Global 100 Ranks Top Insurance Professionals and Brokers

The Best Insurance Professionals and Brokers Worldwide list for 2026 was released this week, naming a handful of executives who have steered their firms through a period of structural volatility in the insurance industry. insurance professionals are highlighted for their adaptive strategies.

Global 100 honors leaders confronting a shifting market

Insurance Business compiled the Global 100 by consulting a worldwide network of experts and reviewing measurable achievements across six markets: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Asia‑Pacific region and the United Kingdom.

The report notes that inflation is easing unevenly, while growth slows but stays positive. Swiss Re projects non‑life premiums to rise 1.7 percent in real terms next year and about 2.5 percent in 2027; life premiums are expected to average 2.3 percent over the same span.

Against that backdrop, the top honorees are praised for turning “volatility into a design constraint,” a phrase that captures the prevailing mindset among senior managers.

Volatility drives change.

How top executives are reshaping risk, capital and technology

The industry is evolving fast.

Jean‑François Chalifoux, chief executive of Beneva, has guided Canada’s largest mutual insurer to serve roughly 3.5 million members while managing tens of billions in assets. He is steering a multiyear integration of La Capitale and SSQ Insurance, emphasizing a “one company at a time” approach to protect service quality.

He also announced a pending merger with Gore Mutual, a move meant to add about CA$8 billion in premiums, broaden geographic reach and improve catastrophe resilience.

Jean‑François Chalifoux is adjusting underwriting to account for more frequent severe weather events, using scale and regional diversification to “smooth the impact” of disasters.

Technology upgrades are underway, with AI tools accelerating claims handling while retaining human judgment for empathy‑driven decisions.

Cameron Copeland leads SPG Canada, the country’s largest delegated underwriting authority. He has combined legacy managing general agents into a single platform that recently added auto coverage through the acquisition of Mode Insurance Services.

He stresses three pillars: clear strategy that avoids “everything to everyone,” a culture that scales with growth, and robust systems that support people rather than constrain them.

Cameron Copeland notes that private credit now makes up just over a fifth of total insurance assets under management, and insurers’ managed assets grew 25 percent to US$4.5 trillion in 2024.

In his view, aligning broker and carrier conversations at the senior level accelerates trust and fuels innovation.

T. Marshall Sadd serves as executive chairman of Navacord, a Canadian‑owned broker that has united more than 50 firms under a single brand. The network now employs over 5,000 staff across 150 offices.

He focuses on preserving local identity while delivering national capabilities, a balance described as “bringing people along on the journey.”

T. Marshall Sadd also emphasizes education, spending time with university students to highlight career opportunities in the sector.

These leaders illustrate a broader trend: insurers are allocating more capital to private markets, using alternative risk transfer tools such as catastrophe bonds and sidecars, and embedding AI into underwriting and claims workflows.