Moves and Views

1 Mark Blucher [1] has been named the interim president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), effective immediately and until further notice. Blucher’s most recent role was as ICBC’s senior vice president of insurance, a position he has held since joining the corporation in 2010. In that role, he was responsible for pricing, product design, product marketing and sales through ICBC’s broker network for both basic and optional insurance. As interim president and CEO, he will also work closely with ICBC’s Board of Directors and management to implement the corporation’s business plan, with a renewed focus on cost control and financial stability. Blucher has an extensive background in insurance and financial services, including holding a number of senior executive positions in New Zealand and Australia.

2 Scott Campbell [2a], formerly vice president of sales and distribution at Economical Insurance, is the company’s new vice president for Ontario. Campbell replaces Walter Leszkowicz [2b], who has left to pursue other endeavours, notes a statement from the company. The move is part of a new organizational structure at the company. “This new organizational structure will enhance collaboration across our organization and allow us to continue to delivery profitable growth as we move through our transformation and demutualization,” Karen Gavan, president and CEO of Economical Insurance, notes in the statement. Other executives changing roles include the following: Dianna Fioravanti [2c], formerly vice president of commercial insurance, is now vice president of sales, distribution and underwriting operations; Pamela Derksen [2d], past division vice president of Western General, is the company’s new vice president of commercial insurance; and Pamela Marson [2e], most recently operations manager of the Ottawa branch, has been named vice president of personal insurance. All three will now report to Gavan. Chief financial officer Phil Mather will assume the role of president for Economical Financial, taking on additional overall responsibilities for procurement and reinsurance. Chief risk officer Louis Doiron, who previously had responsibility for reinsurance, will continue to focus on enhancing enterprise-wide risk management. Also at the company, the new chief transformation officer is Jorge Arruda; chief actuary Linda Gross will assume additional responsibility for the management and approval of product and pricing policy; Rob Gow, vice president of the Western Region, will have oversight responsibility for Family Insurance Solutions and his existing tasks for business development and underwriting operations in the Western Region; and Chris Weber, formerly vice president of analytics, is now vice president of underwriting transformation, reporting to Arruda.

3 RSA Canada has announced the appointment of Tony Hayes [3] as its vice president of sales and marketing. Previously responsible for the national sales strategy of RSA’s personal and commercial insurance portfolios, the company reports Hayes will now lead the insurer’s sales, distribution and broker development strategies across all lines of business. This includes personal, commercial, and large and specialty lines. His main priorities will include helping maintain the insurer’s growth and profitability, as well as its broker and customer propositions, including assisting with the transition for Quebec brokers in light of RSA’s recently completed acquisition of L’Union Canadienne. Joining RSA in 2006 as a regional vice president for British Columbia, Hayes led the region through the acquisition of CNS. He will relocate from Vancouver to Toronto.

4 Martin-Eric Tremblay  began his new duties as Aviva Canada’s senior vice president for Quebec and Atlantic Canada on November 1. Over his 30 years in the insurance industry, Tremblay has acquired management and executive experience in marketing, underwriting, operations and actuarial. In his new role, he will lead broker support, customer service and underwriting expertise initiatives for Aviva’s Quebec and Atlantic regions. His last position was executive vice president of national P&C products and president of Quebec operations with the Co-operators Group Ltd. Tremblay succeeds Patricia St-Jean.

5 Policy Works Inc. has announced that its iPad application, Policy Works Producer, is now available to the software vendor’s customers for download from Apple’s App Store. Released on a limited basis in March, the app is designed for “commercial lines insurance producers working in the field,” as well as to automate brokers’ workflow and make certain tasks, such as measuring performance, more efficient. “After field testing with selected brokers, we’re quite excited to make Producer available to our entire customer base,” John Eastly, vice president at Policy Works, says in a company statement. To use the app, brokers must be Policy Works customers, be running the current version of the company’s commercial management desktop system, and have a valid Policy Works Cloud account.

