Biography

Katherine A. (Kathy) Bardswick

Kathy brings extensive board experience and, as the former CEO of The Cooperators Group Ltd., wide-ranging knowledge of profit and loss, operations, distribution, information technology, and marketing.

With a career spanning nearly four decades she began as an underwriting supervisor, rising through the ranks of management to executive leadership roles including Region Vice President of Co-operators General Insurance Company, COO of L’Union Canadienne, and COO of Sovereign General Insurance Company before her appointment as President and CEO in 2002.

Kathy has been very active in the cooperative and mutual insurance movement, as well as in her local community. She is currently Director of RGA Canada and Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company. Kathy has held professional board and voluntary roles with a wide range of organizations including: the Sustainable Finance Action Council, University Pension Plan, International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, International Cooperative Alliance, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, United Nations Inquiry into a Sustainable Financial System, University of Guelph, Burlington Economic Development Corporation, the Conference Board of Canada, Addenda Capital, and The Cooperators Group Ltd. She is immediate past Chair of the boards of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, and CUMIS Group Limited.

Kathy holds a Bachelor of Science (Math) from the University of Manitoba and an MBA (Marketing) from McMaster University. She was appointed Honorary Chartered Insurance Professional with the Insurance Institute of Canada and received her honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of Guelph in 2019.

Kathy has been a member of the Foresters Board since 2017; she is currently Chair of the Risk and Investment Committee and a member of the Board’s Human Capital and Governance Committee.