s Chief Digital Officer in December. He has served with the company in various technology roles since 2005, including as the Chief Technology leader for the company’s P&C operations, overseeing the development and deployment of the company’s Express platform, SmartMiles, as well as integrations with strategic partners such as Amazon, Toyota and Ford. He’s a graduate of Muskingum University with a master’s in computer science from Miami University (Ohio) and an MBA from The Ohio State University.

With this announcement, Scott Sanchez, who has served as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer, will be leaving the company.

“We want to thank Scott for his leadership, for building a strong innovation organization, and for helping us get to where we are today,” Walker said.

Nationwide’s innovation journey 

Nationwide has announced a variety of new solutions to meet member needs now and, in the future, including:

• Earlier this year, Nationwide announced strategic partnerships with Toyota and Ford to create innovative usage-based insurance experiences for car buyers.

• In December, Nationwide opened The CoOperative, an innovation center in the Arena District near its Columbus, Ohio-based headquarters.

• Last fall, Nationwide announced the launch of Spire, a simple, easy-to-understand digital insurance platform, built on fair and straightforward principles and designed to be convenient and accessible from your phone. Spire is now available for purchase in Texas.

• Nationwide’s venture capital team has made several recent investments in innovative early stage companies, including: Deep Sentinel, Vesta Healthcare, KINETIC, Upstream, Socotra, Betterview, Nexar, BlueVine, blooom, Insurify, Next Insurance, Matic and Sure.