Executive Team

David Denison

David Denison
President and Chief Executive Officer

David was appointed to his position in January 2005. As the President and CEO of the CPP Investment Board, David is responsible for leading the organization and its investment activities.

David has 30 years of experience in the financial services sector, including senior postings in the investment, consulting and mutual fund businesses in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. His previous firms have included Merrill Lynch, S.G. Warburg Canada, Midland Walwyn and Mercer Consulting.

He joined Fidelity Investments Canada in 1995 as the company's Chief Operations Officer and was later named President. David spent the years from 2000 to 2003 as President of Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage Group in Boston before resuming his duties as President of the Canadian company, a position he held until his appointment to the CPP Investment Board.

A native of Gander, Newfoundland, David was raised in Montreal. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto with undergraduate degrees in mathematics and education. Following six years as an educator, Mr. Denison earned his Chartered Accountant designation and began his business career.

He is the Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and a director of York University, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, The United Way of Greater Toronto and the Investment Committee for the Toronto Community Foundation.

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  Mark Wiseman

Executive Vice-President, Investments  

Mark is responsible for managing all of the investment activities of the CPP Investment Board – Public Market Investments, Private Investments and Real Estate Investments. Prior to his current role, Mark headed the Private Investments department as Senior Vice-President.

Before joining the CPP Investment Board in June 2005, Mark was responsible for the private equity fund and co-investment program at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.  Previously, Mark was an officer with Harrowston Inc., a publicly traded Canadian merchant bank and a lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell, practicing in New York and Paris.  He also served as a law clerk to Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada.

From 2004 to 2007, Mark was Chairman of the Institutional Limited Partners Association, a non-profit organization committed to serving limited partner investors in the global private equity industry.

Mark serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations, including Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Right to Play International.

Mark holds a BA from Queen’s University and a law degree and MBA from the University of Toronto. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University where he obtained a masters degree in law and is a certified member of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors.  In 2006, he was named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

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  André Bourbonnais
Senior Vice-President, Private Investments

With more than 20 years experience in executing investment transactions, André is responsible for leading private equity investments in the CPP portfolio.

 

Prior to joining CPP Investment Board, André managed a combined private equity portfolio in excess of $3 billion in financial services, telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors for another Canadian pension plan manager.

 

Before entering the private equity space, André spent several years with a leading telecommunications company mostly as a senior officer responsible for corporate development and legal affairs.

 

André started his career as a corporate lawyer with a major Canadian law firm and then a consultant for a European merger & acquisition consulting boutique. He earned his degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Ottawa.

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John H. Butler

John H. Butler
Senior Vice-President - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

John brings a wealth of legal and business experience to his position as Senior Vice-President - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. He spent 22 years with Torys LLP (and its predecessor firm), most of that time as partner, and served as the firm's Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. While with Torys, he was seconded to executive positions with Royal Trustco, Bramalea Limited, Brookfield Development Corporation and First City Capital Markets. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development for Barrick Gold Corporation.

John was appointed Vice President - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in October 2003.

John earned his LLM and LLB degrees from Osgoode Hall, York University, and received his BA in business administration (Gold Medalist) from Wilfrid Laurier University. He was called to the Ontario Bar (Silver Medalist) in 1979.

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Ian Dale

Ian Dale
Senior Vice-President - Communications and Stakeholder Relations

Ian leads the team responsible for external communications, reputation management and for managing relationships with governments and stakeholders. 

He joined the CPP Investment Board in January 2003.

Prior to joining, Ian spent six years in the telecommunications industry, first as Vice-President, Public Relations for AT&T Corp. in Canada and subsequently as Vice-President, Corporate Communications at AT&T Canada. Before that, he was Director, Corporate Communications at CIBC. He also worked at the CBC as a producer on network current affairs programs in television and radio.

He holds an MA in journalism from the University of Western Ontario and is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

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Graeme Eadie

Graeme Eadie
Senior Vice-President - Real Estate Investments

Graeme is responsible for leading the investment team managing the real estate portfolio.

Prior to joining the CPP Investment Board in June 2005, Graeme served as chief financial officer of two large publicly traded companies in the retail and manufacturing sectors, and chief operating officer of Cadillac Fairview. Graeme is a seasoned senior executive with more than two decades of experience.

Graeme earned his B.Comm. and M.Sc. (business administration) degrees from the University of British Columbia.

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Saylor Millitz-Lee

Saylor Millitz-Lee
Senior Vice-President, Human Resources

Saylor leads the team of professionals responsible for building the organization’s human resources capabilities at its headquarters in Toronto and offices in London and Hong Kong.

