George L. Cooke is Chair of the Board of Directors of OMERS Administration Corporation. He began serving as Chair on October 1, 2013. As Chair, Mr. Cooke also serves as ex officio (non-voting) member on the Board’s Audit, Governance, Human Resources and Member Services Committees.
In 2012, Mr. Cooke retired after a tenure of more than 20 years as the CEO and a Director of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, one of Canada’s oldest and largest general insurance companies. During that time, he served as both an Executive Vice President and Director of E-L Financial Corporation (The Dominion’s parent).
When he retired from The Dominion, Mr. Cooke established Martello Associates Consulting, specializing in business strategy. He serves as an advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of IMS, a telematics company based in Waterloo, Ontario.
Mr. Cooke has also served as a Director of The Insurance Bureau of Canada, The Facility Association, and Property and Casualty Insurance Corporation. He also participated as a member of the Ontario Government-appointed Auto Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force and is currently the Board Chair of CANATICS, an industry-owned, insurance fraud analytics company. Past director positions also include Empire Life and Atomic Energy Canada Limited. He currently serves as a Director of Hydro One. His directorships have provided him with broad exposure to audit, human resources, investment, public policy and regulatory matters.
Mr. Cooke enjoys a profound interest in public policy and, earlier in his career, was a Special Advisor on Policy to the Honourable Robert F. Nixon, Ontario’s former Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance.
Mr. Cooke has a MBA and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens University. He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree (LLD) from Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario. He also was awarded a HCIP (Honourary Chartered Insurance Professional) designation by the Insurance Institute of Canada.
Mr. Cooke is also involved with a number of not-for-profit organizations, the most prominent being Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCI). This work helped him earn the Ken Langford Honourary Lifetime Membership from SCI.