As President and CEO of Rates.ca Group Ltd., Igal Mayer brings nearly 30 years of insurance sector expertise to this industry-leading digital platform.   

Throughout his career, he has held top leadership positions across the UK, Europe and North America. As the former CEO of Aviva Europe, Aviva North America, Aviva UK and Aviva Canada, he has a proven record in leading and reshaping businesses towards profitability and improved organizational performance, even in the face of challenging economic times.  

An innovator and entrepreneur at heart, it was while running Aviva U.K in 2007 that Igal saw the potential of insurance aggregators to transform the larger P&C insurance industry, while offering transparency, customer advocacy and education, and true comparison for the client.   

In 2018, Igal was presented with the opportunity to lead KANETIX, which was then operating as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business, catering to Canadian brokers and insurance carriers. Under his leadership, the business acquired two businesses as well as created the Scoop Insurance brokerage in Welland, Ontario. Today, the Rates.ca brand is Canada’s largest insurance and financial services price comparison site along with being Canada's fastest growing digital P&C brokerage.  
 
With an eye towards the future of the industry, he continues to live out his mission of building a customer centric business, creating value, and striving to implement technology solutions that demystify and simplify the complexity of insurance. 

Igal is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Canadian Chartered Accountant, and an Honorary Chartered Insurance Professional. He holds an Honours B.A. from the University of Toronto. 

As the Chief Financial Officer, Umair Suria leads all finance functions for Rates.ca Group Ltd. Prior to joining Rates.ca Group Ltd. in July 2012, Umair was a Senior Financial Analyst for Direct Energy. 

At Direct Energy, Umair worked on several $100 million plus merger & acquisition deals and consulted to all lines of business in North America on technical accounting matters. Before joining Direct Energy, Umair was a Senior Auditor for Ernst & Young LLP. Umair audited a diverse portfolio of large private & publicly listed companies. 

Umair holds the Chartered Accountant designation in Canada and Certified Public Accountant designation in Illinois, USA. Umair received the Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy from McGill University.

As Principal Broker and Vice President of Brokerages, Darryl May leads both the P&C and Financial brokerage divisions of Rates.ca Group Ltd., Scoop Insurance, Scoop Financial, and Rates Insurance Services Ltd.

Darryl began working in the insurance industry immediately after university as a client analyst for TD Insurance. In 2006, he joined the brokerage arm of KANETIX, now Scoop Insurance, as one of their first brokers.

He held several roles at KANETIX, eventually becoming principal broker. Following the brokerage’s acquisition by Rates.ca Group Ltd. and under Darryl’s leadership, Scoop Insurance has become one of Canada’s fastest organically growing brokerages. His team has scaled from 25 employees to over 350, spread across service, sales, underwriting and training and development teams.

His teams also support over 25 partners, which comprise some of the largest P&C and commercial insurance providers and brokers in the country.

Even throughout this rapid development, the brokerage has never wavered in their philosophy that knowledgeable, qualified and well-trained employees and agents make happy and prepared customers. Their mandate is to create ease and efficiency throughout the customer lifecycle and deepen relationships with policyholders by providing personalized advice, education, and matching them with the best coverage.

As Chief Marketing Officer for Rates.ca Group Ltd., Sherryl Woodword sets the vision and strategy for how the company speaks to and engages with Canadians. Her teams manage all facets of marketing, including branding and design, digital paid performance and SEO and, lastly, PR and editorial.

Throughout her career as a marketer, she has worked for brands both established and emerging. She has gone from client-facing — as an account director with the creative agency Zulu Alpha Kilo — to client-side, at companies like Coca Cola Group and Wild Fork. At Coca Cola Company, she spearheaded all consumer communications Canada-wide for the century-old corporation’s full portfolio of brands, leading national campaigns, product launches and rebrands across multiple channels.

In 2024, she joined Rates.ca Group Litd., where she harnesses the passion and creative talent of her teams to help make Rates.ca a household name.

