Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has appointed a new head of its $25-billion infrastructure portfolio, the latest in a wave of changes in leadership positions across the country’s major pension funds.
Cressida Hogg has decided to leave CPPIB, according to an internal memo circulated at the fund last week. Ms. Hogg, who is based in London, will be moving to a role outside the pension world. Since she joined CPPIB in mid-2014, the infrastructure portfolio has grown by more than $10-billion and now has a team of more than 40 professionals spread across offices in Toronto, London, Sao Paulo, Mumbai and Sydney.
Replacing Ms. Hogg will be Scott Lawrence, who up until recently was CPPIB’s head of fundamental equities, a team that oversees an active portfolio of investments in public companies. But Mr. Lawrence is no stranger to his new position, having joined the pension fund in 2005 to initiate the infrastructure investments group. He went on to found the relationship investments group at CPPIB, which is a strategy that involves taking significant minority stakes in public companies where the fund believes its partnership can add value. No replacement for Mr. Lawrence’s job has been determined at this time.
Ed Cass, global head of real assets at CPPIB, said that it would be business as usual for his group, which also includes real estate and agriculture. He noted that the strategy and objectives of the infrastructure team wouldn’t change, and stressed the importance of close collaboration across teams in the real-assets group in looking for new investments.
The move is the latest in a string of high profile exits from across the major pension funds as senior executives and asset class leaders have jostled for new positions within the pension space and beyond.
Ms. Hogg’s resignation means that the country’s three largest pension funds have all changed their top infrastructure managers in the last couple of months. In March, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec said that Macky Tall would move from overseeing its $16-billion infrastructure portfolio to become head of liquid markets and the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) rapid-transit project in Montreal.
The pension fund has chosen Emmanuel Jaclot, who has previously worked on mergers and acquisitions at energy management company Schneider Electric, to fill Mr. Tall’s responsibility for infrastructure investing. He will begin at the start of June.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan also parted ways with its infrastructure and natural resource head Andrew Claerhout earlier this year and has appointed Dale Burgess, who had overseen the Latin America infrastructure team, as interim leader. The pension fund has close to $19-billion in net assets tied up in infrastructure.
With the transition under way in infrastructure, CPPIB is still working on filling some other large executive positions. Chief executive Mark Machin led a “planned renewal of senior management,” last month that saw chief operations officer Nick Zelenczuk, 62, global head of public market investments Eric Wetlaufer, 55, and former global head of real assets Graeme Eadie, 65, exit the fund. The first two men have yet to be replaced.