Paul Taylor steps down as ICBC chair, Jatinder Rai appointed interim chair

Paul Taylor, appointed chair of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s (ICBC) board of directors in July 2012, has stepped down, notes a short press release issued Tuesday by ICBC.

Taylor’s leadership has helped guide the corporation through challenging times, including the downsizing and restructuring of the company in late 2012, ICBC reports in the statement.

As of late Nov. 2012, ICBC had eliminated 250 positions from its ranks. As part of its restructuring process, the corporation’s reductions in positions and costs at that time included cancelling or scaling back advertising and marketing programs; cancelling lower-priority projects, re-scoping existing projects and reducing related project support; significantly scaling back employee programs and services and making cuts to discretionary spending to reduce operating costs; centralizing and combining support functions to eliminate duplication; and reducing the number of management positions and management layers.

Taylor has been replaced by interim chair Jatinder Rai, who is founder, president and CEO of Response Advertising Inc., a fully integrated marketing and communications agency that specializes in reaching multicultural markets throughout Canada and the United States.

Rai has been on ICBC’s board of directors since 2008. He has also served on several corporate and non-profit boards, the ICBC statement adds.