Board of Trustees
Mario Therrien
Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.
Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.
Luke Ellis
Luke Ellis is CEO of Man Group, a global active investment firm. Man Group has five investment engines (Man AHL, Man Numeric, Man GLG, Man FRM and Man GPM), which manage USD 112.3 billion (as at 31 March, 2019) in a range of liquid and private markets. As CEO, Luke leads the firm’s Executive Committee, working with teams across investment, distribution, technology and infrastructure, while seeking to deliver the right outcomes for clients and positioning Man Group to adapt to opportunities as markets evolve. With a central objective to deliver alpha for clients through time, Man Group provides a wide range of alternative and long-only portfolio solutions for its client base.
Luke joined Man Group in 2010 and was previously President of the firm, responsible for management across investment engines. Prior to this, he was Chairman of Man GLG’s Multi-Manager activities and was Managing Director of Man FRM from 1998 to 2008. Luke was previously a Managing Director at JPMorgan in London and Global Head of the firm’s Equity Derivatives and Equity Proprietary Trading businesses.
He holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Economics from Bristol University.
Leda Braga
Leda Braga is the founder and CEO of Systematica Investments, a global institutional hedge fund manager with approximately $8.2 billion in assets under management. Systematica was formed in January 2015 as a spin-off of BlueCrest Capital, where Ms Braga was President and Head of Systematic Trading for 14 years. Prior to BlueCrest, she was part of Cygnifi Derivatives Services (a J.P. Morgan spin-off). At Cygnifi Ms Braga was part of the management team and head of its Valuation Service. Prior to Cygnifi, she spent nearly seven years at J.P. Morgan as a Quantitative Analyst in the derivatives research team. Her past experience includes modelling of interest rate exotics, FX/interest rate hybrid instruments and equity derivatives.
Ms Braga holds a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London, where she worked as a lecturer and led research projects for over three years prior to joining J.P. Morgan. In addition, she has served in the advisory board of the pension fund of the CERN in Geneva and currently serves on the advisory board of the London School of Economics’ Systemic Risk Centre.
Jane Buchan
Jane is Chief Executive Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet is based in Newport Beach, CA and was founded in July 2018. The firm’s strategies include alternative risk premia and developing liquid strategies with a focus on fixed income.
Prior to this, Ms. Buchan co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).
Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.
Clint Carlson
Mr. Carlson founded Carlson Capital in 1993. For five years prior, he was head of risk arbitrage for the investment arm of the Bass Brothers organization. Before joining the Bass organization, Mr. Carlson co-managed a risk arbitrage fund for Maxxam Group and affiliated companies. Mr. Carlson received a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Rice University and a law degree from the University of Houston. He is a Board Member of the Rice Management Company and a member of the Board of Overseers for the Jones School of Business at Rice University.
John Claisse
John Claisse joined Albourne in July 1996, relocated from London to San Francisco in July 2003 and became Albourne Group CEO in August 2015. John is an equity partner and member of Albourne’s Executive Committee and also chairs the firm’s Corporate Planning Council, which comprises Albourne’s function and region heads. John helped develop the firm’s proprietary risk analytics and was formerly the Senior Analyst for quantitative equity strategies and multi-strategy hedge funds. John remains a Portfolio Analyst working with several public and corporate plans, large endowments and foundations. John holds a first class Mathematics Degree and a PhD from Sussex University.
Albourne is an independent advisory firm focused on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate and dynamic beta. Founded in 1994, Albourne has over 280 clients with over $550bn invested directly in alternative investments.
Stuart Fiertz
Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board. Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.
David George
David George joined the Future Fund in 2008, serving as Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Public Markets from April 2018. From 2008 to 2018 he was a member of the Fund’s Debt & Alternatives team, leading it from 2013 to 2018.
He held prior consulting and investment roles at Mercer, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Integra Capital.
David holds a degree in economics from Western University in Canada, is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder, sits on the Board of the CAIA Association, and is a trustee of the Standards Board of Alternative Investments.
Chris Gradel
PAG’s Absolute Returns business is led by Chris Gradel, who co-founded PAG in 2002.
Chris Gradel has over 20 years of investment experience across Asia. Prior to founding PAG, Mr. Gradel led several investments for the Marmon Group in China and was an engagement manager for McKinsey & Co. based in Hong Kong.
Mr. Gradel has a master’s degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), the hedge fund industry’s global standard-setting body. Mr. Gradel is also a member of the investment committee of Oxford University Endowment Management and a Wykeham Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Richard Lightburn
Richard Lightburn serves as Chief Executive Officer of MKP Capital Management, bringing more than 25 years’ experience in financial markets to the role. He is a Principal of the firm and is a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to being named CEO, Mr. Lightburn led all of MKP’s global rates and Agency MBS trading strategies at the firm. Before he joined MKP in 2008, Mr. Lightburn worked for three years as a Managing Director at HSBC Securities, where he managed the prime mortgage trading business. Prior to HSBC, Mr. Lightburn worked for 15 years at Goldman Sachs. When he left the firm in 2004, Mr. Lightburn was a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Mortgage Liquid Products trading group.
