My contribution to a board
A board sees products mainly through premium growth, claims ratios and complaint totals. I can help directors see what lies underneath those figures: which members abandon a claim or an application, which wording produces disputes, and whether service in French or through assistive technology matches service in English. I have spent twenty-eight years in the space between an insurer's intention and a member's experience, first as a claims examiner and now as chief product officer, and I know where the evidence for that gap is usually kept. I can also read a product proposal for the risks that do not appear in the pricing memorandum, such as a sponsor misunderstanding what a cheaper design means for an employee who becomes ill. I would bring experience of provincial fair-treatment expectations, two-language product governance and accessibility, and of persuading actuarial, underwriting and sales leaders without the authority to instruct them. My limits are clear. I am not an actuary or an investment specialist. My only directorship is a charity, so I would join, not chair, a committee in my first term.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Property and casualty or life insurers outside group benefits · Credit unions and member-owned financial institutions · Health and disability services
- Company type
- Mutual property and casualty insurer, credit union or not-for-profit disability-services organisation that does not compete with Lacmorin
- Company stage
- Moving member service online while keeping assisted channels and two-language service
The seat I am pursuing
I am looking for a seat where members' experience of products and service is a real board concern, not a marketing topic. A mutual home and auto insurer, a credit union or a not-for-profit disability-services organisation would suit me best, particularly one serving both French and English speakers or people with disabilities. I would expect to join the risk committee or a committee responsible for conduct and customer outcomes. I would prefer a board that is moving service online and wants someone to ask what happens to the people who cannot or will not follow. A cooperative facing a change in how members file claims, open accounts or receive notices in two languages is the situation where my experience is most directly useful. I am not seeking a listed company seat at this stage, and I would decline a seat offered mainly for my title rather than for a contribution the board has defined.
Judgement in practice
01Asking what a self-service figure was hiding
When our online short-term disability share was presented as a success, I asked to see incomplete files and time to a decision alongside it. Those figures showed that members were struggling with a journey we were reporting as efficient. On a board, I would ask the same of any digital measure: what happens to the people who do not finish, and who in management is responsible for them? I would also ask what the fallback costs and who is paying for it, because a person promised but not funded becomes a complaint. That question cost my own budget C$1.45 million in the first year, and I would rather a board heard such costs openly than discovered them later.
02Holding a clarity gain against an underwriting standard
When our evidence questionnaire improved, I reported the approval rate beside the improvement so that nobody could mistake a clearer form for a weaker one. I also told the risk committee that misrepresentation findings at claim would take years to show any effect. As a director I would expect management to pair any customer-experience gain with the control measure it could affect, and to say plainly what is not yet known. I would be wary of a paper that reports only the favourable half of a trade-off, however well intentioned, because the board is the place where both halves have to be weighed together.
My first year on a board
In my first year I would spend more time listening than proposing. Before the first meeting I would read two years of board and committee minutes, the risk appetite statement and the most recent regulatory correspondence the board has seen. I would ask to sit with the claims and complaints teams for a day each, and to read a sample of declined claims and complaint responses in both languages, because those records show how the organisation's promises are actually kept. I would ask the chair which committee most needs a customer and product perspective, and agree with the chair on what I should not raise until I understand the organisation better. With the chief financial officer and the appointed actuary or treasurer, I would work through how the organisation sets reserves, capital and pricing, because that is where my knowledge is thinnest and where a product question usually turns into a financial one. I would also ask management which customer measures the board already receives and which it has never asked for. At the end of the year I would ask the chair for direct feedback on whether my questions helped or simply added work for management.
Conflicts and their management
My largest conflict is my employment. Lacmorin competes with every Canadian insurer that writes group benefits, so I would not join one of them, and I would decline any organisation that is a significant Lacmorin plan sponsor, adviser or supplier. A credit union or health-services provider might still buy group benefits through an adviser who also places business with us, and I would disclose any such link at the start and withdraw from related discussions. I would keep Lacmorin's product plans, pricing and research entirely separate from my board work. My charity directorship takes about eight days a year and would continue. Lacmorin's board must consent to any external seat, and I would review the arrangement with both chairs each year.
My independence statement
I am an executive of Lacmorin Life, so I would not put myself forward to any board where Lacmorin competes or has a material relationship. Beyond that, I would ask the board's own counsel to assess my position rather than decide it for myself.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Risk committee · Customer outcomes and conduct committee |
|---|
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Lacmorin Life
Board of directors and its risk committee
April 2021–present
I present the annual product plan to the board and report product risks, complaint trends by province and language, and the results of major product changes to the risk committee. I am not a director of Lacmorin.
Served as a director
Vallonée Adult Literacy Network
Charity board, sitting on its finance and audit committee
June 2019–present
Volunteer director of a registered charity serving adult learners in Ottawa and Gatineau, with an annual budget of about C$3.2 million. I have taken part in two auditor appointments and the annual review of financial statements.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
India's databank of independent directors applies to people seeking seats on Indian company boards. My interest is in Canadian boards, where it plays no part, so I have not registered and this status simply records that.
- Completed a director-education course on insurer governance, risk appetite and solvency in 2025, and studied OSFI's corporate governance expectations of insurer boards with Lacmorin's chief risk officer.
- Seven years on a charity's finance and audit committee, including two auditor appointments and a review of reserve policy.