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Darrin Kirby
Chief Information Officer
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Darrin Kirby is best known for understanding the difference between investing in technology for technology's sake and
investing in technology for business' sake. He is an expert in finding that balance and helping management make
the right technical decisions.
Darrin prides himself in staying in touch with current technology and his ability to make the right technical decision
not just the safe one. He maintains a wide variety of skill sets found on his Pre Al Boenker Resume and coined the
phrase "Hands-on working CIO".
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Darrin Kirby joined the Al Boenker Insurance Agency team in full time position on Feb. 1, 1997. Mr. Al Boenker
recruited Darrin to come on staff and start a computer outsourcing business DBA/Al Boenker Computer Services. Al's
aggressive approach of investing in technology refocused the efforts of Al Boenker Computer Services to pour most of
its resources into keeping Al Boenker Insurance on cutting edge of technology. When Darrin started with the agency, the
independent insurance industry was about 10 years behind the rest of the world. Darrin's challenge has been to bring
this agency up to current technology standards in spite of where the rest of the industry was going/staying. Darrin has
successfully crossed those hurdles and Al Boenker Insurance is widely known as one of the most technically advanced
independent insurance agencies in the country. Darrin was able to transform a typical agency into a true call center
operation. Al Boenker Insurance was even used as the case study for Lucent/Avaya employee training for call center applications.
Al Boenker Insurance Agency, Inc. became a show case client for Lucent / Avaya. Darrin has brought about automation
techniques that have streamlined and optimized the agency processes. Using the limited industry tools Darrin has been
able to capitalize on their strengths while finding ways around their weaknesses. On regular occasion he has been told
you can't do that only to be defied by Darrin's ability to over come what appears to be impossible. In the realm
of Insurance Technology Darrin's advice is a highly sought after commodity that few receive the full benefit of.
When asked about Al Boenker Insurance Agency's technology and business success Darrin will quote "We're just getting started".
Darrin Kirby took his first steps in the technology business at American Airlines in 1989. He started out at what would be
considered the lowest entry-level position. His main tasks were keeping giant industry-strength laser printers full of toner
and paper and keeping the big industrial dot matrix printers full of paper. He worked the midnight shift bursting and trimming
the printouts. He spent some of the night delivering the critical reports through out the company campus, because the mailroom
was not open at night.
The department received the first PC's and the term LAN was just starting to be introduced. He spent any extra time hacking
around on the new PC's and soon found he had a natural talent and aptitude for using these new little computers.
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Since that time Darrin has worked for a long list of fortune 500 companies and many more small businesses.
He has acquired a vast amount of experience in realm of technology. He is considered an expert in technology implementation. Early in his career
he was considered one of the top Novell / Windows guys in the world. If he wasn't the best there were none better. He has worked
with some of the top names in the business. He has associations with certain individuals mentioned the popular book Hacking Exposed.
Darrin Kirby's name can be found in the acknowledgement section of John Albritton's book Cisco IOS Essentials that is referred to by
the NSA's unclassified document "Router Security Configuration Guide". Darrin was involved in the early stages of World Wide Web boom
and laughs as he makes the claim that his corporation invented the dots now popular to use when printing phone numbers (817.555.5555).
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Darrin Kirby spent two different stints at American Airlines and AMR subsidiary companies. He had the privilege of being one the top
hands-on guys at the largest most profitable award winning call centers in the world. He was exposed to a wide variety of systems and
was able to capitalize on the experience he gained. During his second stint he became the senior network engineer for TeleService
Resources where he was tasked with both solving internal network issues as well as finding the best connectivity solutions for the high
profile companies that used the call center services. Darrin experienced a great amount of success through a long list of projects and
completed his final stint at American Airlines with the build-out of a large new state of the art call center designed for American Express.
Darrin worked with American Express representatives to gather and compile the necessary specifications needed for this high profile project.
Darrin was placed in charge of all the data and connectivity portions of this project. Through his innovative, hands-on, can-do efforts,
Darrin was able to bring these two corporate giants together on-time and on-budget in a way only Darrin could do.
Between American Airlines stints Darrin worked as a consultant for a computer-consulting firm. Darrin chalked up even more experience
working for companies ranging from small mom and pop shops to fortune 500 empires. He developed solutions, solved problems that no one
else could solve for companies like McCaw Cellular's MetroCell, Score Baseball Cards, and Al Boenker Insurance. During this time is when
Darrin first met Al Boenker and began developing a rapport that has turned into a long lasting business relationship.
During Darrin's second stint at American Airlines he started his own consulting company TRIDARR Computer Networking. Armed with the skills
to be a one-stop-shop technical expert Darrin developed a profitable client base that included Al Boenker Insurance Agency, Inc.
When asked to help start a new dot-com Darrin made the choice to leave American Airlines' sister company TeleService Resources. Darrin
started down the dot-com path as CIO for WebTour, Inc. WebTour developed a web-based system for marketing apartments on the Internet.
WebTour also developed websites for small companies. Later he sold the www.webtour.com domain name to the largest travel agency in S. Korea.
He increased his negotiation skills and added a little international business experience.
As if Darrin's own company and partnership in WebTour wasn't enough, he and a couple of cohorts took on another project. Burlington Northern
Railroad went on a mission to find the best of the best to help in their merger with SantaFe Railroad. After an exhaustive search, Darrin and
his partners were selected to transition BNSF's Data Network Management Center from Minneapolis/St Paul, MN to Fort Worth, TX.
At the end of the Burlington Northern SantaFe contract, Darrin found himself talking with Mr. Al Boenker about joining the Al Boenker Insurance
Team. After careful consideration, he made the decision to roll all of his efforts underneath the Al Boenker Insurance Agency, Inc. umbrella.
This has thus far been the most challenging, rewarding, and fun-filled decision of his career.
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