National Practice Lead, Real Estate

Overview

The Specialty Practice Leader – Real Estate will play a pivotal role in building a national strategy that strengthens our competitive positioning in the Canadian real estate insurance space. This individual will take a proactive lead in scaling and standardizing our existing real estate programs across Canada, ensuring consistency, eliminating duplication, and enabling every region to benefit from best-in-class solutions. They will be tasked with leveraging our substantial residential real estate portfolio, while also identifying opportunities to incorporate commercial, office, light industrial, and mixed-use exposures when doing so enhances value for clients and market partners.

The goal is to position our firm as the go-to real estate insurance brokerage in Canada — the first stop for both insurance carriers and clients seeking market-leading expertise and solutions.

Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, Canada, your role will be a vital strategic resource as you concentrate on these objectives. You will influence key stakeholders and partners while developing a cohesive strategy that aligns with our vision for growth and development of programs. As the Real Estate National Practice Lead for Canada, you will collaborate with the Canadian Leadership and our team of National Specialty Practice leaders in their specific sectors to further develop initiatives across the country.

Market Intelligence & Carrier Relationships:

• An ability to enhance and expand relationships with key domestic insurers and explore opportunities with international carriers, including Lloyd’s of London and other specialty markets.
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of current insurer appetites and capacity and proactively identify emerging or untapped underwriting opportunities.
• Leverage market insights to influence and expand carrier participation across a range of real estate exposures, including residential, commercial, and mixed-use.
• Maintain an informed perspective on insurer strategies and decision-making processes, including risk tolerance, preferred classes of business, and geographic preferences.
• Bring deep expertise in at least one of Canada’s major residential real estate markets — ideally Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal — with the ability and commitment to develop comparable insight and influence across the others.
• Recognized within the insurance marketplace as a high-level, credible expert by key underwriters and market partners.
• Working with clients and carriers to stay ahead of the loss trends.
• Establish monthly touchpoints with the Canadian Practice members and key Stakeholders.

Strategic Thinking & Execution:

• Identify and engage key internal and external stakeholders across regions, business units, and insurer partners; quickly develop an understanding of their objectives, constraints, and decision-making dynamics.
• Take a broad industry view — not limited to insurance — to proactively position the firm in line with emerging trends in real estate construction, occupancy, and risk.
• Collaborate with internal partners, including warranty and specialty teams, to identify adjacent opportunities and build integrated offerings that enhance value for clients and deepen insurer engagement.
• Support long-term exposure forecasting and capacity modeling to help carrier partners better plan and price for evolving real estate risks.
• Demonstrate comfort with ambiguity and the ability to make sound, informed decisions in a complex, decentralized environment.
• Ability to develop creative solutions such as shared and layered programs, captives, limit of loss alternatives, alternative risk financing and new capacity solutions.

Real Estate Industry Connectivity (Non-Insurance):

• Maintain strong visibility within Canada’s broader real estate sector, actively participating in national industry associations, events, and forums to enhance the firm’s brand, credibility, and access to strategic opportunities.
• Position the firm as a thought leader and expert broker within the real estate development, ownership, and asset management communities.
• Support sales teams by identifying and tapping into key industry contacts,…