Dale Burgess
Amidst a recent spate of departures, the $189.5 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has promoted a longtime staff member.
Effective immediately, Dale Burgess will be the fund’s senior managing director of infrastructure and natural resources. Burgess, who has been with Ontario Teachers since 1996, will oversee all infrastructure acquisitions and asset management. He will also oversee agriculture, oil and gas, timberland, and mineral investments.
Burgess succeeds Andrew Claerhaut, who left the fund in mid-February for personal reasons. Since Claerhaut’s departure, Burgess was the interim head of infrastructure and natural resources.
The fund’s president, CEO, and interim CIO, Ron Mock, called Burgess “ideally suited” to take on the role, highlighting Burgess’ tenure with the infrastructure team as well as his “proven ability to cultivate strong relationships across the fund.” Mock became the interim CIO when the fund’s previous chief investment officer, Bjarne Graven Larsen, left in early April after a two-year stint.
In an April interview with the Globe and Mail, Mock admitted his top areas of focus weren’t on investments, but instead centered on technology and geopolitics, as well as talent acquisition and retention.
“All you have to do is roll that forward a decade and a half and you can see very clearly that talent has to be high on the priority list,” he told the publication.
Ontario Teachers is currently searching for its next CIO.