Our Leadership - Canada

Laura Samaroo has been with WTW for over thirty years, with leadership roles in both management and consulting. As the Canada region leader, Laura focuses on strengthening client relationships, providing strategic guidance to support business development, and promoting WTW’s leading capabilities. Laura is passionate about providing exceptional client service, assembling diverse perspectives, and creating high-performance teams and culture.

Laura holds a BSc in Statistics and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Jean-Robert has over 25 years of consulting experience managing some of the largest and most complex clients in Montreal. Jean-Robert has a proven track record of success as an entrepreneur and business leader helping organizations achieve their goals through innovative solutions, particularly in the field of non-traditional employee benefit funding vehicles, such as employee benefit captives.

Jean-Robert graduated from the Université de Montréal, obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in actuarial sciences. He also holds the designations of Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Stephen brings more than 20 years of management and consulting experience to his Market Leader role, with a focus on collaboration, teamwork, and client success. A recognized compensation expert within the GTA, he is a Senior Director in WTW’s Work & Rewards practice and a member of our global Sales Effectiveness & Rewards team. Stephen has broad experience managing both compensation and benefits programs, and in particular the design of new and innovative reward programs to drive business results. Stephen earned a BA in Economics from York University and an MSc in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics. Stephen is also a Group Benefits Associate, a Compensation Management Specialist, and a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS).

As Market Leader, Kristy focuses on building WTW culture, creating an engaging work environment and bringing diverse teams together in the service of our clients. Passionate about helping organizations realize the potential of their people, Kristy is a Director in WTW’s Employee Experience practice, with more than 20 years’ expertise advising on all aspects of talent management including employee experience, HR strategy, leadership assessment and development, DEI, organizational design, recruiting, performance management, competencies and change management. Kristy holds a BSc in actuarial science from Pennsylvania State University, and is certified in Hogan, Facet5 and Saville Assessments.

Demetri brings more than 25 years of experience working with a broad spectrum of organizations across multiple industries. He provides strategic advice in all areas of retirement plan management and has led numerous large and complex change management and financial risk management projects. Demetri has a B.Sc. in actuarial science and economics from the University of Toronto. He is a fellow for the Society of Actuaries and a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Erica is a senior consulting actuary with 19 years of experience assisting clients in the management of the people and financial risks associated with their retirement arrangements. She has led many complex and challenging consulting assignments, including a significant number of plan design projects, plan mergers, corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, large retirement change management projects and partial and full plan settlements.

Erica has a B.Sc. in actuarial science from Western University and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries.

Ross has more than 30 years of experience working with some of the largest and most complex employers in Canada. His areas of expertise cover a broad range of topics including benefits design and financial risk management, with a passion for developing innovative solutions to address business issues and support employee wellbeing. In this role, Ross leads a team of multi-disciplinary professionals across Canada.

Ross earned a Bachelor's degree in Actuarial Science from Concordia University. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries.

Erin leads the Risk & Broking team in Canada. She brings over 25 years of extensive broking experience, with expertise in Financial Risk, Professional Liability, Risk Management, and Property & Casualty Insurance. Erin is a well-respected insurance leader in Canada, and frequent speaker at industry events. Erin is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

Mark is a Director and Office Leader in WTW’s Insurance Consulting & Technology Life practice in Toronto, Canada. With over 20 years’ experience in the global life insurance industry his areas of expertise include actuarial modelling, in-force block analysis and management, reinsurance treaty writing and interpretation, experience analysis and assumption setting, management dashboard design, personal data privacy and genetic non-discrimination related insurance regulation, and enterprise-wide software and infrastructure stewardship.

Mark’s recent client engagements providing mandated actuarial peer review services for a large multi-national insurer and for smaller insurance branches operating in Canada included reviews of experience studies, annual valuation basis changes, FCT scenarios, quarterly embedded value calculations and IFRS 17 policy papers.

Prior to joining the firm in 2022, Mark was the Vice President of a reinsurer’s global actuarial consulting group providing actuarial services across their North American, EMEA and APAC regions. Mark’s role included risk controlling, expense management, IFRS 17 transition tool and reference calculator design, and the stewardship of globally deployed actuarial modelling and experience analysis software. Mark was also a pricing actuary and client manager with the same reinsurer operating in Canada on a branch basis.

Mark is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (“FCIA”) and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (“FSA”). He has served as a Co-chair of the CLHIA’s Working Group on Reinsurance Guidelines and has authored the SOA’s study “The Impact of Genetic Testing on Life Insurance Mortality”. Currently Mark serves as a member of WTW’s Global IFRS 17 Advisory and participates in OSFI’s Life Insurance Actuarial Advisory Committee (LIAAC)

France is an accomplished Market Leader at WTW for Employee Experience and M&A. A strategic partner to clients and colleagues, a mentor of numerous next generation leaders, she assists organizations in accomplishing their business and people strategies. She has 30 years of experience in designing and implementing solutions associated with transformation, leadership effectiveness, culture evolution, and employee experience leading to business performance. She is a Canadian Human Resources Leader, honoured by the CHRA for her engagement in the advancement of the profession, and holds an MBA from the Université du Québec à Montréal. France is also a ballet master and choreographer and has trained dancers for over 40 years.

Chad has more than 20 years of experience advising on sensitive and complex executive compensation and related governance issues. Working at both the senior executive and Board levels, he has broad experience in engaging all stakeholders, including external advisors and shareholder advisory groups. Equally, Chad’s expertise includes program design and implementation across the full spectrum of total rewards, communications and employee engagement. Chad earned a Master’s Degree in Accounting and Business from the University of Waterloo, and completed the advanced human resources executive program at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Luiz Farias is the Senior Director, Investments – Head of Canada at WTW. He is an investment professional with over 20 years of experience in investment management and consulting. Luiz has held several key positions within the financial industry in Latin America and North America. Most recently, Luiz was the leader of WTW’s investment practice in Brazil. His areas of expertise include investment strategy and portfolio construction, investment governance, and developing policy on investment compensation.

Luiz holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Business Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Jean-Francois (JF) leads the Insurance Consulting and Technology Canada Property Casualty team. His experience has been mainly in Pricing, Underwriting, Product Management, Product Development, and Advanced Analytics. Before joining WTW, JF spent 25 years with large and medium Canadian insurers where he held several progressive leadership roles and leading multiple projects related to business transformation, process improvements and how to improve customer experience.

Jean-Francois holds a degree in Actuarial Sciences from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA). JF is also a member of the Casualty Actuarial Society translation project responsible to provide CAS exams in French. He is fluent in both French and English.