Katia Umutoniwase

After an excellent performance as a subject matter expert on the travel insurance sector, I earned a high-level strategic role focused on bringing new capabilities to business operations for the travel insurance segment. Moreover, I leveraged a depth of experience in the sales organization to support ambitious efforts to build a technology-powered ecosystem, with collective success in building a roadmap for execution pending the end of the industry downturn from COVID-19. Among my Areas of Proven Performance, I: - Actively collaborate with senior management to envision digital initiatives which will introduce analytics, efficiency, process automation and end to end digital enablement to the organization through the use of digital tools. - Oversee and coordinate an operations team responsible for integrating Manulife’s solutions into enterprise-level client operations. Additionally, I continue to empower and mobilize high-performing talent toward meeting corporate and client objectives. - Sourced and launched a sales enablement tool enabling partner engagement through digital means, which has been instrumental in overcoming COVID-19 limitations and opening a new channel of communication. - Held leadership responsibilities for in-progress technology projects including championing the technical integration for a remerchandising proof of concept, effectively balancing multiple priorities concurrently while maintaining communication with cross-functional project teams. - Discovered, learned and implemented tools to enable better teams, communication and processes, with recent success in studying PowerBI to build a complete sales reporting solution which maximizes the value of data as business intelligence, served as the go-to tool for the sales team, and supported decision making during the pandemic.

I accepted a role from the AVP of Travel Insurance to manage mission-critical priorities associated with the company’s purchase of another travel insurance entity. I also leveraged a depth of expertise in travel insurance to take on a monumental and highly visible mandate to integrate thousands of partners and contracts into the Manulife organization. Among my Areas of Proven Performance, I: - Inherited a large team and a significant portfolio of contracts, as the sole decision maker and leader responsible for building a framework of processes and solutions to manage the growth in scale. - Integrated and combined two distinct teams with different operational models, with success in integrating teams and processes across two industry leaders in travel insurance. I also conceptualized and launched high-impact solutions now in use within other areas of the Manulife organization. - Rallied people across multiple business functions as a respected “Interpreter” across the travel insurance segment, having taken the operating vision of multiple senior-level executive and integrating them into a series of common objectives. - Played a leadership role in all major systems-driven initiatives, in a central role focused on the planning, defining, execution and monitoring of projects with impact on clients and the business. - Positioned the National Sales Support function toward continued success by training and formalizing a new incumbent Manager to avoid a gap in the operation. - Conceived, developed and implemented a high-impact business enablement solution in the form of a SharePoint contracting database housing all contracts. Additionally, I notably integrated the solution with PowerBI to automate renewal and provide alerts prior to end of term for thousands of distinct contracts. I also effectively provided Account Managers a powerful client retention tool.

I progressed from previous contact center experience to manage a portfolio of insurance products, ultimately becoming a capable expert and solutions provider in the area of travel insurance. Among my Areas of Proven Performance, I: - Balanced product management commitments with proactive involvement in change initiatives, with a significant initiative including the implementation of a Product Requirements Document to resolve communication issues and automate portfolio launch processes between the travel insurance matrix and IT. I also developed a similar solution in subsequent roles. - Partnered with business functions including actuaries, marketing, underwriting and other stakeholder groups to develop risk-optimal policies, monitor competition, and stay abreast of changes in the marketplace. Additional Professional Activity: Chair of the Travel Insurance Working Group Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance (CAFII) I received a nomination to serve as the leading facilitator and coordinator of a specialty group in the prevalent association of Canadian insurance companies and financial institutions.