6 Property and casualty insurance brokers whose clients are the participants of the looming $1-trillion, inter-generational transfer of wealth in Canada would be well-advised to take note of emerging risks, ERAssure advises in a discussion paper. Released October 11, The Independent Brokers’ Role and Responsibility within Changing Demographics and Emergent Risk addresses emerging risks for individuals responsible for administering estate assets (executors) to and from children of the baby boom generation. “An executor is legally responsible to locate, preserve and manage the estate assets,” notes the paper from of ERAssure, the registered operating name of Kitchener, Ontario-based Estate Risk Protection Plan Inc., a p&c insurance brokerage licensed in all Canadian provinces and territories, except Quebec. “The executor’s liability for estate matters often survives the distribution of the proceeds of the estate to the beneficiaries; just because the estate money is gone, doesn’t mean the executor’s liability is gone too,” the paper adds. “This emerging risk is creating a new insurance marketplace, which also means a significant new [errors and omissions] risk that brokers have not previously dealt with,” says Scot Dalton, CEO of ERAssure. “There are so many unknowns in the administration of an estate and you never know when things can go badly. Executor liability insurance is akin to having auto insurance,” suggests Ian Hull, founding partner of Hull and Hull LLP. ERAssure coverage is underwritten by Economical Insurance.

7 Burns & Wilcox has plans to open an office in Calgary within six months. “Oil and energy is something we are very interested in pursuing, to the extent that we have opened an office in St. John’s, Newfoundland,” Gary Hirst, executive director of Burns & Wilcox Canada, said during the recent Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) convention in Toronto. “We’re very interested in the actual equipment, drilling, we’re able to look at the accident benefits coverage for the crews that are out actually there drilling for the oil,” Hirst said. The Calgary office is expected to offer liability to surrounding property, bodily injury, pollution and environmental liability. Alan Kaufman, CEO of Burns & Wilcox Canada, said that in addition to energy insurance and property insurance for high-value homes, the company also plans to offer professional liability insurance in Canada to medical professionals, architects, engineers and lawyers.

8 Donald Brown [8] was recently welcomed as the director of national sales and marketing for Paul Davis Systems Canada, Ltd., a full-service mitigation, restoration and construction company. Brown, a certified sales professional (CSP with Distinction), assumes responsibilities for new business initiatives in the insurance and corporate/commercial market sectors, as well as management of the Paul Davis Systems network marketing plan and national account administration. He brings to his new position more than 25 years of experience in sales, business development, marketing, corporate communications and account management in several business sectors, including the insurance restoration industry. In 1999, Brown founded the ECHELON Oases Marketing Group, through which he has been providing diverse consultative services to a variety of business sectors and specifically to the insurance restoration industry.

9 DAS Canada, a specialty legal expense insurer, has announced the availability of a product to help protect small businesses from major legal costs associated with their commercial vehicles. DAStransport seeks to “fill the gaps in traditional commercial vehicle insurance coverage,” notes a company press release. It offers policyholders unlimited access to the insurer’s legal advice hotline. The policy covers businesses and drivers, as well as all necessary legal costs associated with traffic ticket defence, driver’s licence protection, auto contract disputes and commercial safety violations. The company reports coverage is available across the country for taxis, limousines, trucks, cars and any other commercial vehicles.

10 As of November 1, Crawford and Company Canada’s Contractor Connection repair network service became available to the United Kingdom-based R. J. Kiln and Co. Ltd., part of the Kiln Group, which provides international insurance and reinsurance underwriting. The managed repair vendor network – available to insurers for residential and property claims programs – offers services such as contract administration, repairs, estimate reviews and water mitigation. “The London markets are extremely important to us and Kiln is a leading Lloyd’s syndicate, underwriting property risks from coast to coast in Canada,” says John Sharoun, CEO of Crawford Canada. The Contractor Connection business continues to grow in Canada, Sharoun says, adding that clients using the program report positive results.