Karen Gavan, Swiss Re board of directors and former president, CEO of Economical Insurance To reach a leadership position in the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry, women leadership hopefuls need to develop and hone their financial literacy skills, the…
Karen Gavan, former CEO of the first Canadian property and casualty insurer to start the demutualization process, is now on the board of directors of HSBC Canada. Gavan (pictured) was CEO of Waterloo, Ont.-based Economical Insurance from 2011 through 2016.…
Complacency about real risks, such as an earthquake affecting Eastern Canada, present a “huge opportunity” for insurance providers to educate consumers, a former Economical Insurance CEO said Monday. “Human beings really don’t like thinking about the bad things that could…
Wildfires that hit British Columbia earlier this year and that continue to affect California are among the effects of climate change, says Karen Gavan, former CEO of Waterloo, Ont.-based Economical Insurance. “Literally California has been burning all fall,” said Gavan,…
Economical Insurance’s recently-launched direct writer, Sonnet, is one example of “disruptive innovation” in the Canadian industry, a speaker told insurance professionals at a recent conference, though a senior executive of Economical suggested there is a “significant segment” of the market…
An Ontario court has appointed two committees to negotiate the allocation of benefits from a demutualization of Economical Insurance, the Waterloo, Ont.-based insurance carrier announced Friday. No federally regulated P&C insurers have demutualized yet. Canada did not have regulations allowing…
Economical Insurance has reported that gross written premiums (GWP) were up by 6.7% to $550.3 million in the third quarter of 2016 ending Sept. 30 from $515.9 million in Q3 2015. In the first nine months of 2016, GWP were…
Economical Insurance is expecting “significant growth” in its broker channel over the next five years, possibly 25% bigger than where it is today, outgoing president and CEO Karen Gavan said on Thursday during the 96th annual Insurance Brokers Association of…
Canada’s worst-ever insured natural disaster – the Fort McMurray wildfire – delivered a hard hit to the underwriting activity of Economical Insurance, contributing to a net income in the second quarter of 2016 of about half the prior-year quarter. Economical…
The board of directors of Economical Insurance announced on Wednesday that Rowan Saunders has been named president and CEO effective Nov. 1. Having served as president and CEO of RSA Canada since 2003, Saunders (pictured right) will “further the vision…
Economical Insurance’s new direct channel – part of an updated corporate strategy to position the company as among the top property and casualty insurers in the country – went live Monday morning. Economical Insurance has activated multi-channel distribution with the…
Economical Insurance’s “journey towards becoming a strong, Canadian, independent public company is now well under way,” a leg of which will include a strategic expansion into the direct-to-consumer market, president and CEO Karen Gavan said during the mutual’s Annual General…