Headquarters:
13900 Maycrest Way, Richmond, BC
Year founded:
1957
Number of employees:
2,000+
Phone:
1 604 270 1142
Email:
info@westlandbenefits.ca
Website:
westlandbenefits.ca
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/company/westlandbenefits
Matt Mann
President
Mark Spence
Vice President, Group Health and Life Insurance
Dan Fortuna
Director, Western Canada
Leadership
Matt Mann is a highly accomplished and results-oriented executive with over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. As president of Westland Benefits, he brings a strategic vision focused on building and maintaining strong client relationships. With a proven track record in managing teams across health, wealth, and commercial risk solutions, Mann’s leadership emphasizes collaboration, innovation, and the empowerment of high-performing teams to unlock their full potential. Passionate about continuous learning and staying ahead of industry trends, he ensures his leadership remains adaptive and effective in navigating an ever-evolving marketplace. His exceptional business acumen and strong communication skills enable him to tackle complex challenges and drive sustained success for both Westland Benefits and its clients.
President
Matt Mann
Mark Spence is vice president, group health and life insurance at Westland Benefits, where he leads strategy and growth across Canada. With over 25 years of leadership experience in insurance, benefits, and technology, he has built a career on driving innovative solutions that strengthen client relationships and deliver long-term value. Prior to joining Westland, he served as senior vice president at ICBA Benefits and held senior roles with GroupHEALTH Benefit Solutions, Apple, and SAP. Spence is also a licensed life insurance professional in British Columbia and across Canada.
Vice President, Group Health and Life Insurance
Mark Spence
Dan Fortuna is a dynamic leader in the group benefits and pension space with 20 years of experience guiding plan sponsors through complex program design, risk mitigation, and compliance challenges. His career spans consulting and regional leadership roles across some of the industry’s most recognized firms, giving him a well-rounded perspective on both the advisory and operational sides of the business. Fortuna brings a genuine commitment to client outcomes and a proven track record of building high-performing teams across Western Canada.
Director, Western Canada
Dan Fortuna
Lucy Van Scheltinga
Director, Eastern Canada
Lucy Van Scheltinga is a recognized thought leader in the group benefits space with 18 years of experience working directly with plan sponsors to solve complex challenges and leading high-performing sales teams. Her well-rounded foundation includes early career experience on the casualty claims side with several insurance partners, giving her a ground-level perspective that informs everything she does today. Van Scheltinga is a trusted voice for employers navigating an increasingly complex benefits landscape, bringing clarity and a genuine commitment to getting it right.
Director, Eastern Canada
Lucy Van Scheltinga
Catherine Maheux-Rochette
Marketing Director
Catherine Maheux-Rochette leads marketing strategy at Folks, building the brand’s authority in the Canadian HR technology space. She oversees content, demand generation, and communications, with a particular focus on educational marketing that helps HR leaders navigate the evolving world of HCM technology. Maheux-Rochette plays a key role in positioning Folks as a trusted HR partner for Canadian SMBs.
Marketing Director
Catherine Maheux-Rochette
Jean-Simon Bolduc
Director, Major Accounts and Technical Excellence
Jimmy De Santis
Director, Customer Operations
Louis Nault
Project Director, ATS
Pam Chhabra
Manager – Residential Strata
Jean-Simon Bolduc is one of Folks’ founding team members, joining in 2015. Before joining Folks, he worked as an HR consultant, gaining firsthand insight into the operational challenges HR teams face every day. He leads major account relationships and technical excellence, ensuring that Folks’ most strategic customers receive a high level of support and partnership. Bolduc’s combination of HR consulting experience and deep institutional knowledge of the platform makes him a critical bridge between product development and real-world HR needs.
Director, Major Accounts and Technical Excellence
Jean-Simon Bolduc
Jimmy De Santis leads customer operations at Folks, overseeing the support, onboarding, and success teams that maintain the company’s 98 percent customer satisfaction rate. He is responsible for ensuring that every customer, from implementation through day-to-day use, experiences the full value of the Folks platform. De Santis’s team is central to Folks’ approach of delivering technology that organizations find practical and easy to use.
Director, Customer Operations
Jimmy De Santis
Louis Nault brings deep expertise in AI-powered recruitment technology to Folks, having been a key executive at Glow Talents prior to its acquisition in 2024. At Glow Talents – a Montreal-based ATS recognized for its innovative approach to candidate sourcing, screening, and selection – he played a central role in building what would become Folks ATS. Today, Nault leads ATS product direction at Folks, driving the integration of AI-driven recruiting capabilities into the Folks ecosystem and ensuring Canadian SMBs have access to a seamless recruitment experience.
