NFP acquires Western Canadian brokerage Foster Park

Edmonton-based Foster Park Brokers Inc. has been acquired by New York City-based NFP Corp., the property and casualty insurance brokerages announced Tuesday.

Foster Park places surety bonds, as well as P&C coverage for a variety of industries including oil and gas, manufacturing, public entity and technology, among others. In addition to its Edmonton office, Foster Park also has two other Alberta locations (Calgary and Grande Prairie) plus an office in Langley, British Columbia.

Foster Park president and managing partner Mark Wiens is now managing director of commercial lines for NFP in Canada’s Western region. Wiens now reports to NFP Canada president John Haas.

Foster Park has 135 employees. Executive partners Andre Charrois, Steven Whitehouse, Roger Roebuck, Denise Theberge and Hugh Watt are among the Foster Park employee-shareholders who will join NFP.

“NFP is adhering to its strategic plan of building a unified national platform that provides superior expertise and advice to clients and reinforcing our people first culture for all employees,” NFP said Tuesday in a release.

NFP announced Haas’s appointment as its Canadian president in early 2021. Haas succeeded Greg Padovani, who was appointed in 2019.

NFP was the world’s 13th biggest commercial P&C brokerage when reanked by 2020 revenue, A.M. Best Company Inc. reported this past July. The top 5 global commercial P&C brokerages are Marsh, Aon, Willis Towers Watson, Gallagher and Hub, all of whom have presences in Canada.

About a year ago, NFP acquired Ogilvy Insurance, which is based in Montreal with offices in Toronto and Oakville, Ont. Other previous NFP acquisitions include Dalton Timmis Insurance Group Inc., McLean Hallmark Insurance Group Ltd., Indemnis Trade Risk Management Limited, Mass Insurance Brokers Limited, PBL Insurance Limited and Consortia Group, among others.

Feature image via iStock.com/Ron and Patty Thomas