Bruce West

School of Accounting and Finance Fellowship Honourees

Bruce West, BMath, CA, MBA, FLMI, C. Dir,

Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer

The Co-operators Group Limited

Guelph, Ontario

Bruce West joined The Co-operators Group in June 2007 as Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer. He brings over 25 years of progressive financial and managerial experience in operations, corporate development, and financial management to this role.

Bruce began his career with KPMG in 1980. He launched his financial services career with London Life in 1983 where he progressed through several financial roles over the next 11 years. He moved to Clarica Life Insurance Company for the following eight years, becoming Vice President, Finance and Shared Services in 1997.

Bruce was actively involved in growing Clarica’s Canadian business, along with the demutualization of the company and several M&A transactions. When Sun Life Financial acquired Clarica in 2002, Bruce became Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Sun Life's Canadian business. Here he played a key role in the integration of the two companies.

Bruce returned to university full-time in 2004. He re-entered the workforce in the high-tech industry as Executive Vice President, Finance and Business Processes at ARISE Technologies Corporation where he helped engineer a financial turnaround. Most recently, Bruce was Vice-President, Finance for Canadian Tire Financial Services and Chief Financial Officer for Canadian Tire Bank.

Bruce’s educational accomplishments include a Bachelor of Mathematics (co-op) from the University of Waterloo (1980), Chartered Accountant designation (1981), FLMI designation (1985), and a MBA with a concentration in marketing from Wilfrid Laurier University (2005). In 2009, Bruce obtained the Chartered Director (C.Dir.) designation from The Directors College (a joint venture of McMaster University and the Conference Board of Canada). He is also a member of the Financial Executives Institute of Canada.

Bruce sits on the board of directors for a number of companies within The Co-operators Group and serves on the boards of EGI Financial Holdings Inc. (TSX: EFH) and Echelon General Insurance Company. Bruce is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University.

2009 Fellow: Scott Donovan