Headquarters:

Montréal

Year founded:

2020

Number of employees:

Phone:

450 984 1246

Email:

Info@Gahnic.com

Website:

en.gahnic.com

LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/company/gahnic

“We prioritise embracing cutting-edge technologies, creative problem solving and continuous improvement to enhance our premium funding solutions and provide exceptional value to our clients”

Brett Bastow, IQumulate Premium FundinG

Danielle Varela

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner

Marina Romic

Director, Finance

Doug Strong

Director

Leadership

A graduate of HEC Montréal and combining a financial and mathematical background, Danielle Varela has more than a decade of experience in a group insurance and pension consulting firm. She realized companies are using traditional methods and are struggling to prove themselves to overcome the labour shortage. Ignoring the fact that beyond the immediate challenge, this crisis also offers an opportunity to revolutionize the way companies work. After identifying the market’s need for emergency or temporary relief in benefits and pension plan management, Varela saw an opportunity to create an exceptional community and culture that united and empowered the strengths of professionals in the North American pensions and benefits industry to collaborate in innovative ways that have outsized their impact on the sector and helped overcome the labour shortage. She founded Gahnic in 2020. Her idea? To mitigate the short-term risks of a lack of specialized personnel by offering organizations targeted support through new technologies.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner

Danielle Varela

With more than 30 years in the pension industry and over 15 years with InBenefits, Marina Romic is an experienced professional. Prior to joining InBenefits, she held positions in pension trusts, foreign insurance trusts, and custodial services. In her role as director of finance, she is responsible for the administration of pension contributions and accounting and has contributed to the design and implementation of a state-of-the-art pension administration system. Marina holds the designation of Retirement Plans Associate, RPA (IFEBP), and has the Osgoode Certificate in Pension Law. She is a member of the Association of Canadian Pension Management.

Director, Finance

Marina Romic

Doug Strong is the director and co-founder of Shielded Insurance Brokers, with extensive experience in the insurance industry. He earned a Bachelor of Business degree from James Cook University and pursued postgraduate studies at Deakin University. His commitment to professional growth led him to affiliations with The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance & Finance and achieving the Excellence Award for Young Gun of the Year in 2022. With a strong educational foundation and a passion for excellence, his expertise and strategic acumen have been instrumental in Shielded Insurance Brokers’ success.

Director

Doug Strong

BRETT BASTOW, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDINGs

Leadership

“Our clients can expect IQumulate to support their business in several ways, providing an understanding of what premium funding solutions are available”

GRAEME GORDON, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDING

BRETT BASTOW, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDING

Leadership

Naomi Lim

Human Resources Adviser

Naomi Lim’s background has equipped her with the versatility to handle a wide array of change management projects, enhancing growth, whether at the individual or organisational level. She is a strategic HR leader with an honours degree in organisational psychology and a master’s degree in human resource management. As a young leader, Lim champions collaborative and inclusive leadership, empowering team performance and a commitment to staying at the forefront of HR innovation, creating workplaces where employees thrive and organisations excel.

Human Resources Adviser

Naomi Lim

Helen Johnson

Partner – Tax Advisory

Helen Johnson leads the PwC Legal tax practice and the New Zealand international tax team. She advises clients on all aspects of New Zealand tax, with focus areas including cross-border and domestic property and infrastructure investment, tax rulings and disputes, structuring and capital raising. Her clients include corporate groups, managed funds and high-net-worth family groups. She is also interested in tax policy. Johnson is a member of the New Zealand Law Society's Tax Law Committee and regularly presents at industry seminars. She previously worked at top-tier law firms in New Zealand and London.

