The fast-paced world of insurance brokerage, where scale and agility are critical to success, has witnessed Alroy Chan emerge as a decisive figure behind one of Canada’s most remarkable growth stories.
As Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at Westland Insurance Group, Chan is not the type to chase headlines or make sweeping proclamations. Instead, his influence is felt in the numbers, with more than 50 acquisitions across Canada in just two years, expanding the company’s reach to nearly 200 locations and a workforce of over 2,200 employees.
Since joining Westland in 2020, Chan has quietly but effectively rewritten the company’s growth playbook. His mandate was clear—expanding Westland’s national presence through strategic acquisitions. Under his guidance, the company absorbed brokerages, aligned systems, and scaled operations with minimal disruption. The mergers and acquisitions team he built from the ground up became a high-performing unit, moving swiftly and strategically across markets, with a strong focus on key regions such as Ontario and Alberta to strengthen Westland’s coast-to-coast presence.
This acceleration was not purely external. Between July 2022 and April 2023, Chan took on an additional internal-facing role as Director of Finance Special Projects, where he led efforts to streamline operational processes and improve post-acquisition integration. Here, too, his approach was surgical—process optimization, strategic planning, and system alignment—all aimed at ensuring that each new acquisition enhanced capability.
However, what distinguishes Chan is his ability to combine financial insight with operational foresight. At Westland’s 2023 leadership summit, he co-presented on the power of financial insights in driving business outcomes—a glimpse into how he approaches his role. To Chan, data is not a post-mortem tool but a forward-looking compass. This analytical rigour, combined with a collaborative leadership style, reinforces the culture Westland seeks to cultivate: ambitious, growth-oriented, yet grounded in local service and trust.
Westland’s expansion is not just about becoming bigger but also about becoming better—national in scale and community-focused in spirit. That duality is embedded in the company’s strategy, as articulated by Jamie Lyons, Westland’s president and now CEO, who has emphasized the vision of being Canada’s leading independent insurance broker. Chan is the one executing that vision from the inside out. His fingerprints are on every acquisition, every integration plan, every internal process recalibrated for scale.
Moving forward, the firm’s extended partnership with private equity firm Blackstone signals a new phase of urgency and capital-backed ambition. As Westland enters this next chapter, Chan’s role becomes even more pivotal. The pace may quicken, the stakes may rise, but the fundamentals remain the same: disciplined deal-making, seamless integration, and strategic clarity. In that equation, Chan is not just a participant— he is an architect.
