Microsoft’s U.S. Financial Services Group recently re-aligned its management team to bring its industry expertise in banking, capital markets and insurance directly in line with the sales organization – creating three vertical units geared toward driving industry-specific revenue in fiscal year 2007.
Driven by feedback from customers, technology partners and internal product groups, the group’s new charter will be to get closer to the industry sales teams and financial services customers. Led by Industry GM Tracy Issel, the group encompasses three new Industry Solution Director (ISD) roles, who will bring their extensive industry knowledge to bear on direct sales quotas, feedback to product groups on customer needs and answers to customers’ complex questions about enterprise deployments.
U.S. Managing Director Rich Feldmann – reporting to Tracy Issel – manages the new ISDs, who include Craig Saint-Amour capital markets; Greg Haislip, banking; and Bill Hartnett, insurance. Underneath the ISDs are a wealth of industry-specific resources, including partner managers, industry marketing managers, industry technology specialists and more. Long-time Microsoft industry experts Warren Lewis and Kevin Kelly tackle newly expanded industry marketing manager roles in banking and insurance, respectively. Stevan Vidich, Marley Gray and Dan Woodman fill the industry technology specialist positions in capital markets, banking and insurance, respectively.
ISD positions will have sales responsibility attached to them, while the industry marketing positions for banking, capital markets and insurance will be filled by individuals who have worked in the financial group, understand their industry, know where to find necessary resources within Microsoft, are familiar with the ISVs and understand financial institutions well. They will continue to help share and deliver appropriate solutions.
Ultimately, this tightly aligned organization will provide faster answers to customers’ questions, and will lead to new releases of Microsoft products that incorporate features that financial services firms have requested – such as XML enablement within Microsoft Office Professional applications, Excel Services (as part of Office 2007) and SWIFT adapters for BizTalk.
William C. Hartnett
General Manager, Insurance Solutions GroupBill Hartnett, general manager of Microsoft’s U.S. Insurance Solutions Group, is responsible for strategy, solutions delivery, partner management, marketing and industry sales for insurance.
Hartnett joined Microsoft in 1994 as worldwide insurance industry manager, and in 1997, he assumed leadership of Microsoft’s Financial Services Strategy Group. In 1998, he was named one of the “People to Watch in the Coming Year” in Best’s Review, and in 2003 and 2004, he was cited as the No. 4 most influential person in Institutional Investor’s “eFinance Top 40.”
A former insurance executive, Hartnett served on the boards of ACORD and the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. He has lobbied on state and federal levels, and was a candidate for state senate in Rhode Island. A graduate of Tufts University, he is an avid sailor and won a bronze medal in yachting at the 1979 Pan American Games.
Greg Haislip
Industry Solutions Director, BankingGreg Haislip is Microsoft’s U.S. industry solutions director of banking for Microsoft’s Financial Services Group, responsible for strategy, solutions delivery, partner management, marketing and industry sales for banking. Prior to his current role, Haislip was responsible for the industry sales specialist unit for banking, capital markets and insurance within the Financial Services Group.
Before joining Microsoft, Haislip was a member of the Financial Services Sales organizations at both Hewlett-Packard and NCR, where he provided banking technology solutions and consulting services to major banking institutions in the Southeastern U.S.
Exceeding 20 years of financial services experience, Haislip spent 10 years in commercial and retail banking prior to moving into the technology industry. During his career in banking, He held several positions including business development, corporate lending, client management and retail distribution. Haislip holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.
Craig Saint-Amour
Industry Solutions Director, Capital MarketsCraig Saint-Amour is Microsoft’s U.S. industry solutions director of capital markets for Microsoft’s Financial Services Group, responsible for strategy, solutions delivery, partner management, marketing and industry sales for capital markets.
With a total of 30 years of U.S. and international business experience, Saint-Amour had a distinguished nine-year career with Sun Microsystems. Before Sun, he spent 10 years with Digital Equipment Corporation, and had tenures with Wang Laboratories and IBM.
An accomplished competitive swimmer, Saint-Amour holds a bachelor’s degree from Babson College, and graduated from the IMD Program of Executive Strategic Planning in Lausanne, Switzerland.
New Appointments in Canada
Microsoft Canada has announced recent high-level appointments in financial services: 
Dan Bloch,
Director, Financial ServicesDan Bloch, who has more than 15 years experience in the computing industry, has been involved in a number of industry projects both within the Canadian market and worldwide. He led the channel renewal strategy for the worldwide team and was also responsible for managing Microsoft’s efforts in bringing Windows XP to ATMs. Within Canada, Bloch has worked with major banks on Internet banking, check imaging and truncation, payments, financial advisor re-platforming, secure customer messaging, Basel II reporting, retail and commercial loan origination, portfolio risk management, Sarbanes-Oxley reporting and upgrading ATM networks.
Sujan Menezes
Industry Solutions ExecutivePrior to joining Microsoft, Sujan Menezes worked for IBM Software Canada managing a senior pre-sales technical team for all IBM software brands, as well as managing the Technology Exploration Centres. In California working as vice president customer services, Menezes was in charge of the team that customized and deployed Everypath’s Mobile Application Platform Solution. In addition, Menezes has worked as vice president banking applications at 724 Solutions where he directed development of their mobile banking solution, and as customer services director managed implementations with Citibank.