Ontario Teachers’ CIO Neil Petroff to Retire

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan CIO Neil Petroff will retire effective June 1, the fund announced today. 

The renowned organization is to launch an internal and external search for Petroff’s successor.

“I have been lucky enough to hold the best job in Canada for the past six years,” Petroff said in advance of Ontario Teachers’ annual employee town hall today. 

“I’ve been working closely with our CEO Ron Mock and the investment team on the development of a new investment strategy over the past several months,” he continued. “This is the ideal time for my retirement, and for the next generation of investment professionals to move our new strategy forward.”

Mock noted in the announcement that the CIO’s “contribution to Teachers’ success cannot be overstated.” 

“We started our research in alternatives in 1995, and entered our first hedge fund in 1996. It’s an area that will always have a place in our portfolio.” —Petroff 

Petroff’s tenure at Teachers’ is only three years shorter than the institution’s entire lifespan. Since joining in 1993, he has, at one time or another, led most of the fund’s asset classes, ranging from the passive international equities book to commodities to alternatives. For the last six years, he has been in charge of all of them.  

The now-$C141 billion ($111 billion) portfolio has evolved into one of the world’s most sophisticated, embracing direct investments, alternatives, and in-house management long before almost any of its peers. 

“We started our research in alternatives in 1995, and entered our first hedge fund in 1996,” Petroff told CIO in 2011, following a year of stellar returns. “It’s been an area that adds diversification to the total fund and it will always have a place in our portfolio.” 

Petroff won CIO of the Year at Chief Investment Officer’s 2014 Industry Innovation Awards, also taking home the prize for the large public plan category. 

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