Travelers — Power Map

Travelers Opal 2026 Stage: Contracts Value: $309K ($500K upside) Close: 2026-04-25 Updated: 2026-03-16
Champion
Economic Buyer
Technical
Blocker / Gatekeeper
Unknown / Gap
Partner
Optimizely
Executive & Signature Authority
Economic Buyer
Jim O'Brien ASSUMED
Business Insurance + Digital Marketing Analytics
Spans two budget paths. Betsey: "good one to have on our side." Shafkat exec meeting occurred ~late Feb — outcome TBC; confirm whether vendor approval was raised.
Exec Sponsor
Andrew Jaworski ASSUMED
Dave Morgan's boss (recently relo'd CO → CT)
Key lever for vendor approval acceleration. Patrick West knows him personally. Jen engaging via Patrick West. Alan Schnitzer (CEO-level) took Dave's calendar for management committee lunch Wed 3/18 — signals Dave has senior leadership visibility.
Senior Stakeholder
Deb Breines
Senior stakeholder (exact role unknown)
Attended 2/12 debrief — positive buying signal. Possibly facilitated by Jim O'Brien or Shafkat. Role and authority still need discovery.
Signatory / Technology CFO
Deborah Strong
Technology CFO
Signed 2025 renewal and upsell. Known signatory with prior Optimizely deal history. No direct engagement yet on this deal. Contract review cycle: submit 8th, reviewed 25th. Matt's Y1→Y2 rollover offer requires CFO approval.
Decision Orchestration & Budget
Gatekeeper / Decision Orchestrator
Dave Morgan
Use Case / ROI Documentation Lead
Drives 4 concurrent workstreams: legal, TechGov, ROI, dollar threshold. $618K pricing triggered "major league sticker shock" (3/13). Benchmarking Opal against raw LLM costs — has direct Anthropic/OpenAI/Gemini agreements. Plans to take pricing to internal AI group. Compares 12-user Opal spend against 12,000-user Atlassian AI spend. Alan Schnitzer took Dave's calendar for management committee lunch Wed 3/18.
Champions (Actively Selling Internally)
Primary Champion
Betsey Shannon
Primary Marketing Owner
Opal in OKRs "many, many times." Coordinating workshops, generated 22 use case ideas. Validating ROI spreadsheet row-by-row with Dave. Risk: intimidated by Dave — cannot push in his domain.
Internal Advocate
Ryan Lee
Director, Product Owner (Public Websites)
Analytics agents "feel powerful." Generating new use case ideas unprompted (bulk find-and-replace, page ownership). Unclear weight with Dave.
Directors & Technical Evaluators
Technical Evaluator
Stephanie Magalhaes
Director, Publishing & Web Strategy
Supportive on publishing use cases. Cautious on compliance — "more conversations... connect with all the legal folks."
Director
Kim Marques
Director, Publishing & Web Strategy
Behavioral insights: "that detailed level stuff... we're really missing." Active workshop participant. Team building custom CMS12 tooling — 90%+ of use cases confirmed on CMS12 (per 3/5).
Technical
Aaron Hatfield
Technical (Graph/CMS)
Provided Graph adoption context at 1/22 workshop. Per 3/5: 90%+ of use cases on CMS12 — custom tooling being built by Kim's team, no CMS13 migration required. Dave received this as "good news."
User Champions (Publishers)
User Champion
Matt Wildman
Publisher
Highly engaged on Approval Pack Builder. Multi-page PDF = 2/3 of his work. Page ownership taxonomy advocate.
User Advocate
Caroline Moore
Publisher
Accessibility top of mind (lawsuit risk). Intra-site search analysis for content gap identification.
Influencer
Adrienne Johnsen
Publisher
Content types expertise. Flagged Dan Matthews competing fix for advanced preview generator.

