Sears Merritt
PhD, MS, BS, MBA
Head of Enterprise Technology and Experience (ETX)
MassMutual
Sears Merritt is the Head of Enterprise Technology & Experience, and a member of the Executive Leadership Team, at MassMutual. In this role, Sears is responsible for the company’s technology, cybersecurity, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and vision.
Since he joined MassMutual in 2013, Sears has been instrumental in embedding data science, machine learning, and AI into many aspects of MassMutual’s business and operations. During his tenure at the company, he has held several roles of increasing responsibility in the areas of data science, strategy, architecture, and technology and has played a central role in developing MassMutual’s data science and analytics team. Other notable accomplishments include launching MassMutual’s Health and Wellness program and establishing the life insurance industry’s first data and AI governance program.
Prior to his time at MassMutual, he founded On The Spot Sports, LLC, which designed and implemented a real-time machine learning platform for predicting within-competition events in college and professional basketball games. Before that, he was responsible for architecting one of the nation’s first regional tele-health networks in Colorado.
Sears is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has many patents and publications in machine learning, technology, and financial services. Sears has been recognized with the Statistical Partnerships Among Academe, Industry, and Government (SPAIG) Award by the American Statistical Association, as one of the life insurance industry’s top 25 innovators under 40 by LIMRA and a top 100 innovator by Corinium Intelligence. He is an advisor to Antara Health, a member of the board for Barings, a member of the Innovation Committee for the American Council of Life Insurers and serves as co-chair of Mass Fintech Hub.
Sears holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, M.S. in Telecommunications, and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.B.A. from the Sloan School at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.