John Bowey is the new chairman of the board of directors of Waterloo, Ont.-based Economical Mutual Insurance Co., the property and casualty insurer announced on Monday.
Economical implemented its planned corporate succession following the decision by Gerry Hooper, board chairman since March 2005, to step down.
Hooper intends to continue serving on the board until the expiry of his current term in 2018.
In conjunction with this succession, David Wilson has been appointed chairman of the board’s special committee on demutualization, a position Bowey held since July 2011. Bowey will continue to serve as a member of the special committee.
During Hooper’s 16-year tenure on the board of Economical, the company’s total equity has nearly tripled, from $632 million in 1999 to $1.72 billion at Sept. 30, 2015, the company says in a statement.
“Having achieved pivotal milestones in the demutualization process, I felt the time was right to step back and hand over the reins to John’s capable hands,” says Hooper.
Bowey, former chairman of Deloitte Canada, was appointed board vice-chairman in December 2013.
“We are fortunate to have benefitted from Gerry’s wisdom and leadership through a pivotal chapter in Economical’s history,” says Bowey. “Economical has never been stronger and we are now poised to proceed with Canada’s first property and casualty demutualization as we pursue our vision to be one of Canada’s top P&C insurers.”