Blockers & Unknowns

Commercial Negotiator Updated 3/13
Yolanda Villa-Icea
Legal Counsel · YVILLAIC@travelers.com
Shifted from POC blocker to commercial negotiator (per 3/13). Raised credit underutilization risk, proposed monitoring period + repricing, countered Matt's Y1→Y2 rollover with Y3 credit against final invoice. Dave sent comments on counsel's red lines 3/12; attorney meeting next week. Now negotiating terms, not blocking.
Blocker — Process
Architecture Review Board
AI Vendor Approval Committee
Backlogged with AI approvals. A $0 POC started in October still not through. No named contacts. Business case strength is the stated accelerator. Jaworski and Jim O'Brien exec alignment are the top-down levers.
Procurement Lead
Eric Drouin
Procurement Lead
Identified as procurement lead. Credit rollover (use-it-or-lose-it) is a non-starter. FDE services classification (services vs. platform) may trigger separate SOW template. Prepare term alternatives and tiered commitment structure before engagement. Coordinate with Deborah Strong (signatory) on final contract structure.
Signatory
Deborah Strong
Technology CFO
Signed 2025 renewal and upsell. Confirm she remains signatory for this deal — scope and dollar amount differ from renewal. Contract review cycle: submit by 8th, reviewed 25th. Matt's Y1→Y2 rollover requires her approval.

Signature Path

1
Budget
Dave Morgan
Budget not yet allocated. $618K pricing presented 3/13 — "major league sticker shock." Benchmarking against internal AI group. Threshold unknown — may trigger higher path.
2
IT / Security
Not identified
TechGov complete (Opti: Kim Pede). Travelers-side reviewer unknown. Arch review in flight.
3
Legal
Yolanda Villa-Icea
Shifted to commercial negotiator 3/13. Dave sent redline comments 3/12; attorney meeting next week. Raised underutilization risk & Y3 credit counter.
4
Procurement
Eric Drouin
Credit rollover = non-starter. FDE classification may trigger separate SOW. Prep tiered/phased term alternatives before engagement.
5
Exec Sign-off
Andrew Jaworski ASSUMED
Via Patrick West intro. Alan Schnitzer (CEO-level) took Dave's calendar 3/18.
6
Signature
Deborah Strong
Technology CFO. Signed 2025 renewal/upsell. Submit by April 10 for April 25 CIO/CFO review.

Contract Review Cycle Updated 3/16

Submission Deadline
8th of the month
Per Dave (3/5 follow-up). April 10 submission target for April 25 CIO/CFO review. Contract runs separately from renewal anniversary (March 31) per Yolanda.
Review Date
25th of the month
Earliest signing: early April. March close confirmed dead. April 25 is the new target. Hartford in-person March 18 (Matt + Kevin).
Key Implication
Miss April 10 = May at earliest
Legal redlines actively exchanging — Dave sent comments 3/12, attorney meeting next week. Yolanda now negotiating commercial terms, not blocking.

Informal Influence Network

Betsey Shannon → defers to → Dave Morgan on commercial/procurement. She negotiated workshop framing around his preferences. Cannot push in his domain — cross-lane pressure backfires.
Dave Morgan → reports to → Andrew Jaworski. Jaworski aware of Dave's interpersonal challenges. The right lever for acceleration.
Jim O'Brien spans digital marketing + business insurance — two distinct budget paths. Betsey endorsed him as an ally. Publicis Sapient bridges Jim ↔ Dave. Shafkat meeting ~late Feb — outcome TBC.
Eric Markson has strong Dave Morgan relationship — preferred channel. Caution: info shared about Dave to certain contacts may get back to him.
Publicis Sapient (Harsh, Andrew Lin) are "glue" between Jim O'Brien and Dave Morgan. Andrew Lin on paternity leave ~Feb 21 — need alternative PS contact. Harsh remains active.
Anthropic/Claude deeply embedded at Travelers — Dave: "we use a lot of Claude" (3/5). OCP (Optimizely Connect Platform) is the Opal-to-Claude integration answer. Dave wants his architect briefed; Conor connecting with Optimizely PM.
Dan Matthews (Expert Services) attempting to fix Workfront advanced preview generator — competing internal solution to Approval Pack Builder. Monitor.
Dave benchmarking Opal against raw LLM costs (per 3/13) — has direct agreements with Anthropic, OpenAI, and knows Opal uses Gemini. Plans to take pricing to internal AI group for market comparison. Compares 12-user Opal spend against 12,000-user Atlassian AI spend. Price competition is against raw model access, not products. New 3/13
Yolanda shifted from POC blocker to commercial negotiator (per 3/13) — raised underutilization risk, proposed monitoring period, countered rollover offer with Y3 credit against final invoice. Positive engagement shift — now negotiating terms rather than delaying commitment. New 3/13
Alan Schnitzer (CEO-level) took Dave's calendar for management committee lunch Wednesday 3/18 — limits Dave's Hartford availability to 11-12 PM only. Signals Dave has senior leadership visibility. New 3/13

