{"id":444,"date":"2025-09-16T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T04:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.olhi-oap.ca\/en\/news\/lombudsman-des-assurances-de-personnes-annonce-une-transition-au-sein-du-conseil-dadministration-depart-de-membres-de-longue-date-et-nomination-de-deux-nouveaux-administrateurs-2\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:12:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:12:03","slug":"olhi-announces-board-transition-departure-of-longstanding-directors-and-appointment-of-two-new-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/news\/olhi-announces-board-transition-departure-of-longstanding-directors-and-appointment-of-two-new-members\/","title":{"rendered":"OmbudService for Life and Health Insurance Announces Board Transition: Departure of Longstanding Directors and Appointment of Two New Members to the Board"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toronto, Ontario<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The OmbudService for Life and Health Insurance (OLHI) announces the departure of longstanding Board members,\u00a0Dr. Janice MacKinnon\u00a0and\u00a0Claude Garcia\u00a0and the appointment of two new Directors,\u00a0Charlene Butler\u00a0and\u00a0Mary Nemeth, effective following OLHI\u2019s Annual General Meeting held on September 16, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. MacKinnon was appointed to the Board as an\u00a0Independent Director\u00a0in 2005 and was elected chair in 2011. Janice stepped down as chair in April of this year and is succeeded by Dan Levert.*\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. MacKinnon has had a distinguished career in academics, public policy and in government serving as a cabinet minister in Saskatchewan for a decade. She currently serves on several boards including the University of Alberta Board of Governors and is a professor of fiscal policy at the University of Saskatchewan. She helped steer OLHI through a period of significant change and introduced important governance changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Garcia joined the Board in 2006 and served as an\u00a0Industry Director. As the former President of the Canadian Operations for Standard Life, he brought exceptional leadership and deep industry insight to OLHI\u2019s governance. His expertise in life and health insurance, governance, and public policy helped guide OLHI through complex challenges while reinforcing its commitment to impartial and transparent service.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining the Board are\u00a0Charlene Butler\u00a0as\u00a0Independent Director\u00a0and\u00a0Mary Nemeth\u00a0as\u00a0Industry Director. Both were appointed by OLHI\u2019s members at the Annual General Meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Butler, based in Edmonton, brings extensive senior executive and board experience across both public and private sectors. Her strategic perspective and governance expertise will strengthen OLHI\u2019s continued focus on accountability and consumer protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Nemeth, from Winnipeg, joins OLHI after a long and distinguished career with\u00a0Wawanesa, including ten years in the company\u2019s life insurance branch. As a former Director of the\u00a0Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA), she brings a strong understanding of the industry and of OLHI\u2019s role within it. Her experience and insight will be invaluable as she assumes her role as the third Industry Director on the Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are deeply appreciative of Janice and Claude\u2019s long-standing dedication and thoughtful leadership, which have helped shape OLHI\u2019s evolution over the years,\u201d said\u00a0Dan Levert, Chair of the OLHI Board of Directors.\u201cAt the same time, we are delighted to welcome Charlene and Mary, whose experience and perspectives will continue to advance OLHI\u2019s mission of fair, impartial service to Canadian consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*See\u00a0press release dated May 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the OmbudService for Life & Health Insurance <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The OmbudService for Life & Health Insurance (OLHI) is Canada\u2019s only independent complaint resolution service for consumers of Canadian life and health insurance. Canadians trust us to review their insurance complaints about life, disability, employee health benefits, travel, and insurance investment products such as annuities and segregated funds. OLHI\u2019s free bilingual services are available to any consumer whose insurance company is an OLHI member \u2013 and, currently, 99% of Canadian life and health insurers are. OLHI also offers general information online about life and health insurance. To ensure impartiality, OLHI\u2019s operations are overseen by the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour les demandes m\u00e9dias, veuillez communiquer avec :<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonia Tara<\/strong>
Corporate Secretary
1-888-295-8112 ext. 106
stara@olhi.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto, Ontario\u00a0\u2013 The OmbudService for Life and Health Insurance (OLHI) announces the departure of longstanding Board members,\u00a0Dr. Janice MacKinnon\u00a0and\u00a0Claude Garcia\u00a0and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[44],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-board-of-directors"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2707,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/2707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olhi-oap.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}