Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan chief investment officer to depart at the end of December

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Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan chief investment officer Ziad Hindo is leaving the pension fund manager at the end of the year after five years in the role.

Teachers named Stephen McLennan, an executive managing director in charge of the total fund management arm, as acting head of investments, effective immediately. Mr. Hindo will start to hand over responsibility for leading investment decisions to Mr. McLennan as part of a short transition, and Mr. McLennan will hold those duties until further notice.

Mr. McLennan has worked closely with Mr. Hindo and the CIO’s office in his job leading the total fund management department, which is responsible for ensuring that Teachers’ approach to building its portfolio is integrated with its treasury and funding functions.

No decision has yet been made about who will permanently take over the CIO’s responsibilities.

Mr. Hindo will formally step down Dec. 31 after 23 years at Teachers. He took over as CIO in June, 2018, under previous chief executive officer Ron Mock. In the five years since then, the fund posted net returns of 7 per cent with assets increasing to $247-billion from about $190-billion. Under his watch, Teachers also increased its investing in the United States and boosted its exposure to assets that provide alternatives to publicly traded stocks and bonds, including infrastructure, real estate and private credit.

Mr. Hindo “led the development of the investment strategy that has delivered strong returns for members for over two decades,” Teachers CEO Jo Taylor said in a news release.

In a statement, Mr. Hindo said he is “proud of the performance we have delivered in service of our members.” He will continue to advise Mr. Taylor and will keep his seat on the board of Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd., the pension fund’s real estate subsidiary, where Mr. McLennan is also a director.

Mr. Hindo is the most senior of three senior-level departures from Teachers within the past year. Last December, Romeo Leemrijse was chosen to lead its equities department and succeed Karen Frank, who left the pension fund manager last year after leading the division from its London office. And in June, the company announced that long-time Cadillac Fairview head John Sullivan would retire, naming Sal Iacono as its next CEO as it restructured to bring real estate investing operations in-house at Teachers.