Executives of the Year: Bill Pappas

After overseeing 150-year-old insurance giant MetLife’s multi-year, $3.2 billion modernization initiative, Bill Pappas turned his focus to AI. In two years, the effort has moved the numbers that matter: faster claims adjudication, lower expenses, better customer experience. “AI is not technology-led; it’s CEO-led,” Pappas says. “It’s changing the way we look at efficiency, at individual productivity, and our growth.” He's just as focused on defense: he also built a team to "use AI to protect against AI," aware that the same tools unlocking value are dangerous in the hands of threat actors.

Pappas says his biggest lesson in managing a workforce spanning five generations in the AI era came from an unexpected place: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his two adult daughters. He had a fixed process in mind; they improvised better than he did. "This whole thing is about learning, unlearning, and relearning," he says. It's the mindset he now encourages among his more than 38,000 technology and operations staff.