Marlene Puffer in Edmonton on July 27, 2023.Jason Franson /The Globe and Mail
Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s chief investment officer is leaving the pension-fund manager after less than two years in the job, prompting AIMCo to divide oversight of investments between two executives who are being promoted.
Marlene Puffer stepped down Monday, having joined AIMCo as CIO in January, 2023, as one of the most high-profile hires in a period of sweeping change at the Crown corporation under chief executive officer Evan Siddall. She had previously held the top job at Canadian National Railway Co.’s pension plan. AIMCo did not explain the reason for her departure.
Rather than name a new CIO, AIMCo is dividing her duties between two senior executive managing directors, splitting responsibility for oversight of public and private assets. Mr. Siddall will chair the pension fund’s investment committee, which was previously part of Ms. Puffer’s role.
Current head of international investment David Scudellari, who has been building AIMCo’s credit business from its New York office, will expand his role to oversee private assets and strategic partnerships. That includes the pension fund’s investments in credit, infrastructure, real estate and private equity.
Mr. Scudellari joined AIMCo the same month that Ms. Puffer started, moving over from Ottawa’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board, where he was global head of credit and private equity.
The other promoted executive is Justin Lord, who has been AIMCo’s head of public equities for two years. He will be in charge of public markets and will join AIMCo’s top executive team, overseeing public equities and fixed-income investments.
“These appointments confirm the benefits of our focus in developing talented investment leaders from within the firm and Alberta,” Mr. Siddall said in a prepared statement, adding his thanks to Ms. Puffer “for her deep commitment and for the value she has added.”
Mr. Scudellari said in an interview that the changes came about through “relatively recent” discussions: “We all love and hold Marlene with tremendous regard and respect, so we wish her absolutely the best,” he said.
“We have a really good plan to start with, and Justin and I get to look at the plan with some fresh eyes, but it’s really about execution at this point.”
Ms. Puffer said in an interview last year that she saw her role at AIMCo as a chance “to have a bigger impact than I’ve had before in my career.” She had been leading a shift in the way the pension fund invests, with a greater emphasis on private assets and credit, but also said she tried to bring a more discerning approach to allocation capital across different asset classes.
She has long-standing family connections to Alberta, where her great-grandfather was a member of its first legislature, and where her father was an entrepreneur. And she was considered to be one of four succession candidates who could one day take over from Mr. Siddall as AIMCo’s CEO.
AIMCo manages $169-billion of assets on behalf of 17 pension, endowment, insurance and government clients in Alberta. The pension fund has been working to rebuild trust with its members after a trading strategy undertaken by previous leadership went wrong in 2020, wiping out $2.1-billion of clients’ assets. Mr. Siddall was later brought in to orchestrate a turnaround, and he hired Ms. Puffer and Mr. Scudellari as well as a new chief risk officer, Suzanne Akers.
AIMCo has also opened new offices in New York and Singapore, aiming to expand its reach and clout in key markets around the world. Chief investment strategist and head of the Singapore office Kevin Bong will now report to Mr. Siddall, having previously reported to Ms. Puffer.
AIMCo earned a 5.4-per-cent return in the first half of its current fiscal year, and a 6.9-per-cent return in its past fiscal year. Its balanced fund, which reflects a typical mix of client assets, earned 8 per cent last year in Ms. Puffer’s only full fiscal year as CIO, in a tumultuous period for markets.
The decision not to name a new CIO is similar to the decision by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to name co-CIOs, Gillian Brown and Stephen McLennan, dividing responsibilities for investing in public and private assets from a separate role in charge of asset allocation earlier this year.