Star Metro - Western Announces New Chief Actuary

Mr. Lau is an accomplished actuarial leader with over ten years of experience in the Canadian property and casualty insurance sector. He brings significant expertise in pricing, reserving and reporting and provides a valuable strategic addition to Western's growing decentralized insurance platform.

Before joining Western, Mr. Lau served in a range of actuarial roles, most recently as Cover Genius' Head of Americas Pricing, where he helped to establish and scale the company's actuarial function in North America. Before his tenure at Cover Genius, Mr. Lau held various roles of escalating responsibility in the actuarial practice at PwC, where he led actuary and audit engagements, played a central role in IFRS 17 implementation and served as a trusted advisor to executive teams on matters related to capital, reserves and solvency. Mr. Lau also spent time at RSA Insurance as a Senior Actuarial Analyst on the pricing team. Mr. Lau holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

As Chief Actuary at Western, Mr. Lau will partner closely with Western's finance and accounting functions to apply actuarial best practices and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Mr. Lau will oversee Western and its subsidiaries' actuarial operations, including reserving, capital modelling, reviewing and maintaining liquidity, rating and reporting.

"I am delighted to welcome Keith to Western's executive team. His proven experience across both high-growth businesses and regulated environments aligns strongly with Western's long-term strategic objectives and will help us to drive Western's continued success," said Paul Rivett, Chief Executive Officer of Western.

As part of Mr. Lau's compensation, Western has agreed to grant 806,452 restricted share units (RSUs) priced at $0.62 per share.  Fifty percent of these RSUs will cliff vest after five years, with the balance cliff vesting after 10 years.  The grant of these RSUs is subject to approval by the TSXV. It is Western's expectation that the shares necessary to support these RSUs will be purchased in the open market and will not be issued from treasury.

About The Western Investment Company of Canada Limited

Western is an insurance and investment holding company focused on decentralized ownership of insurance businesses and centralized investment management. Western's shares are traded on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol WI.

For more information on Western, please visit its website at www.westerninvest.ca.

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Advisories

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements, including without limitation statements pertaining to future results and plans for Western and its associated companies, acquisitions, financings and returns. Statements containing the words: 'believes', 'intends', 'expects', 'plans', 'seeks' and 'anticipates' and any other words of similar meaning are forward-looking. All statements included herein involve various risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and circumstances beyond Western's control.

The forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Western, including expectations and assumptions concerning the ability of Western to successfully implement its strategic plans and initiatives.

Although Western believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements made by Western are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because no assurance can be provided that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, risks relating to regulatory compliance, risks relating to demand for the products and services provided by Fortress Insurance and other portfolio companies, risks relating to future growth prospects and business opportunities, risks that management is not able to execute its business strategy, and the impact of general economic conditions in Canada and the United States. A description of additional assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Western's disclosure documents on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and Western undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

"Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulatory Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

SOURCE: The Western Investment Company of Canada Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

P.Lefebvre--SMC