As Rates.ca's VP of Insurance & Chief Underwriting Officer, Steve leads all insurance and underwriting processes – from advising carrier partners on their underwriting and rating practices for long-term growth, to streamlining Scoop Insurance’s in-house underwriting process using the Underwriting Quality Score, a comprehensive rate assessment model he and his team developed in 2024.   

His career leading up to Rates.ca spans over 30 years as an insurance executive and actuary in the Canadian Property & Casualty insurance industry, with a focus on Personal Lines underwriting and pricing.  

He has led teams as large as 400 people, working in the corporate offices of multinational insurance companies including Aviva, Intact and RSA. Prior to joining, he held the role of Chief Underwriting Officer at RSA Canada.  

Steve joined Rates.ca in November 2021. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Actuarial Mathematics from Concordia University and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA).   

Vice President of Partnerships, Sean Widdess and his team of account managers engage and grow new businesses across auto insurance, home insurance, commercial insurance, mortgage, travel insurance, life insurance, and credit cards verticals via online lead generation. Managing well over one million leads transacted per year, the team works with leading Canadian brokerages, insurance carriers, and mortgage providers to support their growth using Rates.ca Group Ltd.’s rate comparison marketplaces.

By creating and chasing leads and educating carrier partners on our digital platforms, Sean’s team helps them build predictable and scalable businesses that can adapt to the evolving needs of Canadian online financial consumer shoppers. That way, partners can focus on what they’re best at – writing business and growing their business.

Sean Widdess joined the company in 2015 by way of LowestRates.ca, where he worked as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for six years before the company was acquired by KANETIX (now Rates.ca Group Ltd.). Previously, he held the role of National Sales Manager, General Manager and Vice President at VERICO Financial Group, a national mortgage franchising company.

His teams also support over 25 partners, which comprise some of the largest P&C and commercial insurance providers and brokers in the country.

Sean graduated from the Financial Management Program of British Columbia Institute of Technology.

As the Vice-President of People Operations, Reygan Hale heads up all Human Resource functions for Rates.ca Group Ltd (formerly Kanetix) / Scoop Insurance. Since she joined the organization 2011, she has led all Human Resources functions associated with the company, including the acquisition of brands including InsuranceHotline.com, RateSupermarket, IntelliMortgage and LowestRates, and managing stakeholder relations beyond the company.

As part of the executive committee, Reygan applies her experience and expertise in talent acquisition, payroll, compensation and benefits, employee relations and change / performance management. Her steady guidance and partnership has helped scale Rates.ca  Group Ltd. from a 60-member startup to a leading Insurtech company of 450 across two offices – all while managing to retain its ambitious spirit and people-focused culture.

A 24-year veteran in the field, she previously managed Human Resources divisions at PepsiCo Canada, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in the United States and Filogix. She is a graduate of McMaster University, holds a diploma from Humber College for Human Resources Management and Challenges of Team Management at Harvard University.

Tanisha Kishan, VP of Product, has a mandate to find digital solutions that help increase consumer confidence in Rates.ca Group’s financial products, while securely and efficiently easing them through the customer journey.

Tanisha has spent her entire career in the insurance industry, first as an agent at Desjardins Insurance while still finishing up her bachelor’s degree at McMaster University. Between 2016 and 2018, she assisted with the merging and integration of State Farm Canada and Desjardins. During this period, she trained State Farm agents on product and systems, which gave her first-hand experience of how technology and IT solutions can support and empower both agents and customers through the daunting insurance-buying process.

She joined Scoop Insurance in 2020 as a team lead in operations, and quickly advanced to the role of Director of Innovation and Digital Platforms. During her time at the brokerage, she helped onboard a digital client platform and introduced a customer pre-qualification application to streamline the sales service, among other accomplishments.

She joined the executive team of Rates.ca Group Ltd. in 2024, where she brings her expertise in business technology to the full suite of the company’s products, including mortgage, credit cards, and P&C insurance.