NEW ORLEANS, LA ‑ May 23, 2023 ‑ Pan‑American Life, Insurance Group (PALIG) a leading provider of life, accident and health insurance throughout the Americas, announced the appointment of Dr. Sandra K. Johnson to the company’s Board of Directors effective June 1, 2023.
Dr. Johnson is the Founder & CEO of SKJ Visioneering, a technology consulting company based in North Carolina. She is also a director on the Board of Directors for Regional Management Corporation. Previously, she was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of IBM Central, East and West Africa and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology, which consists of the top 1% of IBM’s over 250,000 technical professionals. During her more than 35 years of experience, Dr. Johnson has received numerous technical and professional awards and is a Master Inventor with over 40 patents issued and pending.
“We are excited to have Dr. Johnson join our Board of Directors ‑ she is an inspirational leader and trailblazer,” said José S. Suquet, Chairman of the Board and CEO of PALIG. “Dr. Johnson’s deep technological and digital expertise will be a tremendous asset to the PALIG Board. Her innovative thinking, purpose‑driven focus and extensive experience working with multinational organizations will further strengthen the board, by offering savvy perspectives and digitally‑driven guidance as we continue to execute our long‑term growth strategy and prepare PALIG for the future.”
During her time at IBM, Dr. Johnson was part of the design team that developed the prototype for IBM’s world‑famous chess machine. She has also authored and co‑authored over 80 publications, is Editor‑in‑Chief of the book Performance Tuning for Linux Servers, and is author of Inspirational Nuggets, Inspirational Nuggets Too, and GREGORY: The Life of a Lupus Warrior.
Dr. Johnson earned B.S. (summa cum laude), M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering, from Southern University, Stanford University, and Rice University, respectively. She is the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in computer engineering in the United States and was recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Important Blacks in Technology (2007‑2010). She is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and an IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Engineer.