Vice President, Government Relations & Public Affairs

Location: Toronto or Ottawa

The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) is the respected voice of Canada’s life and health insurers. CLHIA is a not-for-profit, membership-based organization representing 99% of Canada’s life and health insurance companies. CLHIA works alongside its members to advance public policy solutions that support a strong and sustainable life and health insurance sector, helping Canadians achieve greater financial security and access to valuable supplementary health benefits. CLHIA’s member companies help Canadians protect themselves and their families against the financial risks associated with premature death, illness, and retirement through a wide range of products and services, underscoring CLHIA’s central role in advancing a stable, trusted, and well-functioning life and health insurance system for all Canadians.

Reporting to and working closely with the President and CEO, the Vice-President, Government Relations & Public Affairs provides executive leadership in the effective management of CLHIA’s public affairs, stakeholder engagement, and advocacy activities. As a key member of the senior leadership team, the VP will help set direction, establish priorities, and ensure disciplined execution across a complex, governance-intensive environment. This role is central to strengthening and sustaining relationships with CLHIA’s member companies, government and regulatory counterparts, and key external stakeholders. The VP will attend Board meetings, and support committee and working group engagement by ensuring alignment, sound process, and clear decision pathways. Success will be grounded in mature executive judgment, strong people leadership, and the ability to lead through experienced teams while navigating competing perspectives with professionalism, neutrality, and credibility.

As the ideal candidate, you are a dynamic and engaging executive who embodies CLHIA’s member-service mission and its values of respect, accountability, teamwork, and excellence. You have a deep and demonstrated understanding of provincial and federal government and regulatory dynamics, leading member services and engagement, and strategic communications. You are known for establishing professional relationships founded on thoughtful leadership, collaboration, partnership, and transparency. Your leadership style is described as consultative, empathetic, and unambiguous and your experience providing strategic organizational leadership, as well as acting as a trusted collaborator on a senior leadership team, will serve CLHIA well. Similarly, you have solved many complex problems in a multi-stakeholder, multi-layered context throughout your career. As a gifted leader, communicator, and relationship builder, you are poised to be leader in a highly successful organization.

If interested, or to learn more, please email Eric Lathrop (elathrop@boyden.com) and Maja Messam (mmessam@boyden.com).

We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those under consideration for the role will be contacted. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not be used in the evaluating or assessing of candidates.

CLHIA is strongly committed to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. CLHIA invites and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including members of racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation, and persons of any gender identity or gender expression.