Braden Bosch has achieved more than many people twice his age. He’s the managing partner of a pair of Western Financial Group agencies in

Alberta and owns a Subway restaurant and a real estate holding and development company. He’s had a bit of luck with the real estate, but a lot of Bosch’s success can be attributed to his desire to succeed and his apparent business acumen.

The insurance agencies are in Drum-heller and Hanna, Alta., where Bosch, just 27, oversees, in total, 22 employees.

“I’m 100 per cent pleased,” he says. “Western is an amazing company to work for. They give you free rein. They’re very supportive, and I appreciate what they do for me.”

Drumheller, about 100 kms north-east of Calgary, is in the heart of what’s

PROF ILE

Alberta’s Braden Bosch, the current president of the Profes-sional Young Insurance Brokers of Alberta, is a busy young man. Besides managing a pair of brokerages, he also owns a Subway franchise and a real estate concern. By Ron Shorvoyce

known as “dinosaur country.” It’s home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which specializes in all matters paleontological. Hanna, about 70 kms to the east, has no dinosaurs. But it’s where the rock band Nickelback formed and the hometown of NHL hall-of-famer Lanny McDonald.

Bosch lives for his work and is con-stantly on the go. He checks the insur-ance operations and looks for opportuni-ties to put insurance deals together. His goal is to keep growing the agencies. He’s exuberant about the task, and while he’s proud of his accomplishments, Bosch doesn’t boast.

His boss, Marvin Pawlivsky, Western’s senior VP for Southern Alberta, describes Bosch as a bit of an enigma.

“He’s got that youthful determination,” Pawlivsky says, “He isn’t jaded yet. For Braden, anything’s possible, anything’s

doable. Once he sets his mind to some-thing, he just goes out and does it. A lot of young men his age, the success can go to their heads. But not Braden. He’s got a great set of values that have been passed on to him by his parents. He was taught the right things as a youngster.”

Bosch was born in Oyen, but his fam-ily moved to Hanna when he was 16. He graduated high school there in 2001, not really sure what he was going to do. To get a grounding in the business world, he enrolled in the business administra-tion and insurance program at Calgary’s Mount Royal College (now a university).

The program got him thinking more seriously about an insurance career. His mother Connie, who worked for Bru Agencies, a small brokerage in Hanna, also thought he should give the business a try.

Bosch’s first experience in the industry was with Royal & SunAlliance in Calgary. After eight months he made his way back to his home territory and got a job with Page Insurance in Drumheller, quickly working his way up, at the tender age of 21, to manager. In 2003 Western bought

Going the extra mile

For Braden Bosch, any-thing is possible, anything

is doable. So says his boss, Marvin Pawlivsky,

Western Financial Group’s senior VP for Southern

Alberta. “Once he sets his mind to something, he

just goes out and does it.”

VITAL STATS

• A bachelor, Bosch lives in a 2,300-square-foot, two-storey home in Hanna.

• He enjoys travelling, and has visited Egypt and Kenya.

• Bosch golfs, cycles and plays hockey in a recreational league.

• He never watches TV. “I have no time for that.”

• He never reads either, but listens to books on tape – “usually business stuff” – while driving.

• He admits to being very impatient. IW

Hankey

Pawlivsky

both Page Insurance and Bru Agencies. Bosch soon found himself managing both offices – and his mother. In 2009 he was made a partner in the Drumheller and Hanna operations.

His mother han-dles the registries operation in the Hanna office. A younger brother, Landon, 24, works in the commercial department of

Western’s Drum-heller office. Father

Wayne works in Hanna for the provincial government’s Special Areas Board, which looks after municipal services, including local road maintenance and public land management. Another brother, Nathan, 20, is a real estate agent in Hanna who might also become an insurance broker someday.

Bosch doesn’t involve himself in any direct insurance writing.

“I just focus on running the business. I think about new ideas for market-ing and look at introducing new radio campaigns. I also do some prospecting related to bigger accounts.”

He bought the Subway franchise,

which has about 10 employees, including a manager, in 2008.

“The previous owners were going to sell, and I thought I’d put in an offer. I went through the interviews with the Subway people, a long and intense proc-ess, and got it. It’s done really well.”

His real estate operation, Bakova Developments, came about after Bosch made some decent returns from a prop-erty he’d purchased with his father.

But, he says, it’s insurance that really drives him.

“It’s a fun business involving so many awesome people. I get a lot of support and mentorship from Western. The two offices are my life. There are times I work until 2 a.m. The busi-

ness is extremely challenging, and

can be exhausting. It’s always different. But what appeals to me is that we can help people.”

Bosch is currently the president of the Professional Young Insurance Brokers (PYIB) of Alberta. He’s been involved with the group since its inception and

finds it an excellent organization for networking and selling the merits of the insurance industry to young people.

A friend who works as a producer in the Western office in Red Deer, Shawn Hankey, regards Bosch as a mentor who really knows how to get things done.

“He goes out of his way to help peo-ple,” Hankey says. “There was an elderly lady who had her basement flooded. She didn’t have insurance, so Braden tore out her carpet, lined up contractors and dried out the basement for her, all on his own time. He goes the extra mile.” IW

From the November 2010 edition of