After nearly two decades steering the public auto insurer through a turbulent transformation, Nicolas Jimenez is turning to the open water. He is leaving the Insurance Corporation of B.C. to take the same title at BC Ferries, an operator now struggling with staff shortages that have stranded travelers with cancellations and delays. His departure marks a passage that many institutions know well: a leader whose work has steadied one institution is asked to bring that steadiness to another, and what he carries across the gap will be tested in the months ahead.
ICBC President Nicolas Jimenez Departs for Top Job at BC Ferries
From an insurer called a "dumpster fire" to a ferry service short of staff
Mark
Why is this move getting attention? CEOs change jobs all the time.
Mimi
Because of what he's leaving behind and where he's going. ICBC was called a "dumpster fire" by David Eby when the NDP took office, and now rates are frozen until March 2025.
Mark
And BC Ferries has its own trouble?
Mimi
Staffing shortages that keep causing cancellations and delays. That's the situation he inherits.
Luke
Let me slow down on the credit. The praise for Jimenez comes from ICBC's board chair and from Joy MacPhail, who is now BC Ferries' board chair. Those are the people who hired or worked with him.
Mimi
Fair. The "remarkable transformation" line is Holt's characterization. The rate freeze, though, is a stated fact.
Mark
The MacPhail connection seems notable.
Mimi
She left ICBC as chair in June last year to lead the BC Ferries board, and now he follows her.
Luke
Worth saying plainly that the reporting doesn't tell us whether she recruited him. It only shows the sequence.
Mark
What isn't known yet?
Luke
His start date, his successor at ICBC, and any plan for the ferry staffing problem. None of that is in the releases.
El Pulso
- ICBC is losing the president and CEO who spent almost twenty years at its helm, leaving a vacancy with no successor named yet.
- Behind the praise for his reforms sits a harder fact: ICBC rates are frozen until March 2025 thanks to a no-fault model he helped build.
- BC Ferries is already buckling under staffing shortages that keep forcing sailings to be cancelled and delayed.
- Jimenez is arriving by a familiar route, following former ICBC board chair Joy MacPhail to the ferry operator, and the start date remains unannounced.
After nearly two decades steering the public auto insurer through a turbulent transformation, Nicolas Jimenez is turning to the open water. He is leaving the Insurance Corporation of B.C. to take the same title at BC Ferries, an operator now struggling with staff shortages that have stranded travelers with cancellations and delays. His departure marks a passage that many institutions know well: a leader whose work has steadied one institution is asked to bring that steadiness to another, and what he carries across the gap will be tested in the months ahead.
The Insurance Corporation of B.C. will soon need a new chief executive. Nicolas Jimenez, who has led the public auto insurer as president and CEO for almost 20 years, is leaving to take the same title at BC Ferries. The announcement came in a news release on January 17, 2023.
ICBC board chair Catherine Holt praised his tenure, pointing above all to what she called the remarkable transformation of the insurer. That change is easiest to measure against where ICBC began, when then-attorney general David Eby called its finances a dumpster fire. Reforms followed, including a shift to a no-fault insurance model, and they have allowed ICBC to freeze rates until March 2025.
His new post follows a path already walked. Joy MacPhail left the ICBC board chair role last June to lead the ferry operator's board, and Jimenez now follows her there. In her own release, MacPhail called him a change leader with a proven record, customer focused and committed to financial accountability and rate affordability.
He inherits a difficult job. BC Ferries has faced persistent staffing shortages that have forced cancellations and delays on its routes. The releases do not say when he starts or who will succeed him at ICBC. The coming months will reveal whether the approach that steadied an insurer can steady a ferry service short of crew.
The Insurance Corporation of B.C. will soon need a new chief executive. Nicolas Jimenez, who has held the president and CEO job at the public auto insurer, is leaving to take the same title at BC Ferries. The insurance corporation announced the move in a news release on Jan. 17, 2023, and noted that Jimenez has been with the organization for almost 20 years.
ICBC board chair Catherine Holt used the announcement to credit him with a long list of contributions during his tenure. Chief among them, she said, was what she called the "remarkable transformation" of the public insurer.
The scale of that change is easiest to see from where the insurer started. When the NDP took office, then-attorney general David Eby described ICBC's financial situation as a "dumpster fire." Reforms followed, including a shift to a no-fault insurance model. Those changes have allowed ICBC to freeze rates until March 2025.
Jimenez's new employer is one he will reach by a familiar path. Joy MacPhail, who had been chair of ICBC's board, left that post in June of last year to take over the board at BC Ferries. Jimenez now follows her to the ferry operator.
MacPhail commented on his hiring in a news release of her own. She described Jimenez as a "change leader" with a proven track record of success. In her words, he is "customer focused with a deep commitment to financial accountability and rate affordability." She said he led structural reforms that returned the insurance corporation to financial health, which in turn let it offer more affordable insurance to customers.
The job he is stepping into comes with its own pressures. BC Ferries is dealing with staffing shortages that have persisted and have forced cancellations and delays on its routes.
The releases do not say when Jimenez will start at BC Ferries or who will lead ICBC after him. What the coming months will show is whether the approach credited with steadying an insurer can be applied to a ferry service short of staff.
Citas Notables
He is customer focused with a deep commitment to financial accountability and rate affordability.— Joy MacPhail, BC Ferries board chair
Jimenez contributed to a 'remarkable transformation' of the public auto insurer.— Catherine Holt, ICBC board chair
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Politics & Governance