Mark Machin Joins the Board of Singapore VC Firm Serendipity Capital

Mark Machin

The former head of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has joined the board of a Singapore venture capital firm, after a journey he took earlier this year to the Middle East to receive the COVID-19 vaccine embroiled him in a national scandal that prompted his resignation from the pension fund.

Mark Machin will be joining Serendipity Capital as a non-executive director, the investment firm announced earlier this week. The development was first reported by the Financial Times. The Singapore-based venture capital firm focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies, quantum computing, and climate.

“All journeys must come to an end. It has been said that it is better to travel well than to arrive. And we have traveled well,” Machin wrote last week in a letter to colleagues before his final day at CPPIB. He posted the letter to his LinkedIn.

Machin stepped down from the top job at the US$404.4 billion (C$497.2 billion) pension fund in February. A slow rollout of the vaccine in Canada spurred the pension fund leader to fly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the shot. The decision was criticized by the public and national leaders, who called it “very troubling.” CPPIB appointed John Graham, the fund’s head of credit investments, as Machin’s successor.

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Manchin stayed on at CPPIB until last week, when his term of employment expired.

His tenure at CPPIB lasted nearly a decade. In 2012, Machin joined the pension fund as a senior managing director and head of international based in Hong Kong. For the past five years, he has served as president and chief executive officer.

Under his leadership, the asset owner gained more than 11% per annum to reach about US$404.4 billion in assets. In its most recent 2021 fiscal year, CPPIB reported a record 20.4% return. The allocator also dug its heels into venture capital, boosted its operations in the US, deepened investments in Asia and Latin America, and installed its first-ever chief investment officer.

Previously, Machin was at Goldman Sachs for 20 years, where he was focused on the capital markets and investment banking in Asia. He was a partner at the investment firm for nine years, and also previously the head of investment banking in Asia and the vice chairman of Asia ex-Japan.

Machin joins Serendipity Capital starting August 1.

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Tags: Asset, Asset Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Coronavirus, CPPIB, Fiscal Year, Investment, John Graham, Mark Machin, Pension, United Arab Emirates, vaccines

Shane Feeney

Shane Feeney, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB)’s senior managing director and global head of private equity, is leaving the C$497.2 billion (US$404.4 billion) pension giant after 11 years to become global head of secondaries at Toronto-based Northleaf Capital Partners.

CPPIB said it is currently conducting an assessment of potential candidates to replace Feeney, and that appointments will be made “in due course.” In his new role at Northleaf, Feeney will oversee the private markets investment firm’s secondaries program.

“I want to thank Shane for his tremendous contribution to CPP Investments,” John Graham, president and CEO of CPPIB, said in a statement. “For the past 11 years, Shane has had a significant impact on growing our private equity program to be a key part of our diversified investment strategy.”

Feeney leads the teams that have been responsible for CPPIB’s direct private equity, Asia private equity, private equity funds, and secondaries investments. Under his leadership, CPPIB’s private equity program assets under management (AUM) grew by approximately C$73.6 billion, and in fiscal 2021 the private equity program earned a net return of 36.3%.

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A start date for Feeney has not yet been announced, but a spokesperson for Northleaf Capital told CIO he will join the company later this summer. He will report to Northleaf Managing Director and Co-Founder Michael Flood, who leads the company’s global private equity program.

“As GP [general partner]-led continuation vehicles, single company secondaries, and other structured transactions have become a greater part of the broader secondaries market, Shane’s principal investment expertise and leadership will complement our existing direct private equity strategy and team,” Flood said in a statement. “We recognized early on that GP-led secondary transactions, especially single-asset acquisitions, require differentiated investment skills in order to be successful as the secondary market continues to evolve.”

Feeney joined CPPIB in 2010 from Bridgepoint Capital Ltd. in London, and prior to that was a partner and founding member of Hermes Private Equity’s direct investing business. He also served as an associate director at Morgan Grenfell Private Equity in London, and has served as a director of Livingston International, 99 Cents Only Stores, The Gates Corporation, and Air Distribution Technologies. He earned a bachelor’s in economics from Dartmouth College and an Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.

Northleaf manages more than C$9 billion of private equity commitments in pooled funds and separately managed accounts within three investment strategies: secondaries, directs, and solutions. The firm launched its secondaries program in 2003, and has invested more than C$3 billion in private market secondary transactions. Overall, Northleaf has US$16 billion in private equity, private credit, and infrastructure commitments under management.

“Northleaf is a world-class global private markets investment manager with extensive secondaries experience and a strong growth trajectory, particularly in light of its recent strategic partnership with Power Corporation affiliates Mackenzie Financial and Great-West Lifeco,” Feeney said in a statement.

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Tags: Bridgepoint Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, CPPIB, Hermes Private Equity, John Graham, Northleaf Capital Partners, Private Equity, secondaries, Shane Feeney, Stuart Waugh