We are learning about Chris Zelasko, President of PPF Benefits & Retirement and Vice-Chair of the Drug & Pharmacy Working Group at SHBA.
1. Where in Canada are you based?
Peterborough, Ontario
2. Please introduce yourself in a few sentences.
I am President of PPF Benefits & Retirement, a boutique benefits brokerage that provides employee benefit advice in Eastern Ontario. I have been in the benefits business for 25 years and hold my CEBS and CHS.
3. What is your favourite part of your role?
I really enjoy consulting with clients on their total rewards program for their staff, centering around how effective their employee benefits package is and can be. I also enjoying mentoring and coaching our team to help them grow in the employee benefits business.
4. What motivated you to join the Smart Health Benefits Association?
As Benefit Plan Consultants, we have never had a dedicated central voice that supports our industry, the plan sponsor and the member to ensure that everyone feels supported and heard as it relates to their health and wellness and how services are delivered.
5. What advocacy or policy issue impacting plan sponsors or plan members matters most to you right now?
I believe that their is a common balance that can be achieved in the prescription drug space for members and plan sponsors. Ensuring value and access to prescriptions for all Canadians in a sustainable, cost-effective way should be something that all stakeholders strive to achieve.
6. From your perspective, why is it important that plan sponsors and plan members have a direct voice in policy and industry discussions?
If you don’t have a voice or a seat at the table, then decisions will be made for you rather than with you. Feedback and experience matter and it’s important that decision makers have all of the facts on impact before adoption of any direction.
7. How do you define success?
Through achievement of goals you grow your knowledge and skills to continue to support and enhance those around you so that everyone is lifted up and achieves success.
8. Tell us how you manage work/life balance.
I like to go to the gym, music concerts, sporting events, camping and fishing. Anywhere I can get away and recharge for a few hours or longer.
9. What books/resources do you recommend that every industry advisor should check out?
The Ripple Effect – Greg Wells
Good to Great – Jim Collins
What Would Ted Lasso Do? – Lucy Broadbent
SHBA Member Spotlights are a Get-to-Know Profile that features the passionate industry advisors that are contributing their expertise, shaping priorities, and playing a direct role in advancing meaningful change.