Richard Lightburn received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989).
Daniel H. Stern
Dan Stern co-founded Reservoir Capital Group in 1998. Prior to founding Reservoir, Mr. Stern co-founded and was President of Ziff Brothers Investments, and served as a Managing Director of William A.M. Burden & Co., and an Associate at Bass Brothers Enterprises in Fort Worth, Texas.
Mr. Stern has participated in the formation and development of numerous investment management entities, including HBK Investments, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Starwood Capital, Ellington Capital Management, and Anchorage Advisors, among others. He is the President of the Lincoln Center Film Society and serves as a Trustee of Lincoln Center, the Mt. Sinai Medical Center, and the Educational Broadcasting Corporation (PBS Channel 13 New York). Mr. Stern received an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business.
Betty Tay
Betty is Managing Director, Head of External Managers Department in GIC. In her current capacity, Betty oversees the day-to-day activities of the External Managers Department, including portfolio management for all of GIC’s public market external managers programs, manager selection and monitoring, operations and administration for the department. In addition, Betty is a member of GIC’s Business Continuity Plan Steering Committee.
Betty joined GIC in July 1999 as a Senior Portfolio Manager. She served as a Portfolio Manager within the Emerging Markets Group from 1999 to 2002. In this capacity, Betty was posted to GIC’s London office, and was instrumental in developing portfolio management expertise in non-Asia emerging markets. In 2002, Betty joined the External Managers Group.
Betty has over 20 years of experience in international financial markets including trading functions across various products in local and international financial institutions. She began her career as a proprietary trader with the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). Prior to joining GIC, Betty spent 6 years as a Principal at Bankers Trust Company (Singapore). She served as the Head of the Foreign Exchange Forwards Division and managed the firm’s balance sheet in Singapore.
Betty graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1991 with a BSc in Mathematics. She also holds both Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. She completed the Stanford Executive Program in August 2014. Betty is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee for the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism Limited.
Paula Volent
Paula Volent is Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at The Rockefeller University, the world’s leading biomedical research university. Prior to joining The Rockefeller University in August 2021. Ms. Volent served as Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President at Bowdoin College, a private, residential college in Brunswick, Maine. At Bowdoin, where she was responsible for the oversight and management of the College’s endowment. Prior to joining Bowdoin in July 2000, Ms. Volent was a Senior Associate at the Yale Investments Office.
Ms. Volent has a BA from the University of New Hampshire; a Master’s Degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University; a Certificate in Conservation from the Conservation Center at NYU, with a specialization in the conservation of works of art on paper; and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Prior to focusing on endowment management, Paula worked as a paper conservator at the New-York Historical Society, the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the LA County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She also ran a private paper conservation studio in Los Angeles, California. She serves on the Board of Directors of MSCI, Inc.; the Board of Directors of 1st Dibs; a member of the Investment Committee of the Pritzker Family Foundation, a member of the Advisory Board of Girls Who Invest, a Trustee of the Skowhegan School of Art and Painting, and an Investment Committee Member of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is also Vice Chair of the Yale School of Management Advisory Board, a member of the Milken Institute’s Global Markets Advisory Council, a member of the Advisory Board of the Private Capital Research Institute and a member of the National Gallery of Art Investment Subcommittee. In 2020 Barron’s named Ms. Volent as one of the “100 most influential women in U.S. Finance.
Dale West
Dale West is the Senior Managing Director of Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin, Texas. TRS is a $156 billion pension system serving 1.6 million active and retired educators and their families. Mr. West’s team oversees the Trust’s portfolio of publicly-traded securities including both internal and externally managed strategies. TRS’ portfolio includes over $12 billion in hedge fund investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Management Committee.
Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets. He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.
Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Poul Winslow
Poul is responsible for leading the External Portfolio Management, Financing, Collateral & Trading, Macro Strategies, Research & Innovation Group, and Quantitative Strategies & Risk Premia groups. Prior to this appointment, Poul was Managing Director and Head of Thematic Investing and External Portfolio Management. Prior to joining CPPIB in 2009, he had several senior roles, including Chief Investment Officer at AP2 in Sweden. Poul also held senior roles at Nordea Investment Management, including Head of Tactical Asset Allocation.
Poul has undergraduate and Masters degrees in Economics and Management from Aarhus University in Denmark. He currently serves on the boards of Enstar Group and the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.