The Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) has announced the appointment of Kathryn Sinclair as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Sinclair was hired in January 2020 as Vice-President of Strategy and Operations of the organization. She had been serving as interim CEO since the departure of her predecessor, Catherine Smola, announced in March 2025. Smola had held the role since January 2022.
Sinclair’s appointment was announced by press release on November 3. She is responsible for the strategic development of the organization in the areas of data standards and connectivity for the property and casualty insurance industry.
During her first five years as Vice-President at CSIO, she led the development of application programming interface (API) standards, which led to the industry’s first API security standards. She also contributed to the harmonization of standards, notably to improve electronic documents (eDocs).
Previously, Kathryn Sinclair was CEO of aha Insurance, where she helped launch Canada’s first online brokerage firm for property and auto insurance. She also held executive positions at the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP).
Certified insurers
CSIO is Canada’s industry technology association for property and casualty insurers, their vendors, and more than 43,000 brokers through their provincial association.
The organization regularly announces the certification of new insurers to its various standards and technology solutions, which improve connectivity between insurers and brokerage firms. On August 26, CSIO announced the certification of electronic documents from Max Insurance and The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group.
Max Insurance is a home insurance specialist based in Kitchener for over 150 years. The company underwrites risks in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Its insurance revenue reached $73.3 million in 2024, according to data submitted to MSA Research. Its CEO is Steve Manville.
Commonwell was founded over a century ago by Ontario farmers. Based in Lindsay, the mutual reported insurance revenue of $304.9 million in 2024, also according to MSA. Tim Shauf is its President and CEO.
New members
More recently, on October 15, 2025, CSIO announced the addition of four new members:
- Insurative Solutions, a broker solutions provider based in Oakville, Ontario;
- PURE Insurance (Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange), a newly established managing general agent in Ontario specializing in high-net-worth clients;
- Cemiar, an insurtech software company founded in Montreal in 2020 and provider of an API for brokerages;
- Quotey, a company founded in 2020 and based in Whitby, Ontario, which is a commercial insurance software vendor.
