CBMU Fall Conference 2024

 12:30pm

Registration 

1:00pm - 1:10pm

Opening Remarks and President's Report

Danielle Jackson, CBMU President, Falvey Insurance Group
A welcome to the Fall Conference and review of the past year in the Canadian marine insurance industry.

Danielle graduated from Fanshawe College with an Advanced Marketing Diploma in 2008. That summer Danielle began her career in Marine Insurance as both a Yacht Underwriter and Broker with Pacific Marine Underwriters. After her time at PMU Danielle continued brokering in the Marine Department at Aon before moving to the underwriting side at Coast Underwriters in 2012. During her time with Coast Danielle joined the CBMU as a member of the Communications Committee and then gladly accepted the role of Communications Committee Chair in 2014. In 2017 Danielle moved to Intact as a Commercial Marine Underwriter, completed her CIP designation with a focus on Marine and took over the role of Education Committee Chair for the CBMU. Danielle moved to Falvey Insurance Group as a Vice President in 2021 and served as CBMU Vice-President from 2022 before now taking the role of President.

1:10pm - 1:15pm

Highlights of the 2024 IUMI Conference

Chris Parisi, Northbridge, CBMU IUMI Bursary Recipient
A review of the IUMI 2024 conference from the IUMI Bursary Recipient of 2024

Chris currently works at Northbridge Insurance as a Senior Marine Underwriter.  Chris started his insurance career in 2016 selling and servicing personal lines insurance at Belairdirect.  After a year at Belairdirect, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in underwriting.  Chris spent the next three years as a Personal Lines Underwriter, and then two years as a Commercial Lines Underwriter at Wawanesa Insurance.  It was 2021 when Chris made the jump to marine insurance by joining Burns & Wilcox Canada and then Northbridge Insurance in 2023.  Chris is a member of the CBMU Underwriting Committee and is a frequent volunteer at the Mission for Seafarers Christmas Volunteer Day.

1:15pm - 1:30pm

1:30pm - 1:40pm

1:40pm - 2:30pm

Industry Updates

Transport Canada: Marine Liability Act, Sanctions, Dark Fleet & More Updates
Caitlin O'Boyle, Manager, Liability and Compensation | Transport Canada, Marine Policy | Government of Canada
An update on key Transport Canada marine files, including an overview of recent amendments to the Marine Liability Act, sanctions, the dark fleet, work at the International Maritime Organization, and Oceans Protection Plan initiatives

Caitlin O’Boyle is the Manager of Marine Liability and Compensation at Transport Canada, bringing over a decade of expertise in maritime policy and regulation. In her role, Caitlin oversees the development and implementation of policies, legislation, and regulations related to marine liability, compensation, and insurance. Her portfolio includes the Marine Liability Act, the Wrecked, Abandoned and Hazardous Vessels Act, the Marine Insurance Act, and the Marine War Risk Act. Caitlin also plays a key role in integrating international conventions into Canada’s domestic framework.

Since 2020, Caitlin has represented Canada at the International Maritime Organization and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, contributing to global maritime policy discussions. She holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University.
 

CMLA: The Latest in Maritime Law
Rui Fernandes, President, Canadian Maritime Law Association, Gardiner Roberts LLP

Rui Fernandes is a partner at Gardiner Roberts LLP in Toronto Canada. He represents domestic and international clients involved directly and indirectly in transportation, insurance and related industries. He advises clients with respect to contract and commercial law including risk analysis and regulatory matters. He provides corporate and commercial advice to foreign clients setting up and doing business in Canada. His insurance practice includes policy drafting, coverage issues, errors and omissions claims, professional liability claims, marine and aviation, inland marine, property and casualty liability defense, products liability and subrogation. 

Rui has a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds certificates from the University of Windsor for its ADR Workshop and for its Advanced ADR Workshop and Pepperdine University for its STAR program (Systematic Approach to Mediation Strategies). He is a qualified arbitrator and obtained his Q. Arb. designation in 2019 and his FCIArb in 2020. Rui has conducted numerous mediations and arbitrations both as counsel and as a mediator or arbitrator.

Rui has run a number of successful businesses including vessel chartering, biotechnology, small hydroelectric and publishing.
He has appeared as senior counsel in trial and appellate courts and agencies across Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada, The Federal Court, Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Alberta, Canadian International Trade Tribunal, Canadian Transportation Agency, Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada, and the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario Discipline Committee.
 

IUMI Updates; The Geopolitical Perspective & Introduction to War Risks
Frédéric Denèfle, IUMI President

Frédéric Denèfle serves as IUMI President since 2022. Frédéric previously served on the Executive committee member and chaired IUMI’s Legal and Liability Committee. Frédéric is GAREX’s Managing director since 2017. He was previously in charge of managing legal and claim matters from 1988 to 2016 in various insurance Groups or Market structures such as Réunion Européenne  AGFMAT, AGCS and CESAM.

