Changes at Hexavest
On January 31, 2018, Hexavest announced that Jean-René Adam, co-Chief Investment Officer and portfolio manager, left the firm to pursue other projects. All strategies in which Mr Adam was involved as manager are managed by a team that will continue its activities. Vital Proulx will remain Chief Investment Officer for all of Hexavest’s investment strategies. The investment process will remain unchanged.
Nominations at Invesco
On January 30, 2018, Invesco announced changes to the Invesco Global Targeted Returns strategy’s portfolio management team.
Effective February 28, Gwilym Satchell was promoted from risk manager of the strategy to fund manager, bringing to four the number of managers of the strategy. Mike Marshall will take over risk management responsibilities. He was previously a risk analyst in the Multi Asset team and has worked closely with Gwilym Satchell.
The investment objective, philosophy and team’s three-step investment process will remain unchanged following these nominations.
Nominations at Epoch
In January, Epoch announced that Mike Welhoelter and Bill Booth were named co-Chief Investment Officers. They will join Bill Priest and David Pearl, both currently co-Chief Investment Officers. Epoch also created the ‘’Office of the CIO’’, composed of these four individuals and which constitutes the leadership of the firm in terms of investment. All CIOs will keep their current portfolio management responsibilities.
Changes at Mawer
Also in January, Mawer announced that effective March 31, Paul Moroz, CFA, will assume the role of Chief Investment Officer for the firm. Jim Hall, CFA, who has held the CIO responsibilities since 2004, will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors and as co-manager of the Canadian Equity and Global Equity strategies.
