PEOPLE
EXPERT SPOTLIGHT
A PEOPLE BUSINESS With an entrepreneurial culture that helps its staff fulfil their potential, Specialty Program Group Canada is bringing its businesses together as a national entity. Its visionary leader, Cameron Copeland, shares how the business is evolving
AS PRESIDENT and chief executive officer of Specialty Program Group Canada (SPGC), Cameron Copeland is steering the business through an exciting time of change, bringing two sister companies within the group together as one national entity. Under
“SPGC offers a portfolio of brands, each with purpose-built underwriting and each focused on a niche in the marketplace, to serve it really well. Brokers get strong capacity, expertise, and speed of service from experienced underwriters who work
“We occupy a really viable segment of the market. Our opportunity is to continue to add new brands, to continue to fill underserved niches, so that our broker customers get more from this relationship” Cameron Copeland, SPGC Copeland’s stewardship, from its Vancouver and Toronto headquarters, SPGC is serving brokers across the country with commercial and personal P&C (property and casualty) insurance solutions. “We’re bringing more of our MGAs under one umbrella,” he says, “and that creates a really distinct value proposition for our customers and carriers, where they can get these specialty offerings but from within one trusted relationship.
6
in modern, efficient, fast-moving systems, supported by the resilience and governance of a large-scale organization.” Each of SPGC’s brands are effectively run as businesses within a business, notes Copeland. “Each team is led by an engaged entrepreneurial leader,” he elaborates. “Some of them have joined us as principals who have sold their agency to become part of our bigger team, and then they stay on and continue to drive the business the way they did when they
owned it but now with a deeper toolbox, more capacity, and more resources. We also manage our own claims – very few MGAs in Canada handle their own claims.” Founded in 1992, with a staff of 500 across the group, SPGC believes its most important asset is its culture. “Insurance is a people business,” Copeland observes. “We don’t have production machines; we don’t have factories; we have people. My job as the CEO is to be the steward of an environment that gets the most out of people and allows them to be their best and true selves. We have a vast number of operations and roles, so people can grow, people can move, and we support that, whether it’s with education or with on-the-job challenges. “We are very intentional about building, supporting, and evolving our culture. Our big focus is on entrepreneurism, innovation, a sense of urgency, a can-do attitude, engagement, and pride. We help our people to reach their potential, to bring solutions which give fulfilment to their customers, with a real desire to serve them. So, we’ve worked really hard to become an employer of choice, particularly on our DEI and ESG strategies.”
www.insurancebusiness.ca
6-9_Expert Spotlight v5 - SUBBED.indd 6
26/09/2024 5:30:37 am