The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc. elected James Brierley Wednesday as its new chairman.

“I look forward to working with my fellow board and council members to continue the association’s lengthy track record of consensus building and constructive dialogue with regulators, policy-makers and consumers,” said Brierley, president of Munich Reinsurance Co., Canada Branch (Life).

During his term in office, Brierley will be working with a board of directors that includes Yvon Charest, president and CEO of Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc., past chairman Donald Stewart, CEO of Sun Life Financial Inc. and past chairman Dan Thornton, COO of Co-operators Life Insurance Co.

Brierley most recently served as chairman elect and as chairman of the board’s Standing Committee on Government Relations.

He joined Munich Re in 1976 and has been a member of its executive committee since 1981. He is also a member of Munich Re’s Global Life and Health Board of Management, an internal board that manages the company’s global life and health reinsurance operations.

Brierley sits on the board of Munich Life Management Corp., Munich Reinsurance Company of Canada, Temple Insurance, LifePlans Canada and the Institute for Quantitative Finance and Insurance. He also serves on the board of the Actuarial Foundation of Canada and has sat on numerous committees of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, mostly dealing with professional standards of practice, solvency regulations and accounting standards for insurance.