Topic
Professional Development
Voices of P&C women
March 7, 2022 by David GambrillHappy International Women’s Day, 2022. To commemorate the occasion, Canadian Underwriter has reached out to 20 women leaders in the P&C industry. We talked to them about how they got into the industry and what obstacles women may face while trying to…
Behind the P&C industry’s record-setting grad cohort
March 3, 2022 by Alyssa DiSabatinoThe Insurance Institute of Canada is celebrating 1,201 Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) graduates this year, the highest number of graduates in any year since it was established in 1899. “In a typical year, we graduate about 900 to 1,000…
Job opening: Lead this global Top 3 brokerage’s Canadian operation
October 14, 2021 by Greg MeckbachIf you think you have what it takes to lead Willis Towers Watson’s Canadian corporate risk and brokerage business, the job is open and it’s not too late to apply. “We’re currently interviewing,” said Ofelia Isabel, managing director, Toronto market…
BFL founder donates $500K towards women leadership centre
May 27, 2021 by David GambrillBFL Canada’s founder, Barry F. Lorenzetti, is giving $500,000 to establish the Barry F. Lorenzetti Centre for Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership at Concordia University in Montreal and to endow research grants and scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students. “Entrepreneurship involving…
How to build empathetic managers for the hybrid workplace
April 16, 2021 by David GambrillCanadian property and casualty insurance industry leaders have often talked about the importance of managing with empathy during the pandemic, but empathic managers will become even more valuable in the hybrid workplaces that are expected to emerge after the pandemic…
Valérie Lavoie, Desjardins General Insurance Group
March 10, 2021 by Greg MeckbachValérie Lavoie, President, Chief Operating Officer, Desjardins General Insurance Group Family responsibilities and unconscious biases are among factors that can hold women back from advancing into the C-suite, says Valérie Lavoie, a senior executive with Canada’s second-largest P&C insurance carrier.…
What the future underwriter will look like
March 1, 2021 by David GambrillUnderwriters of the future are going to look a lot more like technology trailblazers, data pioneers, dealmakers, portfolio optimizers, and risk detectives, according to a new report by Deloitte. “To remain competitive, insurers should accelerate underwriting transformation,” Deloitte states in…
Risk management lessons from the governor general’s resignation
January 26, 2021 by Greg MeckbachIf a commercial client has any inklings of a toxic workplace, an independent investigation is one way of managing reputational and liability risk, an expert says. The resignations last week of Governor General Julie Payette and her secretary may have…
Western Perspective
December 4, 2020 Greg Meckbach, Associate EditorMeet Clint Smith, chief operating officer of Manitoba-based Andrew Agencies Ltd., which recently acquired several brokerages in Saskatchewan. Smith gave us his take on the challenges brokers face in Western Canada, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the inside…
How ‘extra steps’ can make for a bad customer experience
October 27, 2020 by Greg MeckbachBrokers who are concerned about carriers having “too direct” of a relationship with the broker’s customers should consider what service those customers are expecting, an industry consultant suggests. “As an industry, we have a number of places where we have…
Finding that swagger
October 20, 2020 Adam Malik, Managing EditorInsurance is a cool industry, but not enough people know it. John McNeil, program coordinator and full-time professor at Humber College’s insurance management program, explains how to change that – As told to Adam Malik We as an…
How to survive a pandemic
October 20, 2020 Rob Vosseler, Executive Vice President, Principal Broker, Union Power Insurance Brokers Inc.A broker principal shares his story about how his fledgling brokerage managed to navigate its way through the various business disruptions caused by COVID-19