Project Director, ATS
Louis Nault
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
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Adam Basaldella
Manager – Claims
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Product Manager
Claire Watson
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
“If we focus on our talent, then we know our clients will feel the RPS difference and choose us as their first call every time”
Adam Mazan,
Risk Placement Services
“Our associates are our number one audience for engagement and support”
Adam Mazan,
Risk Placement Services
Ivan Verescuk
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director
Shaun O’Brien
Head of Underwriting
Emily Walker
Head of Strata and Development
Rex Oakman
Head of Operations and Risk
Sandy Newton
Head of Underwriting
Andrew Mitchell
Manager – NSW
Michael Prokopis
Manager – Southern Region
Pam Chhabra
Manager – Residential Strata
Jeffrey Valdivia
Manager – Commercial Strata
Adam Basaldella
Manager – Claims
More than 100 brokerage acquisitions since 2012, including a record high of 30 in a single year. That pace of growth tells you a lot about how Westland Insurance operates.
Jeff Wubs founded Westland in 1980 as a single-office property and casualty brokerage in Ladner, British Columbia. The company remains headquartered in Surrey, British Columbia, but nearly half a century later, its reach surpassed those roots: it’s grown into one of Canada’s largest insurance distribution businesses.
Today, it boasts more than 250 locations spanning British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and every Atlantic province, over 3,000 employees, and hundreds of thousands of individual, commercial, and benefits clients coast to coast.
The strategy behind expansion is deliberate: identify well-run local and regional brokerages, bring them on board, and preserve what made them work – the community relationships, the local expertise – while giving them access to national carrier relationships, shared technology, and back-office scale.
One partner for every line
Two milestones mark genuine turning points in Westland’s evolution. The first was its expansion beyond property and casualty insurance into group benefits,
Product overview
Westland Benefits partners with leading digital health providers to deliver virtual care solutions that meet employees where they are. Through partnerships with Maple Virtual Health, Advica, Noojimo, and Careplicity, the company helps organizations provide modern, accessible health support that extends beyond traditional employee benefits. From on-demand virtual care to its Premier Health Program, the company delivers innovative solutions designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s workforce.
Key features and capabilities
Westland Benefits provides on-demand virtual care through Maple Virtual Health and Advica, Indigenous-focused wellness support through Noojimo, and comprehensive executive and premier health management through Careplicity. Its flexible plan design enables organizations to incorporate digital health solutions into benefits programs tailored to the needs of any workforce.
Integrations
Westland Benefits’ virtual care solutions integrate seamlessly with existing group benefits plans, complementing extended health, dental, and wellness programs as part of a comprehensive employee benefits package.
Westland Benefits advisors work closely with organizations to identify the most appropriate combination of virtual care partners for their workforce. These solutions are incorporated into the overall benefits program, providing employees with convenient access to digital health services alongside their existing coverage.
How our product works
After-sales and customer services
Clients receive ongoing support from a dedicated Westland Benefits advisor, who provides guidance on plan administration, renewals, and employee communications. Many of the company’s digital health partners also offer mobile applications that give employees convenient access to healthcare services, wellness resources, and virtual appointments. By providing continued support beyond implementation, Westland Benefits helps ensure benefits programs remain effective as organizations and their workforce evolve.
Contact us for a demo
www.greenshield.ca/en-ca/form/health
retirement, and wealth advisory services. That trajectory changed what the company could offer.
Westland held more pieces of the puzzle inhouse, giving clients a single local partner for every line of business. Moreover, the company gained the ability to grow alongside them, whether the team was working with a small business adding its first group benefits plan or a long-time policyholder planning for retirement.
The second milestone came in April 2025 with the launch of Westland Benefits as a unified national brand, bringing together a series of benefits acquisitions, including Dupuis Langen and Montridge Advisory Group, under one advisory platform.
Growth has continued since. British Columbia-based Synchronized Employee Benefits Corporation was acquired in April 2026, new teams have joined in Ontario and Manitoba, and Lucy Van Scheltinga came on board as director, health, Westland Benefits, Eastern Canada, in early 2026, adding dedicated regional health leadership in the east.
Beyond plan administration: building benefits around real needs
What Westland offers today goes considerably beyond what group benefits advisory once looked like. The division covers group life and disability, retirement and savings plans, Health Care Spending Accounts, Wellness Spending Accounts and expanded mental health support.
Westland’s surge past straightforward plan administration to its current position as a full-service benefits partner is a transformation that’s visible in the specificity of the conversations the team is leading publicly. Van Scheltinga has written about closing the gap in menopause-related benefits coverage, arguing that unmanaged symptoms cost Canadian employers hundreds of millions in lost productivity annually. EVP of distribution Tim Mackie has made a parallel case for men’s mental health, stating that stronger mental health benefits produce stronger workplaces.
The consistent logic is that successful benefits design is built around specific, underserved population health needs, not a mass rollout of one-size-fits-all plans. Westland is focused on closing the gap between what employers offer and what employees actually understand and use. That means building digital enrollment and communication tools that make plans easier to access and encourage reflection and refinement.
The ultimate goal has been the same from the start: a benefits experience employees genuinely engage with – and that employers can be proud of.