Canadian Pension Board Shakes Up Leadership

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which oversees the nation’s retirement system that is equivalent to Social Security in the US, will add new division heads in June following several recent departures. This marks the plan’s new focus on, among other things, emerging markets.

Among the promotions is John Graham, who will lead the credit investments team for the C$337 billion ($262 billion) fund. Graham, who has been with the fund for a decade, will run the principal credit investments, private real estate debt, and the recently created public credit departments.

As for the emerging markets side of the Canadian pension’s investment staff, Suyi Kim will now head the Asia Pacific division. Kim joined system in 2006, helped establish the fund’s Hong Kong office, and ran its private equity Asia business.

Leading the active fundamental equities, relationship investments, thematic investing, and sustainable investing departments as the new global head of active equities is Deborah Orida, who joined the pension system in 2009 and was most recently the head of the private equity Asia wing.

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As global head of capital markets and factor investing, Poul Winslow will oversee the global capital markets, quantitative equities, external portfolio management, cash and liquidity, and strategic tilting groups. The previous head of thematic investing and external portfolio management, Winslow also joined the fund in 2009.

Shane Feeney, the board’s current global head of private investments, has been moved to global head of private equity. Feeney will oversee the direct private equity, funds, secondaries and co-investments, and private equity Asia units.

In addition to these appointments, the board also announced that Pierre Lavallée, global head of investment partnerships, will be leaving May 2 after six years with the fund.

Earlier in the year, executives Nick Zelenczuk, Eric Wetlaufer, and Graeme Eadie announced their May 31 departures, allowing for the fund to revamp its senior management staff.

Rather than replace the exiting executives directly, the Canadian pension board’s focus is instead set on emerging markets, as per a news release. According to the plan’s 2017 annual report, emerging market investments accounted for only 7.5% of the portfolio.

The fund reports that it is also repositioning the chief operating officer role, renaming the title to chief technology and data officer. An announcement regarding the decision will be made at a later date.

Tags: Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, Emerging Markets, Pension, Promotions

British men are receiving approximately £29,000 ($40,500) more from their state pension than British women are over the course of a 20-year retirement, according to research by UK consumer advocate group Which.

After analyzing the most recent data from the UK’s Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), the group found that the average man receives £153.86 a week from his state pension, while the average woman takes home £125.98 a week. However, the gap has closed slightly—in August 2017, the average payment received by women was 81.9% of that received by men, which was up from 79.7% in August 2015, and 77.7% in August 2013.

A DWP spokesperson told Which that the new state pension is reducing the gender gap even further, saying that some 650,000 women reaching state pension age in the first 10 years will receive an average of £8 per week more (in 2015-16 earnings terms), due to the new state pension valuation of their National Insurance record.

According to Which, there are 12.9 million people currently receiving a state pension, which is approximately 25% of the UK’s adult population. The main group of state pensioners is the 8.4 million people who receive basic and additional pension based solely on their own National Insurance (NI) contributions. The group is 59% male and 41% female, with an average weekly payout of £142.22. The report found that in many cases, women in the main group will have a lower pension because they may have taken a break from their career to have children.

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The report also identified that retirees collecting the state pension under the old system, which existed until April 2016, could be worse off compared with new recipients. Retirees who have qualified since the new system was introduced receive an average of £150.35 per week, compared with £137.81 under the old one. This works out to be a difference of £13,041 over a 20-year retirement, and just one in five recipients of the new state pension are women.

“Many pensioners will be shocked by the differences in average payouts to men and women and those qualifying under the old and new systems,” Harry Rose, an editor at Which, said in a release. “Some pay gaps will close eventually, but not soon enough for some.”

The report pointed out steps people can take to put themselves in a stronger position, such as planning their retirement budgets in advance, and taking advantage of the forthcoming pensions dashboard. The dashboard, an online tool expected to launch in 2019, will help people track how much they have saved in their private and workplace pensions.

“But the DWP must also play its part,” said Rose, “by ensuring it provides accurate forecasts that are easily accessible.”

Tags: Department for Work and Pensions, Gender Gap, Pension, UK