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About the company
Our client is part of the insurance subsidiary of one of Canada’s largest financial institutions. In Canada, our client has two lines of business, General Insurance and Life and Health. The General Insurance business is one of the top home and auto insurance groups in Canada and the national leader in group insurance and affinity marketing. The Life and Health business is the number one provider of critical illness insurance in Canada and a top provider of credit protection for millions of Canadians.
Our client is committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible environment. With a Canada-wide workforce of over 4,000 employees and offices in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, our client offers a stable and dynamic work environment where talent is appreciated and professional development is taken seriously.
The Role
Reporting to the VP Direct Life & Health Product, the AVP Travel Insurance is responsible for two high-level accountabilities: Travel Plans & Embedded Benefits. Specifically:
- Lead a team of talented product managers to drive growth in the travel business for our client.
- Lead and develop a talented team of product managers; build for the future and provide people leadership; oversee people plans and execution of strategies to attract, motivate and retain a highly qualified team of talented leaders to achieve current and future business needs.
- Responsible for P&L management of the travel product portfolio by the development of new travel benefits and products, optimization of existing portfolio offering across all channels, grow market share and maximize customer experience.
- Accountable for key performance metrics for the product portfolio including but not limited to: product revenue, claims and distribution expenses, new sales units and premium, # of new policy holders and retention.
- Establish annual financial plan for the travel business; oversee monitoring of results to plan (weekly/monthly/quarterly) including performance insights, future trends, adjustments as required to ensure plan is achieved and performance commentary for senior executive.
- Lead and own strategic planning, forecasting and analysis for the travel portfolio, giving consideration to current and future economic trends, product development and enhancements and provide overall direction for the product portfolio.
- Develop robust understanding of travel customers – leveraging insights to deliver product and process innovation to improve our value proposition for our client’s customers while enhancing customer experience and to deliver new revenue streams, partnering with external partners as appropriate.
- Recommend, deliver and champion strategies designed to improve key business drivers including product pricing, product design, new product development, customer acquisition, customer and employee experience retention.
- Lead large, organizationally complex project initiatives, including business integrations and business leadership of all Travel projects – including product launch and changes, sales and marketing campaigns, initiative launches and process innovations.
- Provide execution leadership for changes to Travel products by working with credit card partners, channel partners, legal, compliance, risk, marketing, and other product areas, to execute changes with excellence.
- Represent the Travel business in selected partner projects.
- Maintain high level of understanding on all relevant developments, trends, drivers and participants in the travel insurance industry and participate in industry associations and events as required.
- Conduct ongoing industry and competitive analysis, developing/maintaining an institutional information repository.
- Collaborate with key internal and external partners including Credit Partners, Distribution Channels, Technology, Legal, Compliance, Risk and Insurers to deliver business objectives with excellence.
This is a unique opportunity to strategically drive growth within a market area for our client. There exists the potential to significantly grow the overall travel business and its profitability.
Experience and Qualifications:
The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables.
- Proven product leader with 5 to 10 experience in the life and health and/or travel insurance industry
- Prior P&L / product experience is a strong asset including quantitative/analytical strength.
- Strong collaborator and demonstrated direct experience leading large, organizationally complex, customer-impacting initiatives
- Proven track record of building effective relationships and partnerships; ability to impact and influence others, while managing large-scale projects and multiple initiatives.
- Strategic thinker with track record of making an impact, developing and executing strategies and delivering superior results in both the short and long term.
- Superior verbal and written communication and presentation skills with ability to engage colleagues, business partners, external stakeholders, and employees.
- Ability to effectively lead self and team in a fast-paced environment, concurrently delivering a diverse range of priorities including strategy development, initiative planning and execution and day-to-day activities successfully
- Undergraduate degree required. MBA or equivalent degree is an asset