Steve brings almost 25 years of experience in the Canadian Home & Auto insurance marketplace (yes, he’s unsure whether to be proud of that statistic or frightened). In the Great White North, few possess his diversity of expertise. From underwriting, to portfolio management, to operational roles, Steve’s path has gained him a familiarity with every facet of both brokerage operations and direct insurance operations. And on top of all that, he’s worked in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Waterloo, thus having the opportunity to wear Canadian tuxedos to condo dinner parties, West Coast potlucks, steakhouse feasts, and a really big Oktoberfest. Steve’s expertise is focused on driving change and developing unique and innovative ways to package and distribute insurance, and some have even referred to him as Canada’s most interesting man (which unfortunately does not rank someone very high on the global scale). Besides bringing his mad parallel parking skills to the team, Steve is responsible for helping drive its strategic direction, develop and manage key partnerships, support the development and execution of the value proposition, and lead the team in rhythmic gymnastics routines (OK, we may have made that one up).

Not just another paper cut survivor, Tanya was born at a young age and brings 18 years of marketing and business development experience in group, affinity and specialty business insurance. Known as a caffeine dependent life form she is results-oriented, a collaborative leader, who has a deep understanding of business drivers, the insurance industry and best practices for growth, retention and new business acquisitions. During her career, she is often referred to as clumsy but in her defense- the floor just hates her; the table and chairs are bullies, and the walls get in her way! Thankfully she has saved her reputation by successfully holding leadership responsibility for Marketing and Business Development as well as having experience in both the direct and brokerage space. Tanya will be responsible for developing, communicating and leading marketing strategies to support the organization’s strategic goal of growth. Her favorite expression is “Chocolate doesn’t ask questions, chocolate understands.”

Kathryn has over 15 years of insurance experience, you are probably thinking that means she started in grade school, and yes that is an excellent guess. Leading and supporting organizations across all facets of operations, Kathryn’s expertise is in ensuring a seamless and effortless experience for our customers. She always has her ducks in a row but is quick to react when the goose gets out of line. Kathryn leads by creating a collaborative and positive working environment, this is often accomplished alone but sometimes it is best to engage others. By developing and executing on strategy, Kathryn has been an integral part of accelerating company growth. She understands the value of building a successful team; not only does it produce the best results but it also allows you to easily blame others when initiatives go wrong. She loves technology, as it has the ability to save time and make tasks effortless, the only draw back being all the passwords you have to remember. Her tip, have your password be ‘incorrect’. So whenever you forget what it is, the computer will say “Your password is incorrect”. Kathryn will be leading the operations at Ignite, from first contact to renewal touchpoint, she and her team will be supporting our clients when they need us.

Steve has been involved in the auto and home insurance space for more than 30 years. Hailing from the UK, he mastered the art of insurance innovation in one of the most competitive marketplaces on the globe. Steve successfully launched the UK’s first fully online digital insurance offer – SwiftCover. Within 2 years Swiftcover went from “start-up” to writing 5% of all new business in the UK auto market. Subsequent to the sale of Swiftcover, he held senior executive positions driving Axa’s UK personal insurance strategy, further shaping the competitive landscape. The siren call of entrepreneurship proved too strong, however, and Steve next turned his eyes to the Asian markets. With the launch of Ignite Insurance, Steve is actively driving digital evolution in the P&C space in China, Thailand and Taiwan, As an industry pioneer, Steve’s success launching digital insurance services in the UK and Asia hinged on meeting the expectations of digital-era customers by embracing technology. His strategies take advantage of the agility of small, tech-enabled organizations and prove that it’s not just the big conglomerates that can find success in the insurance industry. With his recent successes in the UK and Asia behind him, Steve now turns his attention to yet another part of the globe – Canada – and brings his innovative prowess and customer experience mastery to its development.

As sales and affinity leader, Jeff brings 20 years of financial and insurance industry experience to Ignite. His reputation for motivating, inspiring, engaging and empowering brokers from good to great precedes him, as does his panache with clip art and Work Hard? Play Harder approach to life. Jeff will use his mastery of business development to foster new affinities and associations who value their clients and desire to connect in real ways. Jeff thrives on creating a dynamic team who share his ambition to meet every demand of the client, the broker team and our partners. You’ll recognize Jeff in the office by his use of motivational words like Shazzaam! And Wicked Smart! as he tries to regain the title of #1 sales manager by executing the Ignite vision of making insurance “effortless, interesting and down-right fun”.

One of Khari’s best friends once referred to him as Chandler Bing (in a good way he thinks hopes), and he took that as a not so subtle jab at his personality and what he actually does for a living. He’s certainly not your typical “insurance geek” although he’s worked in the industry for over 15 years. Yes, he knows his stuff when it comes to insurance, but it’s certainly not the only thing that makes him tick. When he was a child he wanted to make red gym socks become the norm because he thought standard white socks were just plain boring. He wasn’t successful in that endeavor, but hats off to him for trying. And while the rest of the neighborhood kids were planning to set-up lemonade stands, he was busy perfecting a recipe for “grapefruit-ade” (truth be told - he thought that was the fastest way to get rid of the grapefruits at home so his mom wouldn’t make him eat them anymore). Fast forward a few decades and you can still see Khari staying true to his desire to challenge the status quo. Khari loves taking different approaches in business, especially when things have never been done before. He’s guilty of being an innovator and creative to the core. He enjoys building businesses, brands, and products – always considering the world of the consumer first. That's his passion. He’s been able to successfully merge the world's of his arguably overactive creative right brain, with his extremely numerically inclined left brain. And to sum him all up, this results in a pretty dynamic character who’s attempts at making jokes are sometimes funnier than the jokes themselves.

As technology guru at Ignite, Shem is in charge of wrangling all the bits and bytes that make up our incredibly cool IT platforms. Shem brings more than 15 years of well-rounded experience working in the high tech and insurance sectors in areas such as business operations, strategic planning, data strategy, and solution design & architecture. When not unravelling the mysteries of technology, you can find Shem communing with nature on one of his many hiking and camping trips, spending time with his family or cheering on his beloved Liverpool FC. With a degree in Physics and Computer Science from Wilfred Laurier University under his belt, Shem is currently working on a Philosophy degree at University of Waterloo. Soon, not only will he be able to look at a line of code and fix it, but he will be able to understand whether it *wants* to be fixed.