Senior Vice-President & Chief Pension Officer - Investment Management

IRC Global Executive Search Partner:

Madison MacArthur, IRC Global Executive Search Partners - Canada

Search:

Client/Industry:

Large Public Sector Agency

Situation:

With the resignation of the incumbent Vice-President, Pension, this large public sector employer saw an opportunity to significantly change the mandate of the role, and bring on board a senior investment professional with a radically different skill-set and background. The Chief Financial Officer asked us initially to survey the marketplace and come back with our assessment of how difficult it would be to attract the kind of person they were looking for and what was the current market rate of compensation for such a hire.

Assessment:

The organization is one that is high profile and a magnet for media attention. Our assessment was that the role would be attractive to the right candidates, but that their compensation expectations would be significantly higher than the organization had offered in the past for this position. As well, the kind of person they were seeking would want a great deal of autonomy, and very likely a reporting relationship which offered direct CEO and Board accountability. The CFO agreed that if we could find the kind of standout pension investment professional he was looking for, then he would be willing to make the case to his Board that the role needed to be upgraded both in terms of compensation and reporting relationships.

Challenge:

The challenge in this search was finding candidates who were not only capable of filling the role, but who were significantly different from, and had more pure investment management experience not only than the Vice-President who had resigned, but also than the Pension Director, who had thrown their hat in the ring as an internal candidate. While we always set our bar high, in this case we needed to find someone who was truly a game changer, with the knowledge, ability and drive to significantly re-shape how the organization managed its pension fund and work constructively with Board members. The CFO was putting his reputation on the line with this hire and we had to deliver a knock-out candidate.

Methodology/Solution:

In sourcing candidates we targeted those who were in senior investment roles with pension funds that had consistently delivered best-in-class returns and were known to be progressive and dynamic in their approach to both asset management and governance. We canvassed as widely and as deeply as possible in the investment community, and quickly built up a hot-list of both organizations and individuals to target. At the interview stage we had to take our own due diligence to another level. Given what was at stake for our client, anyone we presented had to be bullet proof.

Candidate:

The successful candidate had until recently been the SVP of Investments at a much larger public sector pension fund. They were referred to us by one of their own direct reports, who indicated that this person was a stellar performer and change agent, who was chomping at the bit to run their own show, and had in fact left the organization in order to have more freedom to pursue such a role.

Postmortem:

The new Chief Pension Officer has only recently started in their role, but initial feedback is that the organization has indeed attracted the game changer they were looking for. Both the CFO and the CEO had to make the case to the Board on the importance of elevating the level and compensation on the role, as well as convincing key Board members that this candidate was the person who could deliver on this enhanced mandate. All indications are that they have made the right choice.

Footnote:

We continue to partner effectively with the client organization under an exclusive contract as sole provider of executive search services.

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