Women in Insurance Summit Canada 2026 is set to return on June 2, 2026, at Universal Eventspace in Vaughan, Ontario, bringing together insurance professionals from across the country for a one-day program of market insight, leadership development and structured networking.
This year’s summit, hosted by Insurance Business, features an expanded roster of senior speakers from carriers, brokers, reinsurers and adjacent industries, alongside a new series of small-group discussion tables designed to put delegates at the center of the conversation. Full event details and registration are available via the Women in Insurance website.
Transformational leadership will be a key theme, with Rola Dagher, former president and CEO of Cisco Canada, joining the program. Dagher is expected to share lessons from leading large, complex organizations through rapid change, an issue that continues to resonate as insurers manage technology shifts, evolving distribution and changing workforce expectations.
The summit will also feature voices from across the insurance value chain. From the brokerage side, Meghan Callaghan, chief operating officer at HUB International Ontario & Atlantic, will bring an operations and leadership perspective on scaling teams and processes in a shifting commercial and personal lines environment. From the reinsurance market, Jolee Crosby, CEO Reinsurance Canada at Swiss Re, will provide an executive view on risk, capital and the changing role of reinsurance and alternative capacity in supporting primary carriers and clients.
Distribution and client engagement will be addressed by speakers including Davina Boulineau, president, private client advice and vice president, small business distribution at TD Insurance, who will discuss how advisory models, data and digital tools are reshaping expectations for high-net-worth and small-business clients. Susan DuHamel, vice president, national distribution and field leader at CNA Insurance, will bring a carrier distribution lens, focusing on how to deepen broker relationships, align underwriting appetite with field execution and respond to shifting conditions in commercial lines.
The agenda also includes Sharla Postic, chief administrative officer at Securian Canada, who will highlight how operational leadership underpins growth, culture and customer outcomes, and Helen Cosburn, vice president, strategic partnerships at Allianz Global Assistance, who will share insights on building and sustaining partnerships that cut across travel, assistance and insurance.
Risk and claims disciplines are represented by Stephanie Banning, assistant vice president, cyber practice at HSB Canada, who will address the evolution of cyber exposures and underwriting trends, and by Niro Kandasamy, assistant vice president of fraud and special investigations at TD Insurance, who will examine the changing fraud landscape and what it means for investigation, data use and collaboration with law enforcement.
Taken together, the lineup is designed to give delegates a cross-section of perspectives from cyber and fraud through to reinsurance, partnerships and front-line distribution.
New for 2026, the summit will introduce facilitated, one-hour discussion tables. These small-group sessions are organized under three broad pillars — career and leadership; industry trends and business strategy; and culture, well-being and inclusion — and are intended as interactive forums rather than traditional panels. Delegates will work through real scenarios, share lessons learned and leave with ideas they can apply in their own organizations.
Among the topics on offer are sessions on planning and managing career transitions, including how to decide when to stretch in a current role versus when to move on and how to remain “move ready” over the next six to twelve months. Other tables will focus on finding the right niche within insurance, using examples of when work feels most engaging to identify the kinds of roles and environments where participants do their best work.
There will also be discussions on managing up inside insurance organizations, examining how to influence decisions, advocate effectively with senior leaders and handle the parts of managing that are currently most challenging. On the technical and market side, a table on emerging risks will look at cyber, climate, regulatory developments and other issues that keep practitioners up at night, exploring strategies that have worked, approaches that have fallen short and ways to communicate emerging risks without creating unnecessary alarm.
Alongside the new speakers and discussion tables, Women in Insurance Summit Canada 2026 will continue to feature keynotes, panels and fireside chats examining leadership, market conditions and client performance, with time built in for informal networking. Sessions are expected to dig into themes such as change leadership, talent development, emerging risks and client service, with an emphasis on practical tools and ideas.
The discussion tables and other interactive formats are also being used as structured networking opportunities, grouping professionals who are dealing with similar issues in broking, underwriting, claims, risk, operations and leadership.
