Former IBAS president Wasylenko acclaimed to CSIO board

Sheldon Wasylenko is among the brokers acclaimed Tuesday to the board of directors of the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO).

Wasylenko previously served as president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Saskatchewan. He also serves on the board of the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC), which recruited him as technology champion.

By day, Wasylenko is general manager of Saskatoon-based Rayner Agencies Ltd., a firm owned by his family that he joined in 2005. Before he became a broker, Wasylenko worked for about 15 years in the information technology industry with firms such as EDS Systemhouse.

Sheldon Wasylenko, General Manager, Rayner Agencies

Wasylenko is one of five CSIO members acclaimed to Tuesday to a new two-year term on the Board of Directors during CSIO’s annual members’ meeting held at the National Club in Toronto.

Also acclaimed to new two-year terms were: Steve Earle, managing partner of W.C.L. Bauld Insurance Brokers; Mathieu Brunet, vice and president of sales and specialized insurance for MP2B Insurance inc.; Sean Christie, chief information officer and vice president, information services at Gore Mutual; and Christopher Harness, senior vice president, solutions delivery at Northbridge Financial Corporation.

Veteran CSIO chair Steve Whitelaw, vice president, strategic planning and execution for Travelers Canada, has another year in his current term.

CSIO – a Toronto-based association of property and casualty insurers, brokers and technology vendors – oversees technology standards and forms such as eDocs, which is intended to let brokers download policy documents directly from a carrier’s computer system to a broker management system (BMS), and to store those documents in their BMS without manual intervention.

Two brokers with a year left in their terms are Traci Boland, former president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario and Robyn Young, former president of the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta.

Four executives with major carriers also have another year left in their term on the board. They are: Syd Church, vice president, application services and strategic initiatives at Wawanesa; John Elliott, senior vice president and chief information officer for RSA Canada; Tracy Krunic, vice president, commercial lines, Ontario and Atlantic for Intact Insurance; and Deborah Smith, vice president of business solutions delivery for Aviva Canada.

Boland, a partner with Ontario West Insurance Brokers in London, served as IBAO president in 2017. Raised in London, Ont., Boland was a synchronized figure skating coach in the United States before returning to Canada in 2001 and getting her broker’s qualification.

Young started her own business – Calgary-based Southland Registrations Ltd. – when she was 19. She and her brother, A.J., bought Lundgren and Young Insurance Ltd. from their parents in 2014. She was president of IBAA until May, 2016.