| Chamber names winners at Business Excellence Awards
Peter Maranger, of The Co-Operators Insurance, Peter Maranger and Associates Inc., was the big winner at the 12th annual Stratford and District Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards last week. Maranger was named the winner in the personal excellence category. Over 300 people came out to the awards gala, held on Thursday at the Arden Park Hotel.Kristina LaCourse of Marley and Me won in the Retail Excellence category. Bob Nothof of Robica Forman Tank Ltd. was honoured in the Manufacturing Excellence category while Robbin Hewitt of Tim Hortons of Stratford, was given the top nod in the Hospitality/Tourism Excellence category.Credit Risk Management Canada, represented by Tracey Forester, won in the Service/Professional/Commercial Excellence category, while the Stratford Country Club, Ron Knight, was honoured in the Commercial Excellence category.Goodwill Industries/Ontario Great Lakes, fronted by Barb Young, was the winner in the Community Service Excellence category.
European Banks Expected to Sell Insurance Businesses as Credit Crunch Takes Toll
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's decision to sell its insurance business is likely to prompt a string of other banks to reconsider the strategic value of owning insurers. Faced with billions of dollars in writedowns, bankers expect lenders to conclude that providing a waterfront array of banking and insurance products matters less than freeing up cash, tied up in non-core units, to shore up hard-pressed banking arms. "Banks are now acknowledging that the value they offer in the insurance chain is through their distribution power rather than producing the insurance products themselves," said Mark Oldcorn, head of European insurance in the investment banking department at Credit Suisse. "But the backdrop to that realisation is of course the current crisis, which has forced many of them to face up to the fact that they are light of capital," said Oldcorn.
OptumHealth Disease Management Programs Receive Top Ranking from Business Insurance Magazine
OptumHealth has been ranked by Business Insurance magazine as the largest provider of Disease Management Services based on the number of clients, staff and total lives covered in 2007. The ranking was based on a Business Insurance survey and was published in the April 21, 2008 edition of Business Insurance. It was reported that in 2007, OptumHealth provided disease management programs to more than 10,000 clients, covering 41,535,701 lives with a total staff of 993. "This ranking provides a tangible measure of the scale of OptumHealth's disease management services and is a reflection of our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers and the markets we serve," said Rob Webb, chief executive officer of OptumHealth Care Solutions, which provides the company's disease management services.
EMB Helps Insurance Companies Stay Ahead Of The Price War With Improved Software
EMB, the leading global actuarial and business consultancy, will soon launch the latest version of its EMBLEM statistical modeling software. The application allows insurers to analyze millions of detailed customer records in just a few seconds in order to provide accurate pricing for large and small personal and commercial insurance lines. Over the last ten years, EMBLEM has become the industry leader for pricing, while also being used for a host of other statistical modeling applications, including credit scoring and marketing analytics. It has an increasingly global presence with 17 of the world's top 20 insurers currently using the application. More than 1,000 individuals across 200 companies rely on EMBLEM on a daily basis. The updated version of EMBLEM, which will be provided as a free upgrade for current users, delivers improved calculation speeds in response to the increasing volume of data available to insurers in today's market.
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