Partners & Optimizely Team

Partner — PS
Harsh
PS Data Strategist (embedded)
Jim O'Brien path. GEO/AEO "shovel ready" proposal. Active — use as bridge contact while Andrew Lin on leave.
Partner — PS
Andrew Lin
PS Engagement Lead (5yr at Trav.)
On paternity leave ~Feb 21. Need alternative PS contact for near-term coordination.
AE (Account Owner)
Jen Oliver
Account Executive
Owns exec outreach, Jaworski intro (via Patrick West), legal triage. Arrange Shaf technical call for orchestration value justification.
Overlay
Conor Leary
Opal Specialist
Prepare orchestration value justification (harness, tooling, FDE, support) before Hartford 3/18. Counter raw LLM benchmarking. OCP/architect briefing.
Exec Bridge
Shafkat
Optimizely Exec
Met Jim O'Brien ~late Feb. Confirm outcome and whether vendor approval was discussed.
Strategy
Mark Wakelin
Strategy & Value Consulting
54% efficiency benchmark adopted — 31K hours, 16.3 FTEs, $2.47M savings at $80/hr. Dave/Betsey validating row-by-row.
TechGov
Kim Pede
Technical Governance (Opti)
Submitted and cleared TechGov questions. Architecture review is separate Travelers-side process.
VP, Regulated
Richard Cockshott
VP, Regulated Industries
FSI vertical exec presence. Workshop participant. Pushed back on Yolanda's POC/POT at 3/5 — Yolanda now negotiating commercially (positive shift).
Commercial
Matt
Commercial Lead
Presented $618K/year pricing 3/13. Offered Y1→Y2 credit rollover (needs CFO approval). Hartford in-person 3/18 with Kevin. New

Map Gaps

✓ Who literally signs the contract?
RESOLVED: Deborah Strong, Technology CFO. Signed 2025 renewal and upsell.
Confirm she remains signatory — scope and dollar amount differ from renewal.
Dollar approval thresholds?
$309K could be above autonomous approval ceiling, triggering slower path. Dave flagged thresholds (2/19) but did not disclose amounts. Deal is $309K base / $500K upside — $618K pricing presented 3/13.
Surface during pricing presentation — "at this dollar amount, does this stay within your team's approval authority?"
✓ Procurement lead name?
RESOLVED: Eric Drouin identified as procurement lead.
Prepare tiered/phased term alternatives and credit rollover alternatives before Eric Drouin engagement.
Architecture review board contacts?
No visibility into who reviews, where it stands, or how to accelerate. #1 critical path blocker.
Jaworski path (via Patrick West) is the discovery mechanism. Jim O'Brien may have visibility from business insurance side.
Legal redline scope?
Yolanda Villa-Icea identified. Dave sent comments on counsel's red lines 3/12; attorney meeting next week. Yolanda now negotiating commercially — positive shift from POC push. Timeline slipped twice previously.
Jen receives redlines ~3/19. Triage immediately. Prepare rollover + Y3 credit terms for CFO approval.
Travelers-side IT/arch reviewer?
TechGov handled by Kim Pede (Optimizely). Who on Travelers' side owns architecture/vendor approval? No named contact.
Ask Dave: "Who on your architecture review team is handling the Opal vendor approval?"
Deb Breines's exact role?
Attended 2/12 as senior stakeholder — could be a sponsor or oversight. Need to know if she's a lever or a checkpoint.
Ask Betsey: "What's Deb's role in the approval process?"
Jim O'Brien exec meeting outcome?
Shafkat met Jim O'Brien ~late Feb. Unknown whether vendor approval acceleration was raised.
Confirm with Shafkat. If not raised, determine whether follow-up is appropriate or if Jaworski path is sufficient.
Andrew Jaworski intro status?
Jen engaging via Patrick West. Introduction status unknown. Critical for vendor approval unblocking.
Jen/Conor confirm. If not done, re-engage Patrick West: "April close at risk if vendor approval clarity missing."
Last Updated: 2026-03-16 — INTERNAL USE ONLY