American International Group Inc., the largest commercial insurer in the U.S. and Canada, named Michael Brady to the new post of chief technology officer as Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock works to modernize the company.

Brady worked most recently as head of infrastructure at Kaiser Permanente, the nonprofit health insurer and hospital operator, according to a memo from AIG Chief Information Officer Phil Fasano. At AIG, he’ll work with technology companies and concentrate on applications development.

“Mike’s first priority will be to focus on immediate improvements to our performance, making sure that our employees’ work experience is as productive and free of technological obstacles as possible,” according to the memo from Fasano, who joined last year from Kaiser and will supervise Brady.

Hancock has worked to simplify the insurer since taking over as CEO in September. He brought on Fasano, also from Kaiser, and said in February that staff would switch to Apple Inc. iPhones from BlackBerry Ltd. devices. The CEO said in a letter last month that he might sell some operations.

“From a conglomerate of businesses, largely operated as silos, to a core group of insurancebusinesses run by a central leadership team, AIG has greatly simplified and de-risked its structure over the past several years,” Hancock said in March in his annual letter to shareholders.

Brady previously led infrastructure teams at companies including Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch, according to the memo.