Partner – Tax Advisory

Helen Johnson

Stevens & Associates Lawyers is a leading and trusted employment law firm based in Sydney known for delivering high-quality legal expertise in the area of employment law and industrial relations across Australia, alongside a proven track record of effectively and swiftly resolving a variety of workplace law issues. In the past year, the firm’s growth has been notable. It has: • experienced a 213% growth in the number of client matters, increasing from 149 client matters in the 2022 financial year to 390 client matters in the 2023 financial year • improved its online visibility, leading to over 50 online enquiries each month and a conversion rate of client leads of up to 40% • significantly expanded the breadth and type of matters that it advises on day to day, which has increased the firm’s skillsets, diversity and resilience • expanded its community outreach by collaborating with local Sydney venues for client seminars and continuing active participation in a Sydney small/family business group Stevens & Associates Lawyers has adapted to digital trends by implementing an effective strategy with SEO and web design, resulting in a structural shift that has seen increased representation of employees where the firm previously mainly advised employers. The firm’s recognition as a “Fast Firm” attests to its momentum in the employment law space.

“IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started”

Wayne Tower, IQumulate Premium Funding

Chris Baldock

Partner – Employment

Thierry Pascal

Head of Credit and Legal

Cemal Akgul

Head of Risk and Collections

Stephen McMillan

Commercial Manager

Chris Baldock leads the PwC Legal employment practice in New Zealand. Taking a highly commercial approach, his team helps employers navigate the nuances and challenges of New Zealand’s unique and evolving labour law regime. Baldock has worked with some of New Zealand’s largest organisations and advises on all manner of workplace legal issues, including statutory compliance, M&A people matters, workplace safety, disciplinary and performance issues, complex restructuring and change processes, Holidays Act compliance, collective bargaining and industrial action, and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. With a commercial litigation background, he has appeared regularly before the Employment Relations Authority and the courts.

Partner – Employment

Chris Baldock

Thierry Pascal has over 13 years of experience in business and corporate banking in various financial/credit analytical and relationship management roles with the NAB and CBA. After a career break to undertake postgraduate studies, he joined GE Capital as a senior risk analyst in premium funding in 2010. Following the divestment of the premium funding business to the Macquarie Group in 2015, he joined Macquarie Premium Funding and was promoted to credit risk manager, where he led the credit underwriting team. Following the re-branding to IQumulate Premium Funding, Pascal was recently promoted to head of credit and legal, a role that sees him manage the credit underwriting team as well as oversee IQumulate’s in-house legal function. Pascal holds undergraduate and postgraduate tertiary qualifications in accounting and law.

Head of Credit and Legal

Thierry Pascal

Cemal Akgul sees the head of risk and collections role as pivotal in guiding and influencing business decisions. He has more than 15 years of experience across financial and government services, most recently with the NDIS, where he was the leading consultant driving the Risk Management process’ nationwide. Prior to that, he served various roles at BMW Finance across the United States, Hong Kong, Germany and Australia. During Akgul’s tenure at BMW Finance, he predominately worked in risk management, guiding the organisation through seismic changes between 2016 and 2018. In his time prior, he was based out of New York, leading BMW Finance’s American subsidiary's market risk and data analytics teams between 2011 and 2016. Akgul values a balanced approach to business, encourages a positive work culture and is passionate about teaching and guiding the business and individuals at IQumulate.

Head of Risk and Collections

Cemal Akgul

Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager. As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.

Commercial Manager

Stephen McMillan

One culmination of these efforts has been the real-world, needs-based IQEdge solution. A one-stop online quoting tool designed for both the Australian and New Zealand markets, IQEdge delivers quotes in under 60 seconds. Plus, the solution offers quote comparison and quote versioning capabilities, enabling users to review vital historical and financial data in a single page view. IQEdge can streamline and automate application processing, underwriting document verification and payment collection, cutting the need for manual labour and minimising processing errors. A digital “self-service” platform, IQEdge, reduces the need for customer and administrative support. Meanwhile, borrowers can access their accounts, make payments and manage their policies independently and through sales and support teams, which are always available for further assistance. “We’ve created a quality platform that simplifies the quoting process yet amplifies the customer experience,” says Gordon. “It’s a real game changer.” IQumulate offers an online digital quoting tool to clients. The best-in-market solution enables IQumulate to tailor funding offerings to brokers that align with their prefered distribution channel.

