Moves & Views (August 01, 2008)

1 The National Insurance Conference of Canada (NICC) has chosen Women in Insurance Cancer Crusade (WICC Ontario and WICC Quebec) as its official charity. As part of this partnership, WICC will hold a fundraising silent auction at the conference. Also, NICC will make a donation to WICC on behalf of each speaker and moderator at the conference. Finally, WICC’s honorary chairman, Claude Dussault, will deliver an address to conference delegates about WICC’s important activities in the area of cancer research. “As NICC attracts leaders of Canada’s insurance industry, it is fitting that we have chosen to support WICC, one of the industry’s premier causes,” says NICC president and CEO Joel Baker. The conference will be held at the Hilton Lac-Learny Hotel in Gatineau, Quebec, from Oct. 1 to Oct. 3.

2 The Automotive Refinish division of PPG Canada Inc. has hired Stan Siemens [2a] to serve as business development manager for Western Canada and Paul Weeks [2b] as the territory manager of British Columbia. Siemens will be responsible for managing and developing relationships with multi-shop operators and key accounts from Manitoba to B. C. His career spans 34 years in the automotive refinish industry, including technical, training and sales. Weeks will be responsible for managing Nexa Autocolor accounts in British Columbia. His experience is international: he spent the first 20 years of his career in the United Kingdom, working his way up from the position of sales representative to sales director for a multi-line distributor in England. Since moving to Canada four years ago, Weeks has worked in a collision repair centre in Saskatchewan.

3 Stephen J. Mallory [3] has been appointed a member of the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) by industry minister Jim Prentice, the minister responsible for the SCC. “I am very pleased to welcome Mr. Stephen J. Mallory to the SCC, and we look forward to his contribution to the board,” Prentice said in a release. “There is no doubt his insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide the SCC in the years ahead.” Mallory has more than 27 years of sales, management and service leadership experience within the insurance industry. In 2007, he founded the Directors Global Insurance Brokers Ltd., which focuses on providing risk management services to corporate clients.

4 Aon Reed Stenhouse’s Global Rapid Response program saw its Canadian launch during the 2008 Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) conference in San Diego, California. The program is designed to provide a guaranteed on-site evaluation of a major property loss within 72 hours at any location around the globe. In addition, it provides: 40 hours of consultative business recovery and loss mitigation guidance; co-ordination of all emergency and temporary repairs/restoration procedures and vendors; preliminary reports estimating the total direct and indirect financial exposures and overall property claims; and real-time access to all claim documentation and digital photographs. An insurance policy could cover the fees associated with Rapid Response. The service is available to non-Aon clients as well.

5 York Fire & Casualty Insurance has appointed Lori Corrigan [5] to the position of vice president and chief operating officer. Corrigan brings to the post more than 20 years of insurance industry experience, from both a company and broker perspective, says a York Fire release. Her senior management experience spans marketing, claims and underwriting. In her new position, she will be accountable for maintaining and shaping the operational and strategic direction of York Fire. “Ms. Corrigan’s promotion recognizes the material contribution she has made to the leadership and direction of the company since joining the York Fire team in the fall of 2007,” said York Fire president and CEO Colin Simpson.

6 CARSTAR Automotive Canada raised more than Cdn$80,000 for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) through its 5th annual ‘Soaps it Up!’ national car wash day. There were more than 55 car wash events across the country this year. CARSTAR volunteers, community groups and local CCFF chapters soaped up more than 4,000 vehicles during the event, which surpassed to last year’s fundraising total by Cdn$15,000. All of the money raised at the June 14 event will go to support the CCFF, local sports teams and community groups. The funds raised for the foundation will be directed toward research and treatment.

7 Brokers are now able to upload customer and property information directly into SaversCL, ING Insurance’s broker application, to request a quote using Keal Technology’s commercial management system comXP. Using Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) XML standards, Phase 1 of the data integration project announced earlier this year has been initiated, according to a Keal release. Expected to begin in 2008, Phase 2 will include uploading coverages from comXP to ING’s SaversCL. Later in the year, the integration will include downloads from SaversCL to comCP, creating a two-way data exchange, the release notes.

8 RSA is offering a second term of its Making Partner Program in January 2009. The program has been designed in conjunction with the Executive Development Centre at Queen’s School of Business to provide customized senior management leadership and business skills to RSA brokers. Brokers selected for the program show a high potential to become senior managers and aspire to “make partner” one day in their brokerages, says an RSA release. Sixteen RSA and CNS brokers from across Canada were selected for the first run of the program, which began with a week-long executive education course at Queen’s on June 8. Seventeen brokers have been selected for the second run of the program. “We were very impressed with the number of high-calibre applicants we received,” said Shawn DeSantis, RSA’s senior vice president of personal and commercial insurance.

9 The Women in Insurance Cancer Crusade (WICC) has received a Cdn$1,000 personal donation, symbolizing the first WICC Tribute donation. The WICC Tribute is an initiative developed by WICC Ontario, giving industry members a tangible and meaningful way to commemorate colleagues who lost the fight with cancer and honour those who continue to live and beat cancer every day. Paul Martin of KRG Insurance Group made a personal donation of Cdn$1,000 to honour fellow colleague Linda Hajekerou, who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. “What I liked about the Tribute,” says Martin, “is that it is not a memorial. I saw it as a chance for me to express my admiration of Linda’s approach to living her life even after having been diagnosed with cancer, and my appreciation for the group of people who are supporting her throughout her illness.” News of the donation spread; the KRG running team has also directed their sponsorships for the ING Ottawa Marathon to Hajekerou’s tribute. The team raised Cdn$16,500.

10 Stefan Lippe has been appointed deputy CEO of Swiss Re and has assumed the function of chief operating officer of Swiss Re, effective Sept. 1, 2008. Lippe will succeed board director Andreas Beerli, who intends to retire in mid-2009 after 20 years at Swiss Re. Lippe is currently head of (re)insurance products and member of the executive committee. He has 25 years of experience in reinsurance at Swiss Re. Brian Gray [10] will become chief underwriting officer, join the executive committee and report to the CEO. Currently head of property and specialty underwriting, Gray will ensure the continuity of Swiss Re’s underwriting standards and focus on quality and selective underwriting as a priority.