Moves and Views

1 Greg Somerville (1) has been named Aviva Canada’s new president and CEO. Most recently executive vice president of broker distribution, Somerville has also served as executive vice president of claims and reinsurance, responsible for the technical and strategic direction of Aviva Canada’s national claims and reinsurance operations. Prior to joining Aviva Canada in 1992, he worked for State Farm and Liberty Mutual, notes Aviva Canada. In September, Aviva Canada announced Maurice Tulloch, then president and CEO, would lead Aviva U.K. & Ireland General Insurance. Tulloch’s appointment is subject to regulatory approval. 

2 SCM Risk Management Services Canada (RMS) announced in October that Dianna Fioravanti (2), formerly with Economical Insurance, is the company’s new senior vice president of national sales and business development. Fioravanti will be based in Markham, Ontario. Until last May, she was Economical Insurance’s vice president of sales, distribution and underwriting operations, and had earlier served as vice president of commercial insurance. Services provided by RMS, owned by Edmonton-based SCM Insurance Services, include residential and commercial inspections, as well as post-loss appraisals.

3 Property and casualty insurance brokerage BrokerLink recently added three new full-service, Ottawa-area brokerages – Baizana Insurance Brokers, Pentagon Insurance Brokers and Lalonde Insurance Brokers – to its network of offices in Ontario. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. John Baizana (3a), current president of Baizana Insurance Brokers, will be joining BrokerLink as regional branch manager for Ottawa-area operations. “The addition of these three insurance brokerages is a natural extension of our strategy to expand our offering to Ottawa-region consumers,” says Paul Meyer (3b), head of the Ontario Region at BrokerLink. The brokerages will be integrated into BrokerLink, bringing the network of offices in Ontario and Alberta to 66. BrokerLink companies, including Canada Brokerlink Inc., Canada Brokerlink (Ontario) Inc. and Canada Brokerlink Financial Inc., are subsidiaries of Intact Financial Corporation.

4 The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) has announced it has certified Northbridge Insurance for eDocs. Several brokers and carriers have already implemented CSIO’s Extensible Markup Language (XML) eDocs, but the centre reported in early October that Northbridge is the first carrier to obtain CSIO Certification for eDocs. The eDocs standard saves brokers time, CSIO reports, because it allows them to download policy documents directly from a carrier’s computer system to a broker management system (BMS), and to store those documents in their BMS without manual intervention. XML eDocs has been available to CSIO members since March 2012. CSIO has announced eDocs will be the first business activity available for certification as part of its standards certification program.

5 Claims adjusting firm Cunningham Lindsey has named Terry O’Reilly (5) as its new assistant vice president, Central Region for Canada. Previously manager of the branch office in Hamilton, Ontario, O’Reilly’s appointment “finalizes the company’s restructuring to three operational regions – West Central, and Quebec & Atlantic,” the company notes. The firm’s services in Canada include commercial property and liability, personal lines, transportation fleet and environmental.

6 Opta Information Intelligence, owned by Edmonton-based SCM Insurance Services, has launched a new peril-based scoring tool, aimed at determining the relative likelihood and severity of claims at a property location. Peril Score, designed to help insurers identify properties that are more at risk for specific loss perils, makes predictions for specific perils and translates that information into a combined total loss-cost estimate and normalized score. The tool uses location-specific data assets, also employing advanced predictive analytics.

7 Frank Cowan Company, which offers specialized insurance programs, is providing clients a web-based weather monitoring and operations management platform. Called Snowman, the platform is being offered as part of a partnership between Frank Cowan and Baseline Telematics, a supplier of telematics-based solutions for the insurance industry. Snowman seeks to help municipalities, specifically in Ontario, meet legal requirements under the Minimum Maintenance Standards legislation. Municipalities are required to “monitor the weather, both current and forecast to occur in the next 24 hours, once every shift or three times per calendar day, whichever is more frequent.” Municipalities can be held accountable in award costs should they be found 1% negligent and other named defendants cannot fund the judgment, Frank Cowan notes.

8 Claims adjusting firm ClaimsPro Inc. has recently named Lorri Frederick (8) as the company’s executive vice president of operations. Frederick, previously with Cunningham Lindsey Canada, will work out of Toronto, notes a release from the company. ClaimsPro has more than 90 branches across the country.

9 The Guarantee Company of North America has launched a new business segment offering coverage for the transportation market, dubbed Guarantee Transportation Solution (GTS). The service includes a microsite and a mobile app called the Go-To Solution for brokers and customers to leverage expertise from several strategic partnerships in the transportation industry the insurer has formed for GTS. Among those partners is CargoNet, an offering for early cargo theft response; Carriers Edge, a driver training service; and some legal expense coverage through DAS. The program also includes a partnership with Crawford and Company (Canada). GTS is now available to customers in Ontario, Alberta and the Maritimes.

10 Jon Arnett (10) recently joined vehicle history report provider Carfax Inc. as general manager/managing director for Carfax Canada. Arnett’s previous positions have included director of product management/development for CarProof out of London, Ontario. “Arnett brings over a decade of automotive experience in Canada to Carfax, including time in the vehicle history industry,” notes Carfax. Its reports include title information, flood damage history, number of owners and accident indicators, like airbag deployments. Carfax’s data sources include provincial transportation departments, collision repair facilities, salvage auctions and insurance carriers.

11 The Insurance Institute of British Columbia (IIBC) has announced its 2013-2014 governing council. The new president is Jan Brownridge of Munich Reinsurance Company, who replaces Pierre Chavigny of Claimspro. The executive also includes Mark Francis, 1st vice president, academic division; Jennifer Perry, 2nd vice president, professional division; and Kerry McLaughlin, secretary/ treasurer. Other IIBC council members are: Wayne Coates, Vancouver Island chapter president; Debra Copeland, chair of marketing and communications; Sharon Knotts, chair of future directions; Lianne Crawford, chair of seminars; Manjit Biring, chair of education; Lynne Vetter, chair of events; and Janna Smart, chair of Okanagan.