MPI’s search for new CEO now into home stretch

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This article was published 18/01/2024 (622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Public Insurance is narrowing down its search for a new chief executive officer nearly eight months after its former president was fired with cause amid a government-ordered organizational review.

The publicly owned auto insurer launched its executive search about three months ago to fill the vacancy on its executive management team left by Eric Herbelin’s departure.

Herbelin was fired by MPI’s board of directors in May 2023 following an internal investigation into his workplace conduct. MPI chief operating officer Marnie Kacher was appointed interim CEO.

“MPI’s board of directors is in the final steps of the search for a new CEO for the corporation,” board chairperson Carmen Nedohin said in a written statement to the Free Press. “We will have more to share in the coming weeks.”

The Crown corporation has refused repeated requests by the Free Press to interview Nedohin, who was appointed board chairperson by the NDP government in October, about MPI’s search for a new president and changes to the executive team.

As of early January, MPI chief transformation officer Shayon Mitra was no longer employed by the corporation, MPI confirmed Wednesday. The longtime MPI employee was promoted to CTO in September 2019 and was made a vice-president in May 2021.

He previously worked as the Crown corporation’s executive director of auto physical damage management, according to his online professional profile.

Mitra was responsible for developing and delivering the corporation’s “business digital optimization road map” and transitioning MPI to lean portfolio management in his role as chief transformation officer.

He also had a hand in Project Nova, the largest information technology modernization project in the corporation’s history, and was a senior witness for the project at Public Utilities Board hearings.

The Free Press was unable to reach Mitra for comment on Wednesday.

Nova will eventually allow MPI customers to make collision claims, process licence renewals and receive other basic services online. However, the project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns since it was launched in 2019.

It is now expected to cost up to $290 million — up from an initial budget of $100 million and a three-year completion timeline — and is scheduled to be finished in the 2025-26 fiscal year, though that target is in question owing to the prolonged strike by MPI staff last year.

MPI spokesperson Kristy Rydz declined to answer questions about Mitra’s departure from the corporation, stating that “in alignment with MPI’s privacy and employment policies, the corporation does not comment on matters involving individual personnel.”

However, the corporation previously confirmed the resignation of former chief information and technology officer Siddhartha Parti in June. Parti quit his job with MPI rather than reside in Manitoba full-time, as requested by the board, as part of his employment with the corporation.

MPI has since hired Roy Hart to be its new chief information and technology officer.

Hart joined MPI in November with past experience serving as CIO for the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Seneca College and the Durham Catholic District School Board.

The latest changes to MPI’s executive come after the board received the findings of a third-party organizational review, ordered by the former Progressive Conservative government in April.

Consulting firm Ernst and Young was hired to scrutinize the auto insurer’s expenditures, oversight of major projects, investment and revenue projections, and delivery of services, and to provide a report by Dec. 31, 2023.

The scope of the review spans from April 2021 to March 2023 and was expected to dig into MPI’s senior management complement and its operational expenditures.

The report has not yet been released publicly. The corporation expects to be able to speak to its findings this month, Rydz said.

NDP Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who is responsible for MPI, was out of the country Wednesday and unavailable for an interview, a spokesperson for his office said.

In a statement, the spokesperson said the government looks forward to working alongside the new CEO and their staff to “deliver low rates and quality service for all Manitobans.”

Opposition critic Doyle Piwniuk said the NDP’s actions on MPI since forming government — including overhauling the board of directors while the organizational review was underway — has set back efforts to improve the auto insurer.

“The NDP owes Manitobans a clear timeline for the overdue report and for restoring strong, stable leadership within the organization,” the Turtle Mountain MLA said in a statement.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca