Upcoming Events:

1 Philip Howell has been appointed CEO and superintendent of financial services for the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO). FSCO regulates the province’s insurance industry. Howell most recently served as the deputy minister of economic development for the Ontario government. He also held posts with the province’s Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Finance. Howell succeeds Bob Christie, who served as FSCO’s CEO and superintendent since 2005.

2 The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) and SCM Risk Management Services have partnered to develop and introduce an insurance-to-value (ITV) software solution for Ontario insurance brokers and their clients. Independent Brokers Resources Inc. (IBRI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBAO, has committed Cdn$150,000 to the research and development of the ITV indexing tool. The portfolio indexing utility, the development of which began in May 2009, will be designed to update existing personal property portfolios to accurate claim replacement costs levels and reevaluate/ update portfolios at the time of renewal. The ultimate objective is to develop an accurate square footage replacement cost value for every property in Canada, an IBAO release says. RMS will use existing proprietary residential inspection and claims databases and other data sources, combined with geographical information services technology, to create an indexing engine to calculate accurate inflation or deflation factors. The new software will be designed to enhance ITV utilities currently being used by insurance brokers across Canada.

3 Cunningham Lindsey has announced a series of executive level appointments. John Seyler [3a] has been appointed director of specialty services, Canadian operations of the company. Prior to the post, he was the director of transportation fleet services in London, Ontario. Martin Moran [3b] has been appointed assistant vice president of Cunningham Lindsey, Desktop Solutions — a newly created position. Moran was most recently district manager for the Edmonton office. Lisa McCabe has been appointed assistant vice president, Western operations. She is now responsible for overseeing branch operations in Western Canada. Stephanie Page has been appointed district manager for Edmonton effective Sept. 1. She joined the company in March 2008 as a senior adjuster and will now be responsible for growing and developing operations and relationships in the Edmonton region.

4 Policy Works Inc. has released an updated version of its commercial management system that allows single sign-on functionality with participating Certified Data Exchange Partners insurer portals. When Policy Works users click the ‘Portal’ button on the main toolbar, a drop-down menu appears with all of Policy Works’ CDEP partners. One click on a partner brings the user directly into the insurer’s portal landing page, bypassing the login prompt by securely signing-in the user. The new release also brings three new CDEPs into the fold. These include: The Economical Insurance Group, its subsidiary La compagnie d’assurance Missisquoi and L’Unique assurances generales inc.

5 Brendan Lanigan has joined Blouin Dunn LLP as a first-year lawyer. Having articled with the firm since June 2008, Lanigan has worked in many areas of insurance defence litigation and specializes in products liability, motor vehicle and occupiers liability cases. He is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and Canadian Defence Lawyers.

6 Lambert Morvan has been appointed chief agent for Canada and senior vice president of Odyssey Re. Morvan has served in senior management and actuarial positions within the Fairfax group of companies, most recently with Northbridge Financial Corporation. He has more than 12 years’ experience in the Canadian insurance and reinsurance market.

7 Compu-Quote has launched Co-Parison Report for the Web. The new release is designed to allow insurers keep on top of the latest auto changes in the free-market auto provinces. Insurers across Canada can share driver profiles, location and carrier lists, thus reducing duplicate efforts. Users can quote more locations and companies, import custom location lists and change provinces on the fly, a release says. The ‘Co-Parif’ functionality makes it even simpler for users to simulate rate changes on various coverages and study the resultant impact on competitive positions.

8 Canpro Global Services, a Canadian security training solutions company, and GI Security of India, a security services company in India, have entered into a joint venture agreement called Canpro-GI Security. The agreement evolved out of a realization that there is a need for world-class training of security guards to combat increasing modern day terror, according to a release. The joint venture will set up security guard training institutes throughout India. The first training centres are scheduled to be operational at the beginning of October in both Kolkata and Delhi.

9 The Ontario Bar Association (OBA) has honoured Benjamin Zarnett with the 2009 OBA Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation. Zarnett will receive the award at the gala dinner to be held on Oct. 5 in Toronto. He is a partner in the Litigation Group at Goodmans LLP. His practice focuses on civil litigation, with a special emphasis on commercial cases involving public and private companies, financial institutions and governments.

10 The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) has formed a committee to increase its profile in the standards and practices arena and make it the primary resource in shaping and developing risk management standards. Carol A. Fox, past chair of RIMS ERM development committee, will chair the RIMS standards and practices committee. Wayne L. Salen, member of RIMS board of directors, serves as the first board liaison for the committee. Initial tasks of the committee include educating risk managers and organizations on various risk management standards, including ISO 31000 and Guide 73, a release says. “RIMS will now be in a position to more significantly influence the development of risk management- related standards and practices,” Salen said in the release. “For example, RIMS was actively involved in the development of the ISO 31000-Risk Management Principles and Guidelines through the U. S. technical advisory group, which was recently adopted.”