Frédéric studied Law and International relations at the University of Paris-Sorbone and Institut libre de relations internationales in Paris. He is a member of the French Marine law association and France Assureurs (French Insurance Professional association) technical working groups focusing on legal and claims issues in relation with Marine/transports risks. Frédéric is also a Lecturer as marine insurance practitioner in AIX MARSEILLE University and PARIS University.

Coffee Break

2:45pm - 3:30pm

3:30pm - 4:15pm

4:15pm - 5:00pm

Educational Sessions

State of Arctic Shipping: Canada's Arctic, NWP Governance, Risk and Role of Insurance
Dr. Jessica M. Shadian, President and CEO of Arctic360

Dr. Jessica M. Shadian is the President and CEO of Arctic360, Canada’s Premier Arctic think tank. During her 20 career she has lived and worked throughout the Nordic and North American Arctic as an Arctic researcher, professor, and consultant. Her peer reviewed articles, books, and media commentary focus on Arctic geopolitics, Arctic politics, Canadian Arctic foreign policy and diplomacy, Arctic infrastructure, critical minerals, and innovation. Her expertise is regularly solicited by international media outlets, governments, think tanks, and other institutions throughout the circumpolar region and globally.

Shadian’s 2014 book entitled: The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice, and Inuit Governance (Routledge) is the first in-depth history of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and Inuit sovereignty in global politics reaching back to pre-European discovery. Shadian holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance from the University of Delaware (2006) during which she wrote her dissertation at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), University of Cambridge, UK on an NSF award. Shadian spent the following 5 years in the Norwegian high north as a researcher and professor at the Barents Institute and the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University, Bodø.

During that time, Shadian was a co-creator and organiser of an Arctic Dialogue series which brought together state and local political leaders, oil and gas and other industry leaders, local Indigenous communities, and academia (from Norway, Alaska, and Greenland) concerned with Arctic offshore oil and gas development to share knowledge and ideas. Shadian later received a Marie Curie COFUND Fellowship award and served as an Associate Professor, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Denmark before completing a two-year Nansen Professorship, co-funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Akureyri, Iceland in June 2017. Having settled in Canada, her experiences around the Arctic made it clear that Canada needed its own Arctic specific think tank and working in collaboration with colleagues she dedicated herself full-time to build Arctic360.

General Average in a Changing World
Keith Saunders, Divsional Director, Cargo Casualty Management, WK Webster & Co
 

Keith Saunders joined WK Webster in 2006, having previously worked for shipowners and a classification society. Keith has over 25 years of marine claims experience, covering all claim types. His focus is on large, complex marine casualties with a specialism in general average, salvage and collisions where he has represented cargo interests in many of the highest profile casualty incidents in recent years. Additionally, Keith is a regular speaker in respect of general average and salvage. 

The Dali: Insights into the Baltimore Incident
John Woods, Partner, Clyde & Co US LLP
 

John Woods concentrates his practice in maritime law and insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration. He principally represents US and foreign insurers in the areas of maritime hull, liability, cargo, pollution, war risk, loss of earnings and environmental claims. He has significant experience in cases involving shipbuilding contracts and third party marine liability. John also has broad experience in cases involving oil spills, hazardous substance discharges and OPA and CERCLA claims. He has litigated claims by and against the National Pollution Fund Center.

John has handled litigations involving major maritime casualties and claims in courts across the United States, and has counseled clients involved in litigations in foreign courts. Recent instructions include cases arising out of the World Trade Center disaster and Hurricane Katrina, including a successful coverage action over claims arising from the flooding of New Orleans. He has argued appeals in the New York appellate courts (including the New York Court of Appeals) and five of the US Courts of Appeal.

In addition, John represents clients in arbitration, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. He also serves as an arbitrator and mediator. In non-maritime insurance counselling, his principal areas of expertise include political risk insurance, aviation and space, energy and professional indemnity insurance.

John is recognized by Legal 500 in the Hall of Fame category for Shipping - Litigation and Regulation, and he is the only North American partner simultaneously ranked by Chambers for Transportation: Shipping/Maritime: Litigation (New York) and Shipping: Litigation - Global Market Leaders. Clients have stated that John “understands the market in a way no one else does" and “John is a very respected, well-known litigator and good lawyer.”

        6:00pm - 10:00pm

        Reception and Gala Dinner

        To be held in the Grand Banking Hall

$425.00^_+Tax

$475.00^_+Tax

$185.00^_+Tax

$235.00^_+Tax

$295.00^_+Tax

$345.00^_+Tax