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July 31, 2009 | Last updated on October 1, 2024
5 min read
8 Andrew Cartmell|1a Bill Johnstone|1b Jim Eso|3 Craig Rowe|7 Rick Morgan
8 Andrew Cartmell|1a Bill Johnstone|1b Jim Eso|3 Craig Rowe|7 Rick Morgan

1 Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. has made a number of organizational changes, including the promotion of Bill Johnstone [1a] from his current role as vice president of Greater Toronto Area and Global Technical Services to the position of senior vice president of Global Technical Services (GTS) for the Americas. Johnstone will continue to be the GTS leader in Canada, but will now also be responsible for establishing policy, marketing and business development for GTS in the remainder of the Americas. Other personnel changes include:

• Claudine Davoodi has been promoted to the position of director of operations in Quebec;

• Sheri Martinello has been promoted to vice president of Risk Management Services (RMS);

• Walter Waugh is now the vice president of operations for Western Canada;

• Jim Eso [1b] will relocate from B. C. to Ontario and will become vice president of national property and casualty;

• Brent Hackett has been promoted to vice president of operations for the Ontario Region;

• Rod McDonald will transfer to the position of assistant vice president of branch operations for the Ontario Region; and

• Reno Daigle, will become director of quality and customer service for the Ontario Region.

2 Two entities of the Totten Group within Quebec — the Groupe Gestionnaire d’Assurances Totten Ltee, and Norac Totten Gestionnaire d’Assurances Ltee — have been merged into one operation going forward. Gino Vaisica will become vice president of the Quebec region for all operations in the province. Vaisica was previously vice president of Norac Totten, having sold his previous firm, Norac Intermediaries, to Totten Group early in 2009. The two companies will retain their legal names and entities for a time, but they will operate as one firm in dealing with brokers and markets. David Millroy, previously vice president of Groupe Gestionnaire d’Assurances Totten Ltee has chosen to take early retirement. Abdellatif Oumami has been promoted to the position of administrative supervisor of the Cremazie office, in addition to his responsibilities as a production underwriter in that office.

3 ClearRisk has announced the launch of ClearRisk 1.0, an online risk management resource for small and medium-sized businesses. Intended to provide practical risk management solutions, ClearRisk designed version 1.0 and its online risk management products to offer easy-to-understand, customizable risk solutions for implementing risk management in any organization. “Coming in September of 2009, ClearRisk 1.0 users will avail of enhanced functionality and a brand new design that supports risk management planning, industry collaboration, partnership networking and many additional resources to support risk analysis and risk management,” said Craig Rowe, ClearRisk’s president and CEO. “Companies that use ClearRisk are better risks and produce better loss ratios.”

4 Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, has agreed to sell Vancity Insurance Services Limited (VISL) — its subsidiary for home, auto, travel and business insurance — to The Co-operators. The price tag of the deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals, was undisclosed. VISL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vancity that provides insurance through 17 retail branches in Greater Vancouver and Victoria, as well as an inbound call centre. The VISL portfolio includes approximately 28,000 residential, 48,000 auto, 10,000 travel and 2,000 commercial insurance policies. Under the terms of the agreement, The Co-operators subsidiary, Federated Agencies Limited, will acquire VISL, including all its service locations on Sept. 1, 2009. VISL retail locations will begin to operate under The Co-operators brand Sept. 2

5 Aon Reed Stenhouse Inc. has acquired IAO Actuarial Consulting Services. The terms of the deal were not announced. IAO’s capabilities will be integrated into Aon’s Global Risk Consulting business, which provides a range of services from risk identification and control to assessment and risk financing. The acquisition of IAO will augment Aon Global Risk Consulting’s actuarial and analytics practice in Canada. “Our team is well-positioned to provide Canadian businesses with the insurance information they need to meet today’s challenges,” IAO Actuarial Consulting president Hany Rifai said in a press release. “IAO’s ability to deliver unique market insight will be a strong complement to the Aon Global Risk Consulting actuarial and analytics offering in Canada.”

6 Risk Control at The Economical Insurance Group has expanded its Infrared Thermography program. Historically used on farm business, infrared thermography is now being used for inspections on general commercial risks where the technology provides customers with a predictive inspection on electrical and mechanical components of their operation. The infrared camera measures the level of heat radiation emitted by a target surface, which is not visible to the naked eye, and presents a two-dimensional image. Risk Control efforts will initially target electrical and mechanical hazards. The insurer plans to introduce water-related inspections, such as building envelope inspections, that will help indicate the need for roof or envelope repair and could help avoid unnecessary mould growth.

7 Rick Morgan has been named interim CEO of Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet). Most recently, through his own consulting firm and in association with insurance branding firm Aartrijk, Morgan has worked with agencies and other industry organizations to help improve their effectiveness and tap new technology to better engage customers and prospects. He is a director-at-large for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York and chairs the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America council for technology Web 2.0 working group.

8 Andrew Cartmell has been appointed president and CEO of Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI). “We are extremely pleased Mr. Cartmell accepted Saskatchewan’s offer to lead SGI’s 1,800 staff forward in the years ahead,” June Draude, SGI minister, said in a release. “Mr. Cartmell has over 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry, working his way up the ranks at the Cooperators General Insurance Company to his most recent position of regional vice president for central Ontario.” SGI’s previous president and CEO, Jon Schubert, resigned in 2008 to become president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

9 The Co-operators has donated a total of Cdn$237,000 to 93 charities across Canada as part of the Directed Donations program. Each staff member has the opportunity to direct Cdn$75 of corporate money towards the organization of their choice from a list of charities. In all, 2,961 staff directed a total of Cdn$222,075, representing 82% of all Co-operators employees. Members of the board of directors and delegates of member-owners invested a further

Cdn$15,375. The five largest staff-directed donations went to:

• The Toronto Hospital for Sick Children ($23,775);

• The Canadian Cancer Society, Regina branch ($13,725);

• The Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, Calgary ($8,775);

• Sofia House -Women’s and Children’s Shelter, Regina ($8,025); and

• The Canadian Cancer Society, Guelph branch ($7,800).

10 FirstOnSite Restoration LP has acquired Calgary- based Servpro Disaster Restoration and Saskatoonbased First General Services (Saskatchewan) Partnership. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed. Since early 2007, FirstOnSite has acquired operations in all Canadian provinces except Newfoundland. Including the original founding companies, this brings the number of First OnSite’s acquisitions to 17 in less than three years. It is First OnSite’s second acquisition in Alberta in eight months. With its newly acquired opera tions, FirstOnSite now has more than Cdn$200 million in annual revenue and more than 1,100 direct employees in 38 cities and towns across Canada. FirstOnSite says it anticipates additional acquisitions as it continues to grow nationwide.