We are a team above all

Sébastien GABEZ, age 37, started his career as auditor for Ernst & Young in Lyon, France, where he worked for 5 years. He joined APRIL Group in 2009 and was in charge of financial control and risk management of international operations. He joined APRIL Canada Inc. in Montreal, in 2013, as Chief Financial Officer before taking over as Quebec vice-president of the subsidiary in 2017.

Kent joined April in February 2015 as National Director of Commercial Lines.
Kent brings 11 years of Insurance industry knowledge spanning Primary, with Aviva, to Reinsurance, with Munich Re – Including a strong underwriting background, market knowledge, and leadership skill set.

Russel joined APRIL Canada in 2008 through the acquisition of his successful MGA, Canada Worldwide. Russel has been a pioneer in the development of the MGA model in Canada – particularly in the creation of binding underwriting contracts with Lloyds of London. Russel has 25 years of experience as an underwriter and director working in niche markets.

Karin joined APRIL Canada in May 2013 as a Human Resources Director. Karin has been working in HR for 9 years. Before stepping in the insurance market 2 years ago, she worked in Market research and Retail. She also have 6 years of experience in a managerial position prior to her HR career.

After a year in the International division at the Group’s head office in France, Charlotte joined APRIL Canada in 2011.

She has been involved in various positions: assisting the CUO, creating training modules for brokers, managing projects such as online quoting tools & process workflow platforms, e-Commerce. Charlotte is now National Director – Residential. She holds an MBA in International Business and a CIP (Chartered Insurance Professional).

Karen joined April in October 2014. Based in Vancouver Karen started in the industry in her hometown of Winnipeg and migrated West with a lengthy stop in Calgary. Over the past 17 years she’s worked in underwriting, business development, broking, system development and training with ING, Zurich, CGI/IAO and Aon.

Patricia joined APRIL in November 2012 as a Residential Underwriter. She became the Residential Team Leader in 2015, and was appointed Transport & Personal Lines Director in 2016. She is now Personal and commercial vehicles Director.

She has been working passionately within the industry for more than 20 years as a trainer, underwriter and as a manager.

Known for her close relationships with brokers, her high-quality customer service can only benefit our Canadian brokers and their clients. She always works hard to implement new products and solutions to ease brokers’ lives.

Laurent Sayada has a 20 years professional experience in the insurance of persons sector, as well as in the financial and banking services.

During those years, Laurent has occupied various positions for insurance companies and brokerage firms as well as for financial and banking institutions in Europe, in the Middle East and in Canada.

Laurent joins APRIL Canada from now and will be Responsible for the Business Development in Québec to work closer with you, brokers, to improve the service delivered to your insureds. His expertise in dealing with various typologies of customers is a real asset for APRIL Canada.

Tracey Paish – Business Development Manager – Western Canada

Tracey Paish as 20 years professional experience in the insurance sector. She knows particularly well the Western Canada market place.

She brings with her a strong experience including 8 years as an underwriter for PAL Insurance, 8 years as trainer at Compu-Quote (now Applied Systems) and 4 years as client experience advisor at Keal Technology.

Daniel Mason has 15 years of professional insurance experience with a strong understanding of the insurance landscape in Canada. He has expertise in both the Ontario and British Columbia markets.

Dedicated to client and market relationships, he has a unique understanding of specialty risk, difficult placements, and underwriting tough classes of business.

Kent joined April in February 2015 as National Director of Commercial Lines.
Kent brings 11 years of Insurance industry knowledge spanning Primary, with Aviva, to Reinsurance, with Munich Re – Including a strong underwriting background, market knowledge, and leadership skill set.

John Azzarello joined April in 2015 as Commercial Team Leader in the Toronto office of April Canada.  The addition of John to our Toronto office brings an experienced Team Leader with multi-line commercial underwriting, management and business development background. John’s experience adds depth to April’s offering in Ontario and strong leadership to assist underwriters and brokers in our shared growth opportunities.

Laurent Sayada has a 20 years professional experience in the insurance of persons sector, as well as in the financial and banking services.

During those years, Laurent has occupied various positions for insurance companies and brokerage firms as well as for financial and banking institutions in Europe, in the Middle East and in Canada.

Laurent joins APRIL Canada from now and will be Responsible for the Business Development in Québec to work closer with you, brokers, to improve the service delivered to your insureds. His expertise in dealing with various typologies of customers is a real asset for APRIL Canada.

After working two years as a client advisor in one of the main bank organizations in French, Mickael joined APRIL Canada in 2014 as Residential Underwriter.

His underwriting knowledge and his experience as a “Master User” led to his promotion as Personal Lines Team Leader in Quebec in November 2016.

Mickael is always looking to improve his set of skills and knowledge, and is currently working on his CIP.

After working at Coast Capital Insurance Services Ltd. in British Columbia for 22 years, Lucie joined APRIL Canada in September 2015 as a senior underwriter in residential insurance.

Her know-how in underwriting and her 31 years of experience as a broker and manager has allowed her to be promoted in November 2016 as a residential Team Leader (out of Quebec).

Her passion results in her strong engagement towards the industry: she has recently instructed CIP & IBABC courses. Thanks to that, she has developed a particularly strong contact with the brokers.

Lucie proudly represents the values of APRIL Canada, she doesn’t hesitate to think “out of the box” to help our brokers with their difficult risks.

After many years at Assuraction Transport Expert, a brokerage firm specialized in transport, Melanie joined APRIL Canada in 2009 as an underwriter in our Transport team.

With her underwriting knowledge and her 15 years of experience as an underwriter, Melanie was quickly promoted Team leader of our Non-Fleet Transport department. Since 2018, she is our Personal and commercial vehicles Team Leader.

Melanie has a deep expertise in the Transport industry, and she’s always keen to go the extra mile to offer the best service possible to brokers.

Bertrand Rouault has a 20 years professional experience in the insurance sector, and been with APRIL Canada for the last 10 years.

During those years, Bertrand occupied various jobs, in particular in the Business Development for sub-standard markets, for commercial and residential in Québec province.

Since 2011, he is in charge of the Training at APRIL Canada, and he has trained approximately 5, 000 partner brokers as part of their Units of In-service Training.

Bertrand shares now his time between Training and Business Development with the partner brokers in Québec for APRIL Marine and the General Manager for Le Regroupement des Plaisanciers du Québec.

Claude joined APRIL Canada in 2015, to create the Commercial Marine line. He brings with him 25 years of experience in the commercial insurance industry, allowing APRIL to develop competitive products and to create synergies with its existing commercial lines