Appointed May 1, 2023, Susan Penwarden is the Managing Director, Personal Insurance of Aviva Canada. In this role she will drive the Personal Lines strategy across all routes to market, including products, propositions, service, and business performance. In collaboration with key stakeholders, Susan will also be driving operational excellence via digital transformation and focus on continuous operational improvement.
Since joining Aviva, Susan has held various senior leadership roles in Canada and globally. In Canada, she joined as Chief Performance Officer, Commercial Lines and shortly after became the Chief Technical Underwriter (CTU). As CTU, she focused building a central technical team to drive commercial technical strategies and technical performance including underwriting, pricing, and product and proposition, reinsurance and exposure management which has enabled Aviva Commercial Lines to deliver significant profitable growth.
In the United Kingdom, Susan was the Chief Underwriting Officer for Commercial Lines including Global Corporate & Specialty (GCS), Small Medium Enterprise (SME), and the Irish businesses for Aviva General Insurance UK. In 2019, Susan became Director General of Aviva France General Insurance, where she was responsible for their profit and loss and end-to-end performance including strategy, underwriting, pricing, and claims operations.
Prior to joining Aviva, Susan worked for RSA, first in Canada as Director of Commercial Technical Underwriting, then as Chief Risk Officer for the Codan Group in Denmark, and finally as Director of Global Specialty Lines back at RSA in London.