Canada's Top Employers for Young People (2026) Magazine - Magazine - Page 18
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CANADA’S TOP EMPLOYERS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (2026)
AIG Canada offers learning, mentorship and growth
N
atalie Zammit
sensed the spirit
of AIG Insurance
Company of Canada
from the very first
meeting with her future managers.
A 30-minute conversation left
a lasting impression about the
people, culture and energy at the
company.
Each experience at
AIG has reinforced my
confidence, broadened
my perspective
and deepened my
commitment to
continuous learning.
— Natalie Zammit
Underwriter,
Management Liability
By the end of two co-op university education placements, she
knew the Toronto-based property
and casualty insurance company
was where she wanted to build a
career.
“I was entrusted with responsibility, encouraged to be creative
and bring ideas forward,” says
Zammit, now an underwriter in
management liability.
Today, Zammit leads the co-op
program that had such a large
impact on her own career. She
partners with universities and
collaborates with her colleagues
to train and assign mentors to new
hires for the program. The
opportunity to now lead the co-op
program has been rewarding and
further reinforces the company’s
supportive culture.
“AIG has been so open to new
ideas, creativity and making
Natalie Zammit, underwriter, management liability (right), and a colleague at AIG Insurance Company of
Canada volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
process changes,” says Zammit,
who rewrote the training manual
during her co-op, and, as a fulltime employee, continues to refine
it with her teammates.
Through mentorship and
growth opportunities, AIG advances learning and development
for colleagues at all career stages.
“I've been in this industry for
nearly 30 years and I continue
to learn new things,” says Pete
Walker, president and CEO,
AIG Canada. “It comes from our
colleagues and how we work.”
AIG builds the capabilities of
its current staff through talent
development. This has been a
main driver for Walker, who is
an example of the organization’s
strong talent-from-within culture.
Learning and development can
be formal, including continuous
education support, which allowed
Zammit to pursue a Canadian risk
management designation while
working full-time. It can also
be informal, like when Zammit
was allowed to work from the
Vancouver office for three months.
Zammit, who is based in
Toronto with family in Western
Canada, says her employer
understood that Vancouver is an
important part of her identity
and the company created an
opportunity to broaden her skill
set professionally.
“I was able to immerse myself in
a new market, develop relationships with colleagues outside
of my region and gain a deeper
understanding of national operations,” she says.
When Zammit joined, she was
part of the Professional Associate
Program, a structured curriculum
that bridges the gap between
academic knowledge and practical
corporate experience for young
professionals beginning their
careers in insurance.
While the knowledge and
mentorship were vital, the program’s summit, which connected
colleagues from the United States,
Canada and Bermuda, was a
particularly special experience for
Zammit.
“It expanded my industry
knowledge and built lasting professional relationships with peers
worldwide, including connections
I maintain to this day.”
AIG Canada’s robust employee
resource groups (ERGs), which
have the highest engagement
across the international organization, are another tool to
support career growth by creating
opportunities to lead colleagues,
build programming and manage
budgets.
“As people grow in their careers,
ERGs are a great opportunity for
