president and CEO
Gary Hirst commenced his career in insurance in the early 1980’s, starting at Lloyd’s Broker as a “scratch boy” running policy endorsements into the market. He rose to the level of director early in his career, which culminated in his participation in the management buy-out and subsequent floatation of the Lloyd’s Broker onto the London Stock Exchange. He left and started a small boutique Lloyd’s Broker with three other partners in 1998, which expanded into North America with the establishment of two Lloyd’s coverholder MGA’s, one in Canada and the other in the US. Hirst moved to Canada in 2011 to run the North American interests of the Lloyd’s Broker, culminating in the sale of the group in 2012, departing two years later and joining CHES Special Risk, where he holds the position of president and CEO. He has guided the team to an award winning MGA in 2016, and a FIVE Star MGA in 2017. Hirst is also a founding member of the Canadian Managing General Agents, a national association established to represent more than 140 commercial insurance MGA’s in the Canadian marketplace for the compliance and regulation of the industry, and to improve the education and understanding of the MGA arena amongst the wider insurance community in Canada. This is his second time in the Insurance Business Global List 100.
