Tom Barnes Email and Phone Number

About 80% of my forty-plus year career was equally divided between practicing as an insurance defence lawyer and running the Municipal Insurance Association of B.C. The remaining time was devoted to founding a couple of businesses that provided a variety of claims and litigation management services to insurers, corporations, and government agencies. I’m proud of the fact all these organizations remain successful enterprises long after I moved on to other challenges, and eventual retirement. The MIABC had long been a major client when I was appointed as its second CEO in 2005. My relationship with it began at its founding in 1987. It was established in response to the 1980s liability insurance crisis. My legal and business backgrounds were a good fit for an organization approaching its 20th birthday. I arrived knowing its importance to BC local governments. As a member-focused association, it was clear that how we carried out our mission mattered as much as the mission. This combined with emerging competition meant we had to know our business better than anyone else.We focused inwards, on our members. We also looked outwards, at the dozens and dozens of pools that had been formed about the same time as the MIABC. We started with the Association of Governmental Risk Pools, then NLC-RISC, and finally the Canadian Association of Insurance Reciprocals. We learned so much from these organizations and the colleagues we met at their gatherings that we couldn’t keep up with all the great ideas board members and staff brought home with them. The result has been the MIABC developing into a pool operating at an industry leading level. It also resulted in me winding up on the AGRiP Board for eight years, which was a highlight of my career. When I started practicing law, I hoped I might get a QC one day. That never happened, but the AGRiP Board elected me president twice and presented me the award for Excellence in Leadership. In my case, that proved to be far more meaningful. These were my peers.I am available for limited consulting assignments regarding risk pool operations, strategic planning, governance, leadership growth, and succession planning.