Annual Canadian Institutional Investor Forum

Maxime Aucoin

Executive Vice-President and Head of Total Portfolio, CDPQ

Maxime Aucoin is Executive Vice-President and Head of Total Portfolio. He leads portfolio construction, asset allocation and currency management activities. He co-chairs the Strategy and Execution Committee, which oversees the strategic positioning of CDPQ’s total portfolio. He is also a member of the Executive Committee, the Investment-Risk Committee and is a board member of Ivanhoé Cambridge, CDPQ’s real estate subsidiary.

Mr. Aucoin was previously Senior Vice-President, Total Portfolio and Vice-President, Strategy. Before joining CDPQ in 2012, he worked for management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Cirque du Soleil.

He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from HEC Montréal. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Aaron Bennett

Chief Investment Officer, University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP)

Aaron Bennett is UPP’s Chief Investment Officer and leads all aspects of UPP’s global investment strategy and operations. A seasoned portfolio manager, Aaron brings over 16 years of investment experience, with expertise in strategic asset allocation and responsible investing. Across his roles at Jarislowsky Fraser Global Investment Management, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and mid-sized Canadian investment banks, Aaron has supported systemic and robust investment analysis, policy formulation and strategic implementation across portfolios and asset classes.

Aaron holds a B.Sc Honours (Biology) from Queen’s University, an MBA from the Ivey School of Business Western University, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Michael Cappucci

Managing Director for Compliance and Sustainable Investing, Harvard Management Company

Michael Cappucci is a Managing Director for Compliance and Sustainable Investing at Harvard Management Company (HMC). He joined HMC in 2012. Michael helps to manage HMC’s sustainable investment program, where he focuses on integrating ESG factors in HMC’s private fund investments. His articles have been featured in the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, NYU Journal of Law & Business, Virginia Law & Business Review, Responsible Investor, and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

He is a member of the ISSB Investor Advisory Group, ILPA ESG Advisory Council, and a past Chair of the United Nations-sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment Private Equity Advisory Committee.

Mark Carhart

Chief Investment Officer, Kepos Capital

Mark Carhart is the Chief Investment Officer and founding partner of Kepos Capital LP. Kepos is a NYC-based systematic investment manager with $2.2 billion in institutional assets. Kepos’ investment program includes proprietary short-term trading models, longer-term risk premia strategies, a specialized equity-event strategy, and a series of strategies motivated by the carbon transition.

Prior to founding Kepos in 2010, Mark was a Partner and the Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and prior to GSAM he was an Assistant Professor at the Marshall School of Business at USC and a Senior Fellow at The Financial Institutions Center at The Wharton School. Mark’s publications include articles in The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies and the Financial Analysts Journal, and he received the FAJ’s Graham and Dodd Award in 2014. He is also a co-author of Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach.

Mark earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1988, became a CFA Charterholder in 1991 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1995. He serves on the non-profit board of InTandem Cycling and investment committees for the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York and the Aldrich Museum.

Zoe Cruz

Founder & CEO, Menai Financial Group

Zoe Cruz is the Founder and CEO of Menai Financial Group, and a highly accomplished executive who spent decades at the forefront of the financial services industry.

Zoe had a 25-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, where she was Co-President from 2005 to 2007; in this role, she ran major revenue-generating businesses, including the company’s Institutional Securities Businesses, risk management and information technology organizations. Prior to that, Zoe was the Global Head of Fixed Income, Commodities and Foreign Exchange from 2001 until 2005. She joined Morgan Stanley in 1982 and was the third founding member of the company’s foreign exchange trading group.

Zoe is also a former Senior Advisor at Promontory Financial Group, LLC, and the founder of an investment management firm, Voras Capital Management. In addition to her leadership position at Menai, Zoe also sits on the boards of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business and Government Advisory Council. Zoe previously sat on the boards of Ripple, Old Mutual PLC, Morgan Stanley, Harvard Dean’s Council, MAN Group and Bowdoin College Investment Committee.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Bertrand Millot

Head of Sustainability, CPDQ

Bertrand Millot leads the Stewardship Investing team, which is responsible for defining and implementing CDPQ’s strategic directions, including integrating ESG factors into all activities and deploying the climate strategy. His responsibilities have three aspects: helping investment teams structure impactful investment opportunities (particularly with regard to social, climate and energy transition investments); managing risks related to ESG, climate change and reputation and contributing to the organization’s outreach in collaboration with the CDPQ Global team.

Mr. Millot is one of the architects of CDPQ’s climate change strategy and a seasoned investor in infrastructure and corporate debt in emerging markets, fields where ESG considerations have historically been at the forefront. At CDPQ since 2015, he previously held various positions in risk management and stewardship investing, including Business Unit Risk Manager for the Fixed Income, Capital Solutions and Cross-functional Risk portfolios. He also served as Head of Climate Risk and Issues and led the Stewardship Investing team.

Before joining CDPQ, Mr. Millot was CEO and CIO at Cordiant Capital, an emerging market corporate debt fund manager. Earlier in his career, he was active in infrastructure project finance with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, U.K. and with BNP Paribas in Paris, France.

Mr. Millot holds an MBA from McGill University, a Master’s in Engineering from École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers in Paris and is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D designation).

Dr Jean Rogers

Sr. MD & ESG Chairperson, Blackstone

Dr. Jean Rogers is a Senior Managing Director and Blackstone’s ESG Chairperson. She partners with investment and ICS teams on energy transition and ESG-related initiatives.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Dr. Rogers advised companies and asset managers on long-term ESG integration as an independent board director and C-level advisor. Dr. Rogers founded and led the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a non-profit dedicated to optimizing US capital markets by fostering disclosure of material sustainability information that meets investor needs and enhances public trust. Before founding SASB, Dr. Rogers worked to advance sustainable development across the US, Europe, and China for more than a decade at Arup, a global engineering consultancy specializing in low-carbon infrastructure and green buildings, and Deloitte, where she worked on environmental projects in its manufacturing practice.

Dr. Rogers holds a PhD in environmental engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and earned both her BE and ME in civil and environmental engineering from Manhattan College. She was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and currently serves as an advisor to the Social Innovation and Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Hoffman Global Institute at INSEAD. Dr. Rogers serves on the Board of Directors of Xpansiv, a Blackstone portfolio company, as well as on the Investment Committees for certain of Blackstone’s strategies in private equity and private credit focused on energy transition and climate solutions.

Rossitsa Stoyanova

Chief Investment Officer, Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO)

Rossitsa leads IMCO’s investment team and oversees all global investment activities, including portfolio construction, asset allocation and strategic partnerships.

Prior to IMCO, Rossitsa was Managing Director and Head of Portfolio Design & Construction at CPP Investments where she led the portfolio design and construction team and oversaw the fund’s risk appetite and allocation. Previous to CPP Investments, she was at GE Energy Financial Services where she was responsible for due diligence and structuring acquisitions in the power sector. She also worked in Assurance and Advisory Services at Deloitte & Touche in Chicago.

Rossitsa holds a BBA from Saint Mary’s College in Indiana and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, 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.