Teachers Life head will step down from his post after 11 years in top job
Not-for-profit fraternal insurer Teachers Life will have new leadership for 2018 as the firm’s president and CEO Doug Baker has announced his retirement. Effective September 30, Baker will be replaced in the top job by Mark Cummings. The outgoing head has held the role since 2006 and has overseen a transformative period for the specialist insurer for the education sector. In 2014 the company became the first insurer in North America to offer policies that could be applied for and issued completely online. Harnessing technology has been a key part of Baker’s leadership over the past 11 years, as he explains.
“I had a couple of key things that I wanted to do when I came in as CEO,” he says. “One was to modernize the organisation in terms of technology. I think we have accomplished that, although with technology you are never finished. We also became federally regulated in 2008 and licenced right across Canada. The other goal was to seek out strategic partnerships to grow the business. In all three things I think we have been successful.”
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Baker – two years into the job he faced the largest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Monetary policy since then has made things difficult for insurers across the board; then there are the ever-increasing costs of compliance.
“For every insurer it has been difficult because of increasing regulations that have been imposed on companies,” says Baker. “For small and medium-sized companies it is even more of a burden, you just don’t have the same resources to handle the increased regulatory burden. That has been one of the most significant things I have encountered in my 11 years as CEO.”
Having served on the board of Teacher’s Life for 17 years prior to becoming CEO, Baker has witnessed first-hand how the life insurance industry has evolved over close to three decades. The speed of change has ramped up in recent years as the sector has fully moved into the digital realm. It’s a sign of things to come, according to the soon-to-be retired head of Teachers Life.
“The insurance world is conservative by its very nature – making promises to people 30–40 years out you have to be relatively conservative,” he says. “The industry has not been the most nimble to change. I think where we will get the most disruption is with the more commoditized products like term insurance. That will happen over the next five years.”Related stories:
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