Five senior executives now report directly to the top as the pension plan reshuffles its ranks
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System will hand its chief investment officer duties to the chief executive rather than fill the post.
According to an OMERS statement reported by The Globe and Mail, the move reorganizes the pension plan's investment leadership.
The changes follow the departure of chief investment officer Ralph Berg.
Bloomberg reported that OMERS will elevate Michael Hill to global head of infrastructure and private equity and Scott McIntosh to lead equities.
President and chief executive Blake Hutcheson has absorbed the CIO responsibilities, and five senior executives will now report directly to him.
Hutcheson framed the move as a way to simplify decision-making and reporting lines.
He told the Globe he wanted executives "ready" and to "deputize," and to "get closer to the investment business," where he could use his own relationships to influence outcomes.
Alongside Hill and McIntosh, the executives reporting to Hutcheson include total portfolio management head Kenton Bradbury, global credit chief Kal Patel and Oxford Properties chief executive Eric Plesman, Bloomberg reported.
The restructuring lands after a weak year for the pension plan's private equity arm.
According to The Logic, OMERS is reshaping that business following a 2.5 percent decline in private equity and a $665m net investment loss on a $25.6bn portfolio last year, which caused the division to miss its internal benchmark by 1.5 percentage points.
Bloomberg reported it was the group's first annual loss since 2020, citing currency losses and, as per the plan's annual report, "weak performance" in its earlier-stage growth and venture portfolios.
As CIO, Berg led an overhaul of that unit.
The pension plan halted direct buyout investments in Europe and shifted toward co-investing alongside partners and through external managers, a change The Logic reported OMERS announced in September.
The Logic also reported that OMERS cut a Singapore-based private equity team focused on Asian investments in October.
Berg is joining Singapore's Temasek as head of Europe and head of its New Energy & Industrials and Mobility & Logistics teams, Markets Group reported, with a final OMERS day of July 1.
He will remain based in London and is expected to oversee private-market investments at Temasek, which manages more than US$520bn, according to the Globe.
Berg joined OMERS in 2013 and served as global head of infrastructure and then global head of capital markets before becoming CIO.
Under the new structure, Michael Block takes on a wider mandate in private capital, tasked with deepening relationships with private fund managers, per an internal note seen by Bloomberg News.
The Globe reported Block will also lead certain investments that do not fit neatly into a single business line, such as OMERS's stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, parent of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors.
Block and Alexander Fraser, who continues to lead private equity, will report to Hill, according to Chief Investment Officer.
McIntosh keeps his global multi-asset strategies title, and Kannan Venkataramani will continue to lead the equities business and report to McIntosh.
The approach varies across Canada's large plans, the Globe noted: CPP Investment Board and PSP Investments each have a CIO reporting to the chief executive, BCI chief executive Gordon Fyfe also serves as CIO, and CDPQ has no investment chief under chief executive Charles Emond.
Ontario Teachers' split its CIO role in two in 2024.
OMERS posted a 6.0 percent, or $8.2bn, net investment return for 2025, lifting net assets to $145.2bn from $138.2bn a year earlier, Markets Group reported.
The Globe reported the return fell short of the plan's internal benchmark because of a weak US dollar and sluggish private equity performance, though OMERS booked profits across most of its portfolio.
Hutcheson has said the plan intends to add at least $10bn in new Canadian investments over five years, raising domestic exposure from about 18 percent, roughly $26bn, to 25 percent, according to The Logic.
