QBE has promoted Scott Pidduck (pictured) to the newly created role of general manager for Canada.
The role replaces the former director of Canada position and reflects a broader remit for Pidduck, who will oversee the Canadian operation's strategy and performance. Based in Toronto, he will assume his new responsibilities on April 1. He will report to Kevin Shallow, executive director for international markets.
Pidduck joined QBE in 2012 as a professional liability and cyber underwriter. He was promoted to underwriting manager for financial lines and cyber three years later and has served as director of underwriting, Canada, since 2018.
Shallow said QBE Canada has “always been focused on long‑term, sustainable growth” and pointed to Pidduck’s record as director of underwriting as a key factor in the appointment, citing his underwriting expertise and long‑standing relationships with clients, brokers and colleagues.
Under Pidduck’s leadership, QBE Canada is targeting expansion in cyber, property and property and casualty (P&C) package business.
The carrier has been investing in its Canadian cyber capabilities amid a sharp rise in incident activity. QBE research with Control Risks found that the number of significant cyberattacks on Canadian businesses almost doubled between 2023 and 2024, and is projected to more than triple by the end of 2025. Despite this, roughly a quarter of businesses surveyed did not carry cyber insurance and 15% lacked an incident response plan, highlighting a sizable protection gap QBE and other carriers are looking to address.
The broader Canadian cyber market has also shifted from the hard conditions seen around 2020 to 2022 to a more competitive, “softening” environment, with some recent broker market reports pointing to flat or even reduced rates for well‑managed risks and increased capacity from domestic and Lloyd’s markets. That context gives QBE scope to use product design, service and underwriting discipline – rather than price alone – to differentiate as it pushes for mid‑market and corporate cyber growth.
On the property side, Pidduck noted that QBE Canada has recently doubled its local property capacity, positioning the business to write larger limits and support more complex placements. The P&C package offering is described as a major area of planned growth, with “a couple of new product launches in the pipeline” aimed at the Canadian commercial segment.
“We have strategic growth plans for this year and also the years ahead,” Pidduck said. “We have made great strides to establish ourselves as a leading cyber insurer, we have recently announced that we have doubled our property capacity, and our P&C package offering has and will continue to be a huge area for planned growth. I am very excited to be leading this next stage of QBE Canada’s growth.”
QBE first established a presence in Canada in 2010 as a Lloyd’s servicing operation in Toronto, focused on commercial specialty business placed through the London market. It has since expanded its footprint with offices in Toronto and Vancouver, servicing Canadian risks on both Lloyd’s and company‑paper platforms.
The creation of a dedicated general manager role signals that QBE intends to deepen its local presence and product range at a time when Canadian commercial buyers are looking for more choice beyond the largest domestic carriers.
With cyber losses normalizing but threat activity still elevated, and property accounts continuing to face cat‑driven scrutiny, the combination of a strengthened Canadian leadership structure and added capacity is likely to draw interest from intermediaries seeking additional options on complex mid‑market and upper‑middle‑market placements.
