Leadership Team

Andy Charles is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Canada Guaranty serving in this capacity since 2005. Prior to Canada Guaranty, Mr. Charles was an executive in CIBC’s residential mortgage business for 15 years. In 2005, he joined AIG United Guaranty as President and Chief Executive Officer to establish a third mortgage default insurer in Canada and ended a longstanding market duopoly. Mr. Charles guided the Canadian operation through the global financial crisis and facilitated a successful transition to Canadian ownership under the Canada Guaranty brand. Canada Guaranty has provided high ratio mortgage default insurance to over 350,000 Canadians representing $68 Billion of residential mortgage volumes.

In addition, Andy is a Board Director with Fairstone Bank of Canada serving as the Chair of the Conduct Review Committee and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).

In 2012 Mr. Charles was inducted into the Canadian Mortgage Hall of Fame.

As Chief Operating Officer, Maria leads the Underwriting, Information Technology, Portfolio Insurance, and Claims and Loss Management teams. Maria joined Canada Guaranty at its inception in 2006 (then known as AIG United Guaranty), and from the beginning was involved in critical startup responsibilities, integral to growing the organization. Her more than 25 years of progressive experience and extensive accomplishments in the financial services industry have contributed to effective leadership throughout her career.

Prior to joining Canada Guaranty, Maria managed the Specialized Sales Force at RBC Royal Bank where she oversaw strategic planning, training, analysis, and program development for this team. During her time at RBC, she held various management positions in sales, market planning, and operations.

Maria holds an MBA from Dalhousie University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers.

As Chief Risk Officer, Curtis has more than 20 years of financial services experience. Having worked in both Canada and the United States, his diverse background includes customer and risk analytics, capital and portfolio management (including pricing and risk management for capital markets and consumer loan portfolios), economic and regulatory capital allocation, financial software development, customer up-lift and response analytics, and credit cards portfolio management.

Prior to joining Canada Guaranty, Curtis served as the Director of Risk Methodology and Analytics for Consumer Banking at BMO Financial Group where he led a team that developed and maintained all areas of credit risk and capital analytics, models, strategy, and methodology for more than $190 Billion of consumer loan exposures in Canada and the U.S. Curtis holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Calgary and an MA in Economics from Simon Fraser University.

With more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Ben Eaves has held increasingly senior finance positions with insurance companies in Canada and Australia after training and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ben holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Western Ontario and is a CFA Charterholder.

Geoff Scott brings over 25 years of Canadian banking experience to the Canada Guaranty team. Beginning in retail branches at Canada Trust, then moving to e-commerce at Bank of Montreal and mortgage banking at CIBC, he has contributed to every aspect of retail credit. Geoff has led successful mortgage approval teams in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. Leading the Underwriting and Technology groups, Geoff is focused on delivering a superior service experience to his customers.