Hooper steps down from Economical Insurance board

Gerry Hooper, chair of the board of Economical Insurance from 2005 through 2016, has retired from the board of directors of Economical and is now chairman emeritus, officials with the property and casualty insurer said Monday.

Hooper, a former executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Schneider Foods, joined the board of directors of Waterloo, Ont.-based Economical in 1999.

“I know the time is right to retire,” Hooper told mutual policyholders Monday during Economical’s annual meeting at the Bingemans Centre in Kitchener. “My wife gave me a not-so-subtle message in a birthday card last week that said, ‘We need a lot more you and me time,’” Hooper quipped.

Gerry Hooper, chairman emeritus, Economical Insurance

Hooper thanked mutual policyholders Monday for their “overwhelming support during the proxy challenge” in 2010-11.

Hooper was referring to a proposal by a firm that had organized a minority of Economical mutual policyholders to remove the entire board of directors of Economical. That proposal was defeated in May of 2011. Court records indicate the firm that organized the dissident shareholders was controlled by a law firm that had previously advised The Westaim Corp. in connection with a “friendly attempt” by Westaim to acquire Economical. Westaim bought Jevco Insurance in 2010 from Kingsway Financial and sold Jevco in 2012 to Intact.

Economical’s current chair is John Bowey, a former Deloitte Canada chair who is also chair of Economical’s special committee on demutualization.

John Bowey, chair of the board, Economical Insurance

Economical Insurance’s board and mutual policyhholders voted in 2015 in favour of demutualization, making it the first federally-regulated P&C insurer in Canada to do so. Several steps remain before the firm can actually demutualize.

Economical plans to submit a conversion proposal next month to the federal Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Bowey noted Monday during the annual meeting.

Also on Monday, Bowey thanked both Hooper and David Wilson for their service on the board of directors. Wilson, a former CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission, retired from the board of directors in September 2017. Wilson had helped Manulife Financial through its demutualization when Wilson worked for the Scotia Capital.

Dan Fortin, Jay Forbes and Susan Monteith were elected Monday to three-year terms on Economical’s board of directors.

Fortin was president of IBM Canada until 2014. He is also on the board of directors of Toronto-based life insurer and annuity provider The Independent Order of Foresters. Forbes is a former president and CEO of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. Monteith has held senior leadership roles with National Bank Financial, Genuity Capital Markets and CIBC World Markets.