Profile
“My strongest professional quality is my ability to build trust and long-term relationships, whether with clients, colleagues, or stakeholders”
Danny Ibrahim,
KeyRate Mortgage
Eric Trudel’s career began at Beneva when he was just 22. He joined as an actuarial analyst after graduating from Université Laval and has grown with the company ever since.
Over 33 years, he has worked in sales, marketing, digital, client experience, strategy, legal, risk management, and corporate actuarial. His current position as executive vice president and leader of group insurance is his ninth assignment, giving him extensive experience across multiple departments within the same organization.
Trudel now leads a team of 1,500 professionals at Canada’s largest mutual insurance company. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and completed executive education at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.
His broad background has shaped the 360-degree perspective he brings to strategy and execution. It also gave him the tools to help Beneva grow its group insurance practice beyond Quebec, positioning it as a national leader.
Among his most significant career milestones, Trudel cites his work in helping to establish Beneva itself. His current challenge is implementing a new group insurance ecosystem, a multi-year IT project he admits tests his patience. Yet he sees it as the next leap for the business.
The phased implementation began in 2024 with new groups moving to the system, and full migration is scheduled over three years.
“Upon successful completion of this initiative, I will consider my career milestones fulfilled,” he says.
With a collaborative leadership style, Trudel views teamwork as his strongest professional quality and believes optimism plays a central role in how he leads. “I am an optimist who believes every problem has a solution,” he says, adding that this mindset helps his teams turn challenges into opportunities.
With more than three decades in the business, he brings a perspective that comes from seeing the group benefits space evolve. He continues to share that knowledge at conferences and forums across Canada and abroad. He also played a role in the creation of the EP3 Standard, alongside his work in advancing AI-driven fraud prevention and digital modernization.
Sustainability has been his North Star this year. Beneva pressed the issue of rising costs with a complaint to the Competition Bureau of Canada in May 2025. His team is pushing AI for fraud detection in health and dental, and funding prevention programs that tackle workplace anxiety. In his view, these actions help secure the future of private group insurance and support productivity across Canadian workplaces.
At this point in his career, he says his motivation is to contribute to the industry by keeping private group plans affordable and sustainable. He mentors with empathy, aiming to inspire his team by sharing successes and lessons learned. He strives to live by Beneva’s values of collaboration, customer commitment, engagement, integrity, and unity in daily decisions.
In the community, Trudel serves as honorary president of Quebec City’s Daffodil Dinner in April 2025, helping to raise a record $900,000 for Canadian Cancer Society research.
In recognition of his significant impact, he was named to BPM’s Hot List for 2025, which highlights executives who are shaping the future. For Trudel, the goal is a stronger industry. By focusing on innovation, sustainability, and people, he is helping build a group insurance sector that can handle today’s demands and thrive in the years ahead.
2525 boulevard Laurier, Quebec, QC G1V 2L2
1 855 747 7750 x 27672
eric.trudel@beneva.ca
linkedin.com/in/eric-trudel-b51140a
beneva.ca
Eric Trudel
Executive Vice President & Lead - Group Insurance
Beneva
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Bio
Milestones
“I’ve always believed that if you love what you do, you’ll never settle, and that attitude has guided every decision I’ve made”
Danny Ibrahim,
KeyRate Mortgage
1993–1999
2000–2002
2003–2012
2012–2016
2017–Present
Actuarial analyst, actuarial and products, Group Life and Health
1993–1999
Account executive, Jumbo Groups, Group Life and Health
2000–2002
Management roles, actuarial and products, Group Life and Health
Director in 2003 to senior director in 2008 to vice-president in 2011
2003–2012
Senior vice-president, corporate services (legal, risk management, corporate actuarial, internal audit, M&A)
2012–2016
2017–2020: Senior vice-president, Strategy and product management
2020–Present: Executive vice-president and lead - group insurance at Beneva
2024: Workplace Benefits Awards winner in the Industry Leadership category, recognizing his outstanding contributions to modernizing and humanizing group insurance in Canada
2017–Present
Assistant Vice President and Senior Broker at MJ Hall & Company since 2018
Present
Milestones