With more than 20 years of experience in human resources and actuarial services, Saylor was most recently Vice-President, Human Resources (Solutions & Services ), responsible for global HR service delivery at Advanced Micro Devices, formerly ATI Technologies Inc. Prior to joining Advanced Micro Devices, she held senior human resources positions at Scotiabank, Frito-Lay Canada and Molson Canada.

Saylor earned an Honours B.Sc. in Actuarial Science from the University of Western Ontario.

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Donald M. Raymond

Donald M. Raymond
Senior Vice-President and Chief Investment Strategist


Don is responsible for overall fund level investment strategy. He chairs the Investment Planning Committee, which approves all new investment programs and oversees all portfolio risks, including passive, active, credit and liquidity risk. Prior to this role, Don built and led the Public Market Investments department transition from external passive equity investing to the development of a wide variety of sophisticated internal active capabilities across all asset classes.

Prior to joining the CPPIB in 2001, Don worked for Goldman Sachs for seven years. He joined their Toronto office as a fixed-income strategist before moving to the Quantitative Strategies group in New York with responsibility for global equity and fixed-income portfolios. He began his investment career as a research analyst in the fixed-income derivatives department of Burns Fry, a predecessor of BMO Capital Markets.

Prior to developing an interest in finance, Don worked for Schlumberger in China and trained as a pilot in the Canadian military. He holds a PhD in engineering from Queen's University and a CFA charter. Don is currently Chair of the International Centre for Pension Management at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and a Trustee of Queen's University.

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Benita M. Warmbold

Benita M. Warmbold
Senior Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer

Benita is responsible for the operations, technology, risk, treasury and performance measurement functions within the CPP Investment Board. Most recently, she spent 11 years as the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for Northwater Capital Management Inc. where she was a member of the Senior Management Team and was responsible for operations, finance, risk management, compliance, regulatory affairs, and treasury functions. With over 25 years of finance experience, she previously held senior positions with Canada Development Investment Corporation and KPMG.

Benita holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

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Nicholas Zelenczuk

Nicholas Zelenczuk
Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial officer

Nicholas has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and was most recently Senior Vice-President, Audit and Risk Management for BCE Inc. Earlier in his career, he served as President and CEO of Deutsche Bank Canada and has held a variety of senior financial positions at CIBC Wood Gundy and at Citibank Canada’s investment banking division.

Nicholas is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University

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  Lisa Baiton
Vice-President, Stakeholder & Government Relations

 
Lisa has more than 20 years of experience in progressively senior leadership roles in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, she served as Vice-President of Government Relations for Environics Communications Inc. where she was practice leader in their corporate consulting business. Prior to that, Lisa worked for senior Cabinet Ministers and a Premier within three governments (Saskatchewan, Federal, and Ontario). Lisa has also served as Director of Banking Operations for the Canadian Bankers Association.

Lisa has a BA in Political Science from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and York University’s Schulich School of Business, with global electives completed at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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  Peter Ballon
Vice President, Head of Real Estate Investments - Americas

 
Peter is responsible for CPPIB’s real estate in the Americas which currently encompasses investments in Canada, the US, Mexico and Brazil. Prior to his current role, Peter lead the investment teams for the US and Brazil.
 
Peter has over 20 years of commercial real estate experience. Prior to joining CPPIB in 2007, Peter worked with several leading real estate companies including Canderel, Brookfield and TrizecHahn.
 
Peter holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.

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Graeme Bevans

Graeme Bevans
Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure

Graeme is responsible for leading the development of the infrastructure portfolio in the Private Investments department.

Prior to joining CPP Investment Board, he was most recently the head of infrastructure at Industry Funds Management (IFM), an investment funds management company, and Executive Director at Copernican Securities, both located in Melbourne, Australia.

Graeme has over 25 years of international experience in corporate banking and infrastructure investing.

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John B. Breen

John B. Breen
Vice-President and Head of Funds and Secondaries.

John leads the growth of global private equity fund activities in the Private Investments Department.

John has more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance and private equity, most recently as a Managing Partner of MWI Partners, a private equity fund based in Toronto. He has also held a number of senior positions for CIBC in Chicago, New York and Toronto, including his position as a founding member of CIBC Wood Gundy Capital, a leading Canadian merchant banking operation. Mr. Breen has also served on a number of Boards of Directors of both public and private corporations, including AltaGas Income Trust, a Canadian energy services business. He has also been active in charitable organizations such as the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

John holds a B.Comm (Honours) from Queen’s University.

