Nevina Kishun | MSA Research

Nevina Kishun, CEO, MSA Research

At 25 years old, Nevina Kishun was told she had Stage 4 cancer and might have only five to 10 years to live.

Instead of slowing down, the diagnosis sharpened her sense of urgency.

“I felt like I had a timeline,” she says. “If I wanted to make a difference in the world, I couldn’t afford to wait for opportunities. I had to create them.”

Today, Kishun is the CEO of MSA Research, one of Canada’s most influential analytics and benchmarking firms in the property and casualty insurance industry. Her path into the sector was anything but traditional.

Kishun began her career in healthcare, driven by a desire to make the system more accessible after experiencing it firsthand as a patient. Insurance was not part of the plan.

But a twist of fate, and a request for help from her father, who co-founded an actuarial consulting firm, brought her into the world of insurance.

What she discovered surprised her.

“Insurance is one of the few industries where you can pair rigorous financial thinking with meaningful societal impact,” she says. “People don’t always see that until they’re inside the industry.”

Over time, Kishun became captivated by the complexity and collaboration that define the sector, the interconnected ecosystem of insurers, MGAs, reinsurers, regulators and partners working together to protect communities and businesses.

“What anchors me most in this industry are the people and the purpose,” she says. “It’s filled with thoughtful, mission-driven individuals who care deeply about helping communities recover and rebuild after losses.”

Her leadership journey, however, was rarely straightforward.

Kishun says that like many women navigating leadership roles, she often felt she had to work harder to prove she belonged.

“We have to work harder to be heard and to prove our credibility,” she says.

Rather than accepting those barriers, she turned them into motivation.

Each time she was turned down for a stretch opportunity, she asked a simple question: what would it take to turn this into a yes?

“Sometimes the answer was more education, sometimes more experience,” she says. “Whatever the gap was, I committed to closing it.”

The approach became a defining pattern in her career.

Kishun now holds five university degrees, each one earned as she worked to expand her capabilities and strengthen her leadership profile.

“The ‘Nos,’ became fuel,” she says. “They shaped resilience, sharpened my focus, and helped me keep moving forward.”

Her confidence, she says, was shaped early by her parents, particularly her mother, Yasmin Valani, one of the first Muslim women to graduate from Western University’s mechanical engineering program.

Her mother later completed an MBA while pregnant with her.

Watching her navigate a male-dominated industry left a lasting impression.

“If she could do it in a much harder environment, then I knew I could do it too,” Kishun says.

That perspective also helped her develop a philosophy she now shares with other women entering leadership roles: you do not need to change who you are to succeed.

“You just have to show up with clarity, competence, and conviction,” she says.

Today, as CEO of MSA Research, Kishun believes the property and casualty industry offers enormous opportunities, particularly for women willing to explore it.

Few people grow up dreaming of careers in insurance, she says, but those who enter often discover an intellectually challenging field with diverse career paths and a strong sense of purpose.

Still, she believes progress depends on creating workplaces where women can thrive.

That includes visible leadership pathways, flexible career structures, and cultures that recognize the realities many women balance outside the workplace.

“When women see themselves reflected at every level of leadership, it changes what they believe is possible,” Kishun says.

For Kishun, the motivation remains simple: leave the world a little better than she found it.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with the proper spelling of Nevina Kishun’s name. Canadian Underwriter apologizes for the error.