HOOPP Names Annesley Wallace President, CEO

Annesley Wallace

The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan announced Monday the appointment of Annesley Wallace as president and CEO, effective April 1, 2025.

Wallace will succeed Jeff Wendling, who is retiring after serving as CEO since 2020. Wendling, the fund’s CIO before being appointed CEO, had been at the fund since 1998. He announced his retirement in September.

Wallace will work with Wendling during a transition period starting March 1, 2025, before assuming the role and duties of CEO the next month.

HOOPP manages C$112.6 billion ($80 billion) in assets and serves more than 460,000 health care workers in Ontario across 670 employers.

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Wallace is currently executive vice president of strategy and corporate development and president of power and energy solutions at TC Energy. She is also currently on the board of directors at Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal company, and holds board positions at the Toronto Region Board of Trade and Bruce Power. She was also director and board member of Infrastructure Ontario and Alectra.

From 2021 to 2023, Wallace was executive vice president and global head of infrastructure at the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. Wallace held previous titles at OMERS, including chief pension officer, senior vice president, pension services and managing director of infrastructure. At OMERS, Wallace oversaw a C$32 billion infrastructure portfolio.

Given Wallace’s experience in infrastructure, she is likely to spearhead the pension’s growth in the asset class. HOOPP first established an infrastructure team in 2019, increasing its allocation to the asset class to C$5.6 billion at the end of 2023, compared with C$4.7 billion the year before, according to the fund’s 2023 annual report.

“One of the many reasons I am excited about joining HOOPP is that the organization is uniquely positioned for success,” Wallace said in a statement. “HOOPP is a top-performing pension plan, operating as part of a defined benefit system that is admired globally. It has an exceptionally strong purpose and talented people. It also has a very bright future, given its current funded status and scale, mandate in the healthcare sector and opportunities for growth across membership and employer groups.”

Wallace earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and a master of science degree in materials engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto.