Tena Poirier is VP, Distribution, Atlantic Canada
This story first appeared in Canadian Underwriter on March 13, 2025.
Tena Poirier strives to be the type of leader she’d want to follow.
“I’ve always had strong leaders in the past, and I’ve been very fortunate,” she says.
Her foray into insurance started after post-secondary school, first in an administrative role, then as a claims adjuster, and eventually a claims manager. She then moved to business development with Aviva, where she’s since become vice president of broker distribution.
“The leaders I’ve had were males, but they always encouraged me to do better. They always encouraged me to [reach] my full potential.”
That encouragement led Poirier to pursue and complete her Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional (FCIP) designation. Her early-career leaders would give her time during the workday to study — or even helped her study, because they used to teach courses — which gave her the flexibility to manage her career and raise her family at the same time.
That was her early experience with leaders who promoted a work-life balance, long before the concept was popularized, she says.
“It was great to have leaders who were able to see what I needed as a career woman who was coming up in this industry,” she says. “I am very privileged that I had that support in the past, and I still have it now with my present leadership.”
Although representation of female leaders has improved during Poirier’s career, women still disproportionately handle, or are assumed by employers to handle, domestic duties. That’s changing, but more work needs to be done.
Even with a supportive partner, many recognize that “[raising children] does tend to fall to the woman,” she says. “Even taking care of elderly parents tends to fall to the person who typically is more the caregiver of the group.”
But a workplace that implements programs, or redesigns organizational structures to benefit women and men equally, can promote gender diversity to the benefit of all employees.
For example, her company has both enhanced maternity and paternity benefits — the latter of which would’ve been frowned upon 30 years ago, Poirier says. (Parental leave benefits shareable between both parents were newly introduced in the 1990s, while maternity leave was introduced in 1971, according to Statistics Canada.)
“Now, you hear [about] fathers taking paternity leave, and everybody [supports it],” she says. “And so, I think we need to celebrate that and talk about it more.”
Besides opening inclusive workplace benefits to employees, the industry should be doing more to promote women to leadership positions, Poirier says.
“A lot of people in this industry just need a little guidance so that they can gain the skills necessary, so that they are qualified, for that role,” she says, “But sometimes we just need to point them in the right direction on resources that we have available.”
At times, Poirier’s early career leaders “probably believed in me more than sometimes I believed in myself,” she says. “But in the end, they did have a positive impact. And that’s really what I’m looking to do in my role now.”
