Former Marsh VP to lead Gore Mutual’s Ontario brokerages

Gore Mutual Insurance Company announced Wednesday it has hired a former Marsh Canada executive to lead the brokerages owned by Gore, which will now fall under a new subsidiary.

The new subsidiary, Insurance Store Inc., will operate three Ontario property and casualty insurance brokerages (Noble, Jamieson-Hilts, and St. Clair) owned by Cambridge, Ont.-based Gore Mutual.

Effective April 11, Insurance Store’s new president is Phil Dynes,  formerly Marsh Canada’s senior vice president and office head in London, Ont.

Phil Dynes, president, Insurance Store

With offices in Collingwood, Barrie, and Alliston, Noble was acquired in the summer of 2017.

The acquisition of Noble was about securing Noble within the broker channel, Gore Mutual CEO Heidi Sevcik said during the CEO Panel last October at the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario annual convention in Ottawa.

Insurance professionals talk about the “tremendous amount of change that’s impacting our industry and nowhere do we see it more than in the broker ownership changes, and quite often those changes lead to companies losing their books of business either to a competitor or to a direct or agent company,” Sevcik said during the IBAO Convention.

Shelley Vermeersch, who has worked for Noble Insurance for 25 years, stays on as managing director of Noble, Gore Mutual announced April 11.

Jamieson Hilts is based in Woodstock. St. Clair, based in Windsor, also has offices in Chatham and London.

Jamie Mingay, who started as a broker with Grant & Mingay Insurance Limited in 2002, is now managing director for St. Clair and Jamieson-Hilts.

Gore Mutual “plans to use Insurance Store to test new ways of providing modern customer experiences both online and in-store,” the company said in a release.