Fiserv Inc. has hired Richard K. Jones to fill the newly created position of chief information officer.
The Brookfield, Wis., company said Friday that Mr. Jones will oversee its technology governance and develop programs to boost the efficiency of its technology resources.
Mr. Jones spent 12 years in various technology positions at the beleaguered mortgage company Countrywide Financial Corp., where he had been the CIO since 2000. (Bank of America Corp. announced Friday that it would acquire Countrywide for about $4 billion.)
He has more than three decades of experience managing technology operations, including providing payment consulting services to several large banking companies.
Also last week, Fiserv said it has completed the sale of most of its health operations to United-Health Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn.
When the $775 million deal was announced in November, Fiserv said that the operations were no longer a strategic fit with its core mission of providing banking technology and payments processing. The sale included Fiserv Health, which administers medical benefit programs, the care facilitation business Avidyn Health, and Fiserv's health specialty solutions business.
The medical benefit business generated about 29.9% of Fiserv's $1.2 billion of third-quarter revenue, but the company said the figure included pass-through revenue for pharmaceutical products; the unit generated only 8.2% of Fiserv's $206 million of third-quarter operating income.
