Annual Canadian Forum

Barbara Zvan

President and Chief Executive Officer, University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP)

Barbara Zvan is the Inaugural President and Chief Executive Officer of the University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) and former Chief Risk and Strategy Officer for the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Recognized as a leading voice on sustainable investing and an ambassador for defined benefit pensions, Barbara is known for her efforts to bring institutional strength to complex challenges and forge new collaborative pathways for innovation and growth. She serves on the boards of various global institutions and associations focused on pension management, risk and responsible investing, including the Global Risk Institute, Responsible Investment Association and the advisory board of the Institute of Sustainable Finance at the Smith School of Business. She was appointed to the Government of Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, is a member of the Advisory Committee for the new ‘Investing to Address Climate Change’ Charter and played a significant role in creating the G7 Investor Leadership Network.

Barbara is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, a holder of the Institute of Corporate Directors designation (ICD.D) and has a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo. She is an honouree of Canada's 2020 Clean50 and Canada's 2008 Top 40 Under 40.

William J. Kelly

Chief Executive Officer, CAIA Association

William (Bill) J. Kelly is the CEO of the CAIA Association. Bill has been a frequent industry speaker, writer, and commentator on alternative investment topics around the world since taking the leadership role at the CAIA Association in January, 2014.

Previously, Bill was the CEO of Boston Partners and one of seven founding partners of the predecessor firm, Boston Partners Asset Management which, prior to a majority interest being sold to Robeco Group in Rotterdam in 2002, was an employee-owned firm.

Bill’s career in the institutional asset management space spans over 30 years where he gained extensive managerial experience through successive CFO, COO and CEO roles. 

Dale West

SBAI Trustee, Senior Managing Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Dale West is the Senior Managing Director of Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin, Texas. Mr. West's team oversees the Trust's portfolio of publicly-traded securities including both internal and externally managed strategies. TRS’ portfolio includes $17 billion in hedge fund investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Executive team. He is a trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.

Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets. He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Daniel Garant

Executive Vice President & Global Head of Public Markets, British Columbia Investments (BCI)

Daniel Garant joined BCI in September 2017. He is responsible for managing a diverse, global portfolio of investments, which combines index and active management strategies in equities, fixed income, derivatives, currencies, credit, and absolute return strategies that integrate environmental, social, and governance factors into investment analysis and decision-making. With $250.4 billion of gross managed assets as of March 31, 2024, BCI is one of Canada’s largest institutional investors within the global capital markets.

Daniel has over 30 years of experience in the investment management industry. Before joining BCI, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB) for two years. Prior to that, he served as their Senior Vice President, Public Markets Investments from 2008–2015. In years previous, Daniel held several business development and portfolio management positions, each with increasing responsibility, at Hydro-Québec. He was their Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Hydro-Québec International.

Daniel holds a bachelor of arts in finance from Universite Laval Quebec and is a CFA® charterholder. He serves on the QuadReal and Hayfin boards of directors and has served as Director on the boards of both public and private companies.

Eduard Van Gelderen

Snr VP & CIO, PSP Investments

Eduard van Gelderen is Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Since joining PSP Investments in 2018, he has been overseeing the organization’s total portfolio and establishing the long-term investment portfolio strategy. He also heads the responsible investment, public policy, government relations, as well as the public affairs and communications functions.

Prior to joining PSP Investments, Eduard was Senior Managing Director at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California. As a member of the executive team, his primary responsibilities included overseeing the University’s retirement plan, heading up equity and real assets activities, and handling strategic partnerships in Europe. He also served as CEO of the Dutch financial service provider APG Asset Management and as Deputy CIO of ING Investment Management.Eduard is a certified Financial Risk Manager and a Chartered Financial Analyst and has served on several investment advisory boards. He holds a master’s degree in Quantitative Finance from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a post-graduate degree in Asset Liability Management from Maastricht University in Limburg.

He is currently a PhD candidate at the International School of Management in Paris. He began his career as an investment banker in London and Amsterdam.

Kurankye Sekyi-Otu

Chief Strategy Officer, Polar Asset Management Partners

Mr. Sekyi-Otu is the Chief Strategy Officer for Polar Asset Management Partners and a member of the firm’s executive leadership team. He is responsible for the global distribution strategy, marketing, and the implementation of the firm’s strategic business initiatives.  Previously at Polar, Mr. Sekyi-Otu led the team responsible for business development and investor relations across institutional and advisory partners globally.  Mr. Sekyi-Otu began working with Polar in a consulting capacity in 2009, and formally joined the firm in 2010.

Prior to Polar, Mr. Sekyi-Otu held business development, sales and marketing roles at other Canadian asset managers, and within the capital markets division of a Canadian bank.
 
Mr. Sekyi-Otu graduated from York University in 1994 with a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics and earned his CFA designation in 2000.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Trustee; Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Scott Chan

Deputy Chief Investment Officer, CALSTRS

Scott Chan joined CalSTRS as the deputy chief investment officer in August 2018. Chan oversees CalSTRS’ investment division, with an investment portfolio valued at $306.7 billion as of May 31, 2021. He is responsible for leading a diverse and growing team of over 200 investment professionals. He manages eight critical investment functions including investment strategy and risk, global equities, fixed income, real estate, private equity, risk mitigating strategies, inflation sensitive and sustainable investment and stewardship strategies.

Chan is an advisory board member of the Institutional Investors Roundtable, the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association, the Alternative Investors Forum, Institutional Investor’s Public Funds Roundtable and the UCSD Pacific Center for Asset Management.

Timour Zilberchteine

Managing Director, External Portfolio Management, CPP Investments

Timour oversees a global portfolio of fixed income hedge funds and multi-strategy funds.

Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2019, Timour was a Director within the External Manager Search and Monitoring group at PSP Investments, covering a wide range of hedge fund strategies. Previously, he was a Principal at Diversified Global Asset Management, where he oversaw fixed income, credit and event-driven strategies. He also spent seven years on the sell side, focused on securitization and structured credit and began his career on an FX trading desk at Rosestbank.

Timour holds a BA from the Russian Academy of Economics and an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a CFA charterholder.