Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has hired Michael Hill to be its global head of infrastructure, poaching the New York-based executive from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and putting him in charge of a $34-billion portfolio.
Mr. Hill will join OMERS in September, the public pension fund announced Wednesday, and report to Ralph Berg, who took over as the chief investment officer in April. Around that time, previous infrastructure head Annesley Wallace left OMERS and took a position at energy infrastructure company TC Energy Corp.
Mr. Hill was most recently the head of CPPIB’s New York office and led its sustainable energies business in the Americas. He also spent 25 years in investment banking at Japanese dealer Nomura Securities, German lender Deutsche Bank AG and U.S.-based Morgan Stanley.
“Michael has an impressive track-record, extensive transaction background and significant experience in business strategy and sustainable energy,” Mr. Berg said in a news release.
The infrastructure business Mr. Hill is taking over has broadly performed well for OMERS, returning 12.5 per cent on its investments in 2022 and an average of 10.2 per cent over the past five years. Last year, OMERS made acquisitions in transportation, digital infrastructure and renewable energy sectors, and sold off assets such as its interest in the Scotia Gas Networks distribution utility in Britain.
The infrastructure portfolio owns 30 assets in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and has more than 90 investment professionals.
OMERS has made several notable executive changes this year. Mr. Berg took over as CIO after his predecessor Satish Rai retired, in the same month that OMERS hired Daniel Fournier as the head of its real-estate arm, Oxford Properties Group Inc. At the same time that Ms. Wallace left the infrastructure group, the head of OMERS growth equity, Mark Shulgan, was also pushed out.