Jeff Lewis, vice president of Assurant corporate technology service operations, was recently named the 2015 IT Leader of the Year by Pink Elephant, a global authority in IT services and projects. This award recognizes a leader who demonstrates commitment to IT excellence and IT service management (ITSM) best practices.

The IT Leader of The Year award is presented each year to an individual in senior leadership who promotes a clear vision for IT within their organization; has shown visible commitment to influencing and empowering the IT team to be successful in realizing their objectives; and demonstrates best practice leadership capabilities.

Lewis joined Assurant in 2000, and has more than 30 years of IT experience. He leads the company’s corporate technology service operations team, which includes help desk, desktop support, data center operations, print operations, enterprise monitoring, performance testing and the service management office.

“Our IT service management maturity efforts have been a journey made possible thanks to the support of the Assurant corporate technology senior leadership team, our process owners, the extended virtual process teams and the contributions of many others across the organization,” said Lewis. “While it’s meaningful to be recognized by others in the in industry, our journey is not yet complete. We continue to focus on service management improvements that lead to increased business value.”

Earlier this year, Assurant was awarded Pink Elephant’s Project of the Year Award for updating and unifying its enterprise service management processes, as well as implementing and integrating a new ITSM tool. The award is given out annually by Pink Elephant to organizations that have demonstrated significant commitment to industry best practice frameworks.

“Jeff has been instrumental to the success of our service management operation, having led our team through significant enterprise-wide process improvements, year over year service advancements and his team played a significant role in our Service Management system implementation,” said Robert Lewis, senior vice president and chief information officer of Assurant. “He leads with a passion and dedication that is unmatched and I couldn’t think of a more deserving person to receive this honor.”