Toronto Teachers' Pension Plan Chief Investment Officer Ziad Hindo, who has been in the position for five years, will leave at the end of the year.
Effective April 1, teachers appointed Stephen McLennan, an executive managing director in charge of the total fund management arm, as acting head of investments. Mr. Hindo will start handing over responsibility for leading investment decisions to Mr. McLennan as part of a short transition, and Mr. McLennan will hold those duties until further notice.
Mr. McLennan has worked closely with Mr. Hindo and the CIO's office in his job leading the total fund management department, which is responsible for ensuring that teachers' approach to building its portfolio is integrated with its treasury and funding functions.
The CIO has not yet made a decision about who will take over its responsibilities.
Mr. Hindo will step down on Dec. 31, after 23 years in teaching. In June 2018, he took over as CIO under previous Chief Executive Officer Ron Mock. In the five years since then, the venture posted net returns of 7 percent, with assets growing to $247-billion from about $190-billion. Under his mentorship, teachers also increased its investments in the United States and increased its exposure to assets that provide alternatives to publicly traded stocks and bonds, such as infrastructure, real estate and private credit.
The investment strategy has delivered strong returns for members for over two decades, Mr. Hindo said in a statement.
Mr. Hindo said he is proud of the performance we have delivered in service of our members. He will continue to advise Mr. Taylor and will maintain his seat on the board of Cadillac Fairview Corp. Ltd., the pension fund's real estate subsidiary, where Mr. McLennan is also a director.
In a statement, Mr. Hindo said he was the most senior of three senior-level departures from teachers in the past year. Last December, Romeo Leemrijse was selected to lead its equities department and replace Karen Frank, who left the investment fund manager from London's London office last year. In June, the company announced that longtime Cadillac Fairview head John Sullivan would retire, replacing him with Sal Iacono as CEO, restructured to bring real estate investing operations in-house at Teachers.