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Colin Carlton

Colin Carlton
Vice-President, Investment Research

Colin is responsible for leading the research functions supporting portfolio design and risk management strategies for the CPP Investment Board’s investment programs. With over 30 years of investment industry experience, Colin brings a wealth of expertise developed at his previous positions as Global Practice Leader, Asset Consulting at Towers Perrin; Chief Investment Officer at both RBC Private Investment Counsel and CT Investment Management Group; and most recently as Vice-President and Investment Counsel at Perimeter Capital Management.

Colin holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Natural Philosophy from St. Andrews University in Scotland and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

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Alain Carrier
Managing Director (Europe), Private Investments

Alain provides leadership for the CPP Investment Board’s Private Investments department in Europe. Based in London, England, he also assists in the overall development of the CPP Investment Board’s activities in the broader EMEA region. Alain has more than 15 years of financial industry experience. Prior to joining CPPIB, Alain was most recently Managing Director at Goldman Sachs & Co. in their Investment Banking division in New York and London. Prior to that, he was an Associate at the New York-based law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Laval University in Quebec City, a Masters in Law (D.E.S.S.) from the Sorbonne in Paris and a Masters in Law from Columbia University. 

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Edwin D. Cass

Edwin D. Cass
Vice-President and Head of Global Capital Markets

Ed is responsible for expanding the active and passive portfolio management capabilities of the Global Capital Markets group. Most recently, he was Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer for Fortress Investment Group’s Drawbridge Relative Value Fund where he was responsible for the development and execution of fixed income, currency, stock index and commodity trading strategies. With over 15 years of investment experience, Ed previously held senior positions at Deutsche Bank Canada and TD Securities.

Ed holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) degree in Theoretical Physics from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School.

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Richard Egelton

Richard Egelton
Chief Economist & Vice-President, Economic and Market Forecasts

Rick is responsible for building, leading and managing an economic group to support medium and longer-term total portfolio decisions within a Board-approved total portfolio risk budget.

He has 25 years experience as an economist at BMO Financial Group and the Government of Canada. Most recently, he was Senior Vice-President & Chief Economist at BMO Financial Group where he spent the last 12 years focusing on North America and key emerging market economies. Prior to this he spent 13 years with the Department of Finance Canada where he held a number of senior positions with increasing responsibilities for economic analysis and forecasting, including General Director, International Trade & Finance.

Rick sits on the Advisory Board of the John Deutsch Institute, Queen’s University. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University and Bachelor of Arts, Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

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  Jim Fasano

Vice-President and Head of Principal Investing

Jim is responsible for CPPIB’s direct investments in private equity. He joined the CPP Investment Board in 2004 and has been a member of the Principal Investing group since its inception.

Prior to joining CPPIB in 2004, he worked in the Investment Banking group at Merrill Lynch & Co., focusing on companies in the media and telecommunications sectors. Previously, he was a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions group at RBC Capital Markets and a Commissioned Officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Royal Military College of Canada and an International Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

He currently serves on the boards of IMS Health, LHP Hospital Group and AWAS Aviation Capital.

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Sterling Gunn

Sterling Gunn
Vice-President – Portfolio and Risk Analysis

Sterling is responsible for leading the Portfolio and Risk Analysis team, supporting CPPIB asset liability modeling, investment policies, strategic portfolio design, risk budgeting and risk measurement.

He has over fifteen years of risk management experience in capital and energy markets. Prior to joining the CPPIB in 2004, Sterling was a manager at Ontario Power Generation. Before that, Sterling worked at a major Canadian bank as a risk manager.

Sterling holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, an M. Sc. in Experimental Space Science from York University and a B Sc. in Physics and Applied Mathematics from the University of Toronto.

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Wenzel R. B. Hoberg

Wenzel R. B. Hoberg
Vice-President, Real Estate Investments

Wenzel has over 10 years of real estate investment experience gained from the rapid progression of increasingly senior positions including Head of Asset Management for mfi Management für Immobilien AG and Head of Global Acquisitions at Commerz Grundbesitz Investment GMBH in Germany. He holds an Executive post-graduate degree in Real Estate from the European Business School and Master’s of Science in Business from the University of Wisconsin.

Wenzel is a Professional Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and an active member of the University of Wisconsin and European Business School real estate alumni associations.

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Mark Jenkins

Mark Jenkins
Vice-President and Head of Private Debt

Mark oversees the CPPIB's a multi-faceted global private debt investment program. Most recently, he was Managing Director, Co-Head of Leveraged Finance Origination and Execution for Barclays Capital in New York. Prior to that, he spent over 10 years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in senior positions within Fixed Income and Financing Groups in New York. He also held senior finance roles at Laidlaw Inc.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University and is a Chartered Accountant.