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Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Turnaround time – claims

BDM support

Broker communication, training and development

Overall service level

BDM support

Medal

Overall service level

Broker communication, training and development

BDM support

Turnaround time – claims

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Small business

Medal

Overall service level

Broker communication, training and development

BDM support

Turnaround time – claims

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Small business

What does IQumulate have in mind for the future? “IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started,” says Wayne Tower, CEO. “Through continuous engagement with our clients, partners, marketplace and industry, we will listen to the needs as they arise and position our business to be agile and respond to changes as they occur. “Faster decision-making innovations such as AI-powered decision support systems can expedite the underwriting and approval process, leading to quicker responses to clients. This can improve client satisfaction and potentially attract more business, with the potential to allow IQumulate to capture a larger market share, whilst continuing to deliver service excellence to clients.” “As forward-thinkers with a digital and ‘do it better’ mindset, we collectively and proactively look to learn and improve on our customer experience for our clients, paving the way for successful business outcomes for our clients and our business in the coming years ahead. “We’re excited for the future and look forward to what’s on the horizon.”

https://iqumulate.com/

IQumulate invests in education and people, which are vital to attracting new business and talent to the company. “We have long tenures for several of our key staff, including some in leadership positions, and this sound working knowledge of our business, practices and industry provides great insights and a wealth of experience to offer our clients,” says Bastow. “Our new head of sales, Graeme Gordon, formerly manager for New Zealand, joins us in Australia to drive our sales strategy and lead our team to successful outcomes for our clients and our business. We look forward to great things ahead with Graeme as he continues to be active and present in the New Zealand market as well as building sound working relationships and new connections in Australia.” Clients can also expect a lot from working with IQumulate. “Through active engagement with our trusted broker network, IQumulate provides relevant information, education and training content,” says Graeme Gordon, head of sales. “Our clients can expect IQumulate to support their business in several ways, providing an understanding of what premium funding solutions are available and how IQumulate can spread the cost of insurance and help borrowers get the right level of insurance cover to free up their cash flow for other expenses or business growth opportunities. Premium funding is often considered a tool for those who simply cannot afford to pay their premiums in full. While this is certainly a significant driver for many, it is also successfully used by profitable companies who use premium funding to manage their cash flows more wisely or better manage their liquidity.”

What does IQumulate have in mind for the future? “IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started,” says Wayne Tower, CEO. “Through continuous engagement with our clients, partners, marketplace and industry, we will listen to the needs as they arise and position our business to be agile and respond to changes as they occur. “Faster decision-making innovations such as AI-powered decision support systems can expedite the underwriting and approval process, leading to quicker responses to clients. This can improve client satisfaction and potentially attract more business, creating a competitive advantage with the potential to allow IQumulate to command premium pricing or capture a larger market share. “As forward-thinkers with a digital and ‘do it better’ mindset, we collectively and proactively look to learn and improve on our customer experience for our clients, paving the way for successful business outcomes for our clients and our business in the coming years ahead. “We’re excited for the future and look forward to what’s on the horizon.”

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Commercial Manager

Stephen McMillan

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Proving that the firm’s methods are effective, they are on course for $150m in GWP in FY24 and plan to increase their staff count to 100. Selecting team members is a detailed process that ensures everyone integrates and adopts the internal culture. “As a younger team, we are inspired to grow the next generation of insurance professionals, and this sometimes means that we will onboard team members with less than two years of insurance experience. We view cultural fit as being equally important to insurance experience,” says Brady. “To manage this, we have invested heavily in the onboarding process, including a mix of external education resources and time spent across different departments in their first weeks at the company. We are also in the build phase of some exciting technology advancements that will leverage AI and machine learning to assist with training and overall knowledge and compliance.” Along with Brady, fellow directors Joshua Scutts and Douglas Strong have been part of the business since its beginning and prioritise:

the development of additional technology to further automate the more mundane and time-intensive processes building out a compliance system using AI that will significantly reduce exposure to compliance and regulatory issues rolling out of a new series of marketing strategies to strengthen retention and bring in new clients

“Our brokers understand their clients’ business needs and pair them with the right product and appropriate level of cover for any foreseeable risk or contingency”

Cynthia Yap, Dynamic Insurance Services

“Our brokers are encouraged to ‘specialise’ in a market niche because it allows them to negotiate an insurance scheme with the underwriters for the most competitive insurance premiums”

Cynthia Yap, Dynamic Insurance Services

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Gahnic Services and Consulting has established itself as one of the industry’s leading on-demand service providers in the benefits and pension ecosystem, creating innovative and temporary staff shortage solutions for companies. Client collaboration is just the starting point for the Montreal-based young start-up named a 2023 Service Provider award winner by Benefits and Pensions Monitor. Gahnic was also awarded Most Innovative Benefits Management Firm – North America in the Wealth & Finance International Awards and was named in the Top 50 Innovative Companies to Watch in 2022 by the Silicon Review. Now covering the entire North American market, the company prides itself on saving clients time and money by reacting quickly, seizing opportunities, and decisively responding when developing solutions. When doing business with Gahnic, clients can expect responsiveness, flexibility, agility, and critical thinking to overcome obstacles. “We work to support, develop, and optimize our clients’ businesses with our on-demand solutions,” says founder and CEO Danielle Varela. “Having mastered the benefits and pensions ecosystem, we move forward with our clients in complete transparency.” Gahnic’s executives are geographically dispersed across North America, and together, they offer on-demand and remote services. The secret of their success lies in their collaborative leadership, which helps them extend their activities across borders by sharing their diverse knowledge of the laws and regulatory frameworks that govern the benefits and pension industry in each province or state where they operate. “We have a unique position in this industry, and our most important strategy remains the business model that, as the founder of this company, I created, which has enabled the company to cross borders and overcome the regulations and laws that can be restrictive in this sector for Quebec companies wishing to export,” says Varela. Innovation isn’t a uniform process at Gahnic but a proven method that dates back hundreds of years, at least since the Industrial Revolution. The organization employs the same approach to foster innovation in the highly standardized employee benefits and pensions sector by bringing together a diverse group of creative, independent risk-takers. Varela says, “Our innovation plans are developed in-house but inevitably are reactive to what employees and the market want. Every company wants to be effective and efficient to improve its corporate culture and earnings to ensure its survival. By adopting collaborative leadership, we create an interconnection between the components that support the innovation of our services, including societal, technological, and innovative for the ecosystem.” As a trusted partner, Gahnic’s interdisciplinary team has a diverse skill set spanning finance, actuarial science, crypto, and DeFi experience. It constantly develops products and new solutions based on client demands. Some of these products may not be suitable for all clients. ‘’We believe that we are in the early innings of benefits and pension industry innovation resulting from an ever-changing job market and an equally dynamic economic situation, forcing Gahnic to offer increasingly bold, unconstrained alternative solutions such as token-based rewards or to use them as part of a broader diversification of an investment portfolio. For example, for the most daring of our Canadian clients, we import what is being done elsewhere in alternative crypto or blockchain investments,” Varela says.

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constant energy and focus towards improving the service offering to clients venturing into new territory with technology creating a solid foundation of knowledge and compliance that will secure success over the long haul

Underlining this commitment is the company’s internal motto, “It’s only the beginning,” which still rings true after almost seven years in operation. Brady explains how Shielded has widened its scope. “The brokerage doesn’t target any specific client base,” he says. “When we started the business, we were very focused on specific lines of business, but as the brand has grown with all sorts of enquiries, we have become diversified across many industries.” And Brady also shares his view on why success will be an ongoing process for the firm. “We adapt to the demand for how consumers want to interact with our industry, and we’re a passionate and energetic group of young insurance professionals bringing new ideas,” he says.

Dynamic Insurance Services is also continuing to boost its growth with initiatives such as:

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a 12-month branding and marketing campaign investment in digital assets and content that can support the marketing efforts of brokers strengthening their stable specialised insurance schemes to offer even better value for money for clients

Ms Yap says, “We have a supportive work environment with an emphasis on mentorship and wellbeing. This is especially helpful for female insurance professionals, who often have to balance professional goals with family duties. We actively encourage brokers to break new ground by establishing market niches and insurance schemes that best leverage their experience and contacts.”

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