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
Danielle Amiel has carved a place for herself in one of finance’s most demanding arenas.
As director of governance and risk management at the Medicus Pension Plan, she was instrumental in building a defined benefit plan that provides retirement security to physicians across Canada. For her contributions, she has been named to BPM’s Rising Stars of 2025 list.
Her career has never followed a rigid script. While she was always drawn to roles that deliver structure and long-term stability, Amiel has let opportunities shape her path. Challenges that might have seemed daunting became the places she learned most.
“I approach my work as both a responsibility and a craft. Responsibility, because pensions are about people’s futures, and decisions carry real weight,” she explains. “Craft, because I believe governance and risk frameworks can be built thoughtfully, ethically, and creatively.”
That philosophy has served her well at Medicus. Helping to launch a new defined benefit plan during a time when many in the sector were shifting risk onto individuals stands out as her proudest achievement.
From the earliest governance and risk frameworks to the financial underpinnings, Amiel was a key part of the initial team that built the plan from the ground up. For her, the work went beyond controls and structure; it underscored the role pensions play in collective well-being.
Amiel describes her strongest professional quality as the ability to move seamlessly between the strategic and the technical.
She navigates easily between setting policy direction with trustees and working through actuarial assumptions or governance detail. That range has made her a trusted figure at Medicus, where the real challenge is turning complexity into clarity day after day.
To her, the sector stands at a crossroads, caught between traditional models and emerging innovation. She sees her role as helping to guide those transitions in ways that safeguard members while embracing necessary change.
Courage and curiosity are the traits she believes have propelled her early career.
“I’ve never been afraid to take on challenges that others might step back from, whether it’s standing up a new pension plan or challenging the status quo of a long-entrenched industry,” she says.
Curiosity has balanced that instinct, driving her to question assumptions, ask difficult questions, and learn from peers and mentors.
Mentorship has been another critical influence. Amiel credits both formal and informal mentors with shaping her thinking. Industry peers have been equally important as sounding boards for ideas and collaborators on creative approaches.
Amiel considers her vantage point as a strength. Coming in with a new perspective lets her see long-standing practices differently and sometimes spot solutions others may not. That willingness to push against the expected has added to her credibility, even among more seasoned peers.
Recognition as a Rising Star has been humbling and motivating.
“It’s a reminder that the work matters, not just to me but to the members whose retirement depends on these plans,” she adds. “It is also a call to action: to keep raising the bar, to mentor emerging leaders, and to continue building systems that serve future generations.”
40 King Street West, 52nd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5H 3Y2
647 777 1560
danielle.amiel@medicuspensionplan.com
linkedin.com/in/danielle-amiel
medicuspensionplan.com/en/home.html
Danielle Amiel
Director, Governance & Risk Management Medicus Pension Plan
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“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
2010–2014
2014–2017
2017–2022
2022–Present
2024–Present
Senior Actuarial Analyst, Towers Watson
2010–2014
Manager, Life & Pensions Actuarial Practice, KPMG LLP
2014–2017
2017–2022: Senior Manager, Global DB Plans, Scotiabank
2018: Scotiabank Culture Catalyst Award Winner
2018, 2020: Scotiabank Best of the Best Award Winner
2017–2022
Director, Governance & Risk Management, Medicus Pension Plan
2022–Present
2024–Present: Chief sales and marketing officer at RedZed, overseeing RedZed’s sales and marketing functions, with a strong focus on initiatives that equip brokers to effectively support the unique needs of self-employed borrowers
2024: Honoured with the Global Female Private Banker of the Year at the Global Private Banking Innovation Awards for the second consecutive year, becoming the first-ever back-to-back global winner in the category
2024–Present
Assistant Vice President and Senior Broker at MJ Hall & Company since 2018
Present
Milestones