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Scott Lawrence

Scott Lawrence
Vice-President, Head of Relationship Investments

Scott leads the team responsible for making significant minority investments in public companies seeking a constructive, longer-term relationship with the CPP Investment Board. He has more than 10 years of experience in the financial services sector. He joined the CPP Investment Board’s Private Investments department in 2005 as a Senior Principal in the Infrastructure Investing group. Prior to that, Scott was an investment professional at Onex Corporation and held various positions in both finance and operations at GE Capital Real Estate and GE Plastics.

Scott holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Queen's University.

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Joseph Masri

Joseph Masri
Vice-President and Head of Investment Risk Management

Joseph is responsible for overseeing all elements of the investment risk function within the CPP Investment Board building upon the existing measurement and control processes. Most recently, he was Global Head of Investment Risk Management with Barclays Global Investors. With over 20 years of financial experience, Joseph previously held senior positions at ABN AMRO Inc. and JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Joseph holds PhD and Master’s degrees in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University along with a Diplôme d’ Ingénieur from École Centrale de Paris.

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Rob Spindler

Rob Spindler
Vice-President and Head of Tax Services

Rob leads the Tax Services team, which is responsible for managing the global tax considerations of the CPP Investment Board’s investment activities. With more than 25 years of experience advising on the tax implications of international acquisitions and mergers, Rob was most recently a senior partner at KPMG leading their M&A Tax Transaction Services group. In that capacity he served as a tax advisor to the CPP Investment Board for the past three years. Prior to KPMG, he was a senior tax partner at Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Rob is a Chartered Accountant (FCA), holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Concordia University and is past co-chair of the CICA/CBA Joint Committee on Taxation.

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Cheryl Swan

Cheryl Swan
Vice-President and Head of Treasury Services

Cheryl leads the Treasury team within the organization’s Treasury, Risk, Operations and Technology Group. Her team is responsible for cash management as well as treasury and funding services across the portfolio. Cheryl has more than 16 years of experience in the financial services sector and was most recently Vice-President, Corporate Segment Finance at TD Bank Financial Group. Prior to that, she held increasingly senior roles at TD Bank Financial Group and at Canada Trust, before its acquisition by TD. Her responsibilities have ranged from funding strategy and treasury accounting functions to oversight of bank-wide liquidity measurement, compliance, monitoring and regulatory and Board reporting. Prior to joining Canada Trust, she held roles at Price Waterhouse and Denison Mines.

Cheryl is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.

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Jennifer Thompson

Jennifer Thompson
Vice-President and Head of Information Services

Jennifer is responsible for leading the Information Services team with a focus on the systems strategy, implementations and operations which will enable our business operation.

She has more than 25 years of experience in information technology, most recently as Head of Information Technology for Citigroup Fund Services in Canada. She has held other senior positions including Chief Operating Officer at Merrill Lynch HSBC Canada, Chief Information Officer at Merrill Lynch Canada and Vice President of Information Services at Canadian Tire.

Jennifer holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and computer science from Queen’s University. She is the former Chair of the Council of Chief Information Officers for the Conference Board of Canada, and was previously a member of the Queen’s University MBA for Science and Technology and the Ontario IT Strategy Advisory Boards.

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William (Bill) E. Tilford

William (Bill) E. Tilford
Vice-President and Head of Global Corporate Securities

Bill leads the Global Corporate Securities group as it builds and executes bottom-up, active security selection strategies in securities issued by public companies. Most recently, he spent 12 years at Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management where he built and helped lead the Quantitative Investment Team. With over 20 years of financial experience, he previously held senior positions at BMO Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch Canada.

Bill holds an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics degree and a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo.

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Raj Vijh

Raj Vijh
Vice-President - Investment Finance

Raj leads the team responsible for investment operations as well as valuation and reporting of the investment portfolio. He is also responsible for the management of processes and controls across Investment Finance.

Raj has more than 15 years of experience in the investment management industry. Prior to joining the CPP Investment Board, Mr. Vijh was the managing director of Russell Investments’ Americas private client services business operations and administration group. He has also held senior management positions at Russell Investments Canada and IBM Canada.

Raj holds a Bachelor of Physics (Honours) from the University of Bristol in the U.K. and is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

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Poul Winslow
Vice-President and Head of External Portfolio Management

Poul leads the team responsible for selecting and managing relationships with external managers across a wide range of active mandates. Poul has more than 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining the CPP Investment Board, he was Chief Investment Officer of Fund and Manager Selection at Nordea Investment Management. He was also Chief Investment Officer of Andra AP-fonden (AP2) which manages approximately $30 billion within Sweden’s national pension plan framework.

Poul obtained his undergraduate and Masters Degree in Economics and Finance from Aarhus University in Denmark.

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