Economical Insurance’s Scott Campbell replaces Walter Leszkowicz as VP for Ontario

Economical Insurance, which recently announced it is cutting 145 positions, said Oct. 23 that its vice president for the Ontario region, Walter Leszkowicz, has left to “pursue other endeavours” while several other executives are taking on additional responsibility.

In a press release, the Waterloo, Ont.-based firm announced Scott Campbell, formerly vice president of sales and distribution, is replacing Leszkowicz as vice president for Ontario.

Other executives changing roles include Dianna Fioravanti, formerly vice president of commercial insurance, who is now vice president of sales, distribution and underwriting operations. Pamela Derksen, formerly division vice president of Western General, is now vice president of commercial insurance. Pamela Marson, formerly operations manager of the Ottawa branch, is now vice president, personal insurance. All three will now report to president and CEO Karen Gavan.

Also on Oct. 23, Economical Insurance announced chief financial officer Phil Mather is taking on the role of president of Economical Financial and will have “additional overall responsibilities for procurement and reinsurance.” Reinsurance was previously handled by chief risk officer Louis Doiron, who “will continue to make focus on enhancing enterprise-wide risk management.”

The new chief transformation officer is Jorge Arruda, who has been with the firm since 1995.

With the new leadership structure, Chief Actuary Linda Gross will get additional responsibility for the management and approval of product and pricing policy.

Rob Gow, vice president of the Western Region, “will assume oversight responsibility for Family Insurance Solutions in addition to his existing responsibilities for business development and underwriting operations in the Western Region,” Economical Insurance said, adding Gow will also be appointed to the Family Insurance board of directors.

Chris Weber, formerly vice president of analytics, is now vice president of underwriting transformation, reporting to Arruda.

“Weber will lead the development and implementation of the underwriting transformation work stream,” the company stated.

“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,” Gavan stated in the press release.

Economical is currently preparing to proceed with demutualization and plans to submit a proposal to its policyholders when the federal government completes demutualization regulations. Last week it announced the sale of the principal operating assets of Seattle-based Mattei Insurance Services Inc. to Alteris Insurance Services Inc.

On Oct. 22 the firm said it cut 145 positions across 14 of its Canadian offices. Before the cuts, the firm had 2,430 workers in 17 branches and service offices in Canada.