Marc Viola

“Anyone can talk about values when times are easy, but values matter most when organizations are growing, changing, or facing adversity.”

Culture fit, in Marc Viola's estimation, is overrated. What he looks for instead is culture add: the person whose experience, approach, and way of solving problems brings something an organization does not already have. At Definity, the Canadian property and casualty insurer where he has worked since 2019, that conviction shapes a mandate that runs from talent acquisition and inclusive hiring partnerships to enterprise-wide AI capability and the cultural work of integrating an acquired organization.

Based in the Greater Toronto Area, Marc serves as Vice President, Talent and Culture at Definity Financial Corporation. Talent acquisition, as he puts it, is often the gateway into a company's culture, and the people an organization brings in go a long way toward shaping what that culture becomes.

Where the Philosophy Began

Marc's path into people and culture started in recruiting, during an era when many organizations outsourced the work. He cut his teeth in high-volume finance recruiting, and it gave him the part of the job he still finds most compelling. Every day brought candidates who were not alike, with different experiences and different instincts for tackling problems, and the chance to bring those perspectives together kept him engaged through the first five to seven years of his career, which were devoted almost entirely to talent acquisition.

That early exposure hardened into a recruiting philosophy. At Definity the approach is deliberate: broaden access to opportunity and reach more diverse talent pools. The company has expanded how it recruits, including the relationships and strategic partners it works with to embed inclusive hiring practices. The goal, as Marc frames it, is simple to state and hard to execute: building a better business with even better people.

Leaders Who Shape the Business

Several leaders left a lasting mark on Marc's career, and the advice he carries from them is notably expansive. When you have the opportunity to bring people into an organization, they taught him, take a holistic view. The point is not to build a great department. It is to build a great business.

The most influential talent leaders he has worked alongside understood strategy and growth, customer needs, culture, technology, and leadership, and they recognized that none of those exist in isolation. "They don't sit beside the business," Marc says. "They help shape it."

Their example also taught him never to underestimate culture. When employees understand the mission, feel connected to one another, see room to grow, and believe their voice matters, extraordinary things can happen, Marc says. The harder challenge comes with success: as an organization pursues bigger ambitions, the question becomes how to keep its culture feeling small. That culture becomes something worth protecting, and talent acquisition, as the gateway into the company, carries a special responsibility to impart that sense of purpose within its own team.

AI as a Lever for People

Marc is passionate about where AI meets the future of work, and he pushes back on a common framing. Many organizations are asking how AI will replace work. The better question, he argues, is how AI can elevate people.

Definity is moving early to build enterprise-wide AI capability on exactly that premise. Digital literacy, in Marc's view, should not be the preserve of technical teams. The aim is for employees across the organization to understand how technology can make them more productive, more creative, and ultimately more valuable. "The future will belong to organizations that can combine technology with human capabilities," he says, and talent leaders have a responsibility to make sure no one is left behind in that transition.

He is candid about the obstacle. Much depends on whether employees and leaders trust AI, and he sees that trust as one of the larger barriers today. Still, he marvels at the pace of change: only two years ago, few people were using AI tools every day at work or at home.

Culture When It Counts

Marc's advice for fellow talent leaders steers away from technology and toward organizational change. Some of the most meaningful experiences of his career have come from leading talent and culture through large scale transformation, and he notes that change is not reserved for companies in growth mode. Across the market, nearly every organization is changing; only the pace differs.

Definity is living that reality now through the integration of an acquired organization. The focus, Marc says, has never been simply on systems, policies, or organizational charts. It has been on creating connection, bringing employees and leaders together and working intentionally toward a shared culture and a shared future rather than a legacy of us versus them.

The lesson he draws is that culture is most visible in moments of uncertainty. Values are easy to champion in calm periods; they matter most when an organization is growing, changing, or facing adversity. His counsel is for talent leaders not to lose sight of the impact they and their teams can have through ongoing change and market turbulence. It comes back to accountability. If talent leaders are not the ones fostering belonging during those stretches, Marc asks, who in the organization will?