Governance
UTAM, as a corporation, is governed by its Board of Directors, whose members are appointed by the University.
UTAM’s relationship with the University is governed by a delegation of authority, which empowers us to act as the University’s agent on investment matters, and by an investment management agreement specifying the services to be provided by UTAM. Within that framework, we collaborate formally and informally with many areas of the University’s administration, and UTAM’s President and CIO typically meets with U of T’s Chief Financial Officer every two weeks, and with the University’s President quarterly.
In addition to working with our Board and the University’s administration, we work closely with the University’s Investment Committee (IC), a group of investment experts who provide guidance to both UTAM and the administration on investment matters. UTAM also reports regularly to the University’s Business Board.
We provide additional information below on how we interact with the UTAM Board of Directors, the Investment Committee, and the Business Board.
UTAM Board of Directors
A corporation without share capital, UTAM is governed by a Board of Directors whose members are nominated by the University of Toronto.
The Board approves our annual corporate budget and oversees matters such as regulatory compliance, enterprise risk and executive compensation. While it does not guide investment strategy (which is the mandate of the University’s Investment Committee), the Board is focused on ensuring that UTAM has developed an effective investment management infrastructure and organization in order to fulfill the responsibilities delegated to it by the University of Toronto.
UTAM reports to the Board quarterly. We are fortunate that senior representatives from the University are members of the Board, and we benefit greatly from their guidance and direction. The Chair is typically an independent director who brings a valuable broader perspective to oversight of UTAM.
Richard is an independent director who joined the UTAM Board as Chair in 2017. He serves on other boards in the pension and healthcare sector. He was previously a senior client service partner at Deloitte, specializing in leading large, complex audits. In that role, he had responsibility for some of the most significant client relationships in the Canadian firm. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry. In addition to his industry and client service roles, Richard has held multiple management roles within Deloitte, including serving as the Managing Partner of the Toronto Audit & Advisory practice from 2008 to 2011.
Richard was actively involved with the University of Toronto in a senior governance capacity from 2004 to 2013, including serving as Vice Chair of the Business Board from 2004 to 2006, Chair of the Business Board from 2007 to 2009, Vice Chair of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto from 2010 to 2011, and Chairman of the Governing Council from 2011 to 2013.
Richard is a past member of the OSFI Advisory Committee and a past Chair of the Panel Auditors’ Committee of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization. He is a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales representing Canada. Richard holds a degree in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University in the UK. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, UK, and he holds the Institute of Corporate Directors designation.
Meric is President of the University of Toronto, a Professor of Geography and Planning, and the Goldring Chair in Canadian Studies. His research investigates the role of city-regions as sites of innovation in the global economy, and the foundations for local economic success and prosperity. He has advised local, regional, and national governments in Canada, the United States, Singapore, and Europe, as well as international agencies such as the OECD and the European Union.
Meric is a director of the MaRS Discovery District and a trustee of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. He chairs Universities Canada and the Presidential Steering Committee of the U7+ Alliance of World Universities. He previously served on the Expert Panel on Business Innovation in Canada for the Council of Canadian Academies; the Ontario government’s Highly Skilled Workforce Planning and Partnership Table; and as past chair of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities.
He is a champion of fighting climate change in the Toronto region and the University of Toronto ecosystem, leading the University’s commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of its investments and its operations, while contributing to the broader fight against climate change through research, teaching and advocacy.
Lisa joined the UTAM Board in 2023. She began her appointment at the University of Toronto in 2001, currently serving as a Professor of Finance at the Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Department of Management, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Economics. She held the Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation Limited-Term Chaired Professor position from 2008 through 2011. Much of her research focuses on the way human characteristics such as risk aversion, mood, and emotions influence investor decisions and financial markets, with implications for asset pricing, investments, capital markets, and corporate decisions. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on behavioural finance and investments.
Since 2019, Lisa has served on one of the three governing bodies of the University of Toronto, Academic Board. She has been a faculty representative on the Joint Sponsors for University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) since 2022. She held numerous officer roles on the board of directors of the Northern Finance Association between 2012 and 2016, including President from 2014 to 2015. Lisa is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (PhD) and Simon Fraser University (BBA Honours).
Trevor has worked in the Canadian higher education sector for over 20 years, including since 2005 at the University of Toronto where he currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer. In this capacity, he directs the University’s overall financial management, reporting processes, financial services, internal controls, investment and endowment management policies, and financial Information systems. In addition to his role as a director of UTAM, he serves on the Employer Sponsor Committee of the University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP).
Prior to his current role, he led the University’s Planning & Budget Office, and consulted widely across the country on activity-based budgeting in higher education, with a particular focus on the use of institutional data to inform planning discussions. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Memorial University, a Master of Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo, and a Master of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant.
Chuck joined UTAM in 2011. He plays a key role in UTAM’s investment activities, overseeing all public equity investment portfolios. Within these portfolios, Chuck leads portfolio construction, investment strategy and monitoring.
Prior to joining UTAM, Chuck spent more than 10 years at Ontario Power Generation, where he was the Director of the Fund Management group responsible for the investment of the company’s pension and nuclear funds.
Chuck graduated from Queen’s University with an honours undergraduate degree in Commerce (B.Comm. Hons). He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.
Investment Committee
The University’s Investment Committee (IC) was established in its current form in 2016 and currently consists of five members with significant investment experience, each appointed by the President of the University. The mandate of the IC is designed to foster direct interaction and collaboration with UTAM. The IC and UTAM hold formal meetings at least every quarter and engage in regular dialogue between meetings. The University and UTAM are extremely fortunate to have such a high-quality group of volunteers actively engaged in the oversight of the investment management of the Endowment assets. UTAM benefits greatly from the insights and experience of the IC.
The IC reports to the President of the University and provides expert advice to U of T’s administration, collaborating extensively with the administration and with UTAM management staff on investment objectives and investment activities.
The IC interacts with the UTAM Board as required, and the Chair of the UTAM Board is an ex officio observer of the IC. The IC is constituted so as to have significant expertise, and the President of the University and the UTAM Board have agreed that it can provide direct input to UTAM staff on investment and risk management matters as they carry out their duties.
Among other activities, the IC is responsible for the following:
- Recommending investment risk and return objectives to the University’s administration
- Recommending investment strategy to the University’s administration
- Approving various elements of strategy execution proposed by UTAM
- Providing ongoing oversight of strategy execution by UTAM
- Monitoring investment performance
- Providing input into the hiring, compensation and performance assessment of UTAM’s senior leadership team
Investment Committee Members
Craig Rimer
Chair
The Chief Executive Officer of Cidel Bank Canada, Mr. Rimer is also Chairman of Cidel Asset Management.
Brent Belzberg
Mr. Belzberg is the founder and Senior Managing Partner of TorQuest, a private equity firm based in Toronto. From 2000 to 2021 he was a director on the Board of CIBC and is the immediate past Chair of the Board of the Sinai Health System.
Heather A. T. Hunter
Retired after nearly 40 years in the investment industry, Ms. Hunter most recently served as VP and Head of Canadian Equities at Invesco, a global investment manager. She was previously Vice President, Equities at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board from 1990 to 1999.
M. George Lewis
Mr. Lewis enjoyed a thirty-year career as a professional and executive leader with RBC, one of Canada’s largest financial institutions, before retiring in 2016 to focus on serving as a corporate director.
He currently serves on the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and is Vice Chair of its Investment Committee and a member of the Audit & Actuarial and Human Resources & Compensation Committees, and on the board of Legal & General Group plc, the AOG Group and the Canadian Film Centre and the Synod Council (Chair of Finance) of the diocese of Toronto.
Poul A. Winslow
Poul A. Winslow has more than 3 decades of global experience within multi-asset class and alternative investments. Mr. Winslow retired from CPP Investments as Senior MD and Global Head of Capital Markets & Factor Investing and is now focused on board and advisory activities. Before CPP Investments he was Chief Investment Officer of Swedish AP2/Andra AP-fonden and also held several senior leadership roles at Nordea Investment Management in Denmark, Sweden and the US. Mr. Winslow served for 7 years as a Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI/HFSB).
The University of Toronto’s President and its Chief Financial Officer, as well as the Chair of UTAM’s Board of Directors and the past co-Chairs of the Investment Committee, are ex officio observers of the IC.
Business Board
UTAM reports to the University’s Business Board regarding the investment management and performance of the portfolios managed by UTAM: the Endowment and the short-term working capital fund (EFIP). Under its terms of reference, the Business Board approves investment risk tolerance and return targets for the University’s funds and delegates approval of investment strategy and execution to the President of the University, who relies on the advice of the Investment Committee.
The Business Board is one of the three Boards of the Governing Council. Its responsibilities include: ensuring that resource allocations are responsible and cost-effective, and approving policy and major transactions in the business management of the University. It is also responsible for the areas of advancement, public and community relations, and alumni affairs. The Business Board has one standing committee, the Audit Committee.
Learn more about the Business Board on the University of Toronto’s website.