New CEO for Manulife Canada

Naveed Irshad has been appointed Manulife Financial Corp.’s president and CEO of Canadian operations, effective June 1, the firm announced on Tuesday.

Irshad succeeds Michael Doughty, who is retiring at the end of September after more than three decades with the firm.

The overlap will enable a “smooth transition,” a release said.

Doughty “is a tremendous leader who embodies our values, pursues excellence every day, and does it with a deep sense of care for our colleagues, customers and communities,” Manulife Financial president and CEO Roy Gori said in the release. “As he embarks upon this next chapter, he does so with our deep gratitude for his many contributions, and our very best wishes.”

Gori described Irshad’s appointment, along with other changes to Manulife’s executive team, as underscoring “the depth of our leadership bench.”

Irshad is currently Manulife Financial’s global head of inforce management and head of the North American legacy business — positions he has held since 2018.

He initially joined Manulife in 1995, and his previous roles at the firm include senior vice-president of product and insurance risk management. From 2014 to 2018, he was president and CEO of Manulife Singapore.

Irshad left the firm in 2011 to be senior vice-president of global accounts for Reinsurance Group of America, returning to Manulife in 2014.

Doughty joined Manulife in 1992 and has been CEO of Manulife’s Canadian segment since 2017. During his 30-year career at the firm, his roles included executive vice-president of individual insurance and senior vice-president of group savings and retirement.

He was also interim president and CEO of Manulife’s American segment, John Hancock Insurance. At John Hancock, Doughty launched Vitality, a healthy-living rewards program.

Doughty is also the 2021–22 chairman of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA). That one-year term will end in early June at the association’s annual general meeting, a CLHIA spokesperson told Advisor’s Edge. At that time, CLHIA will announce a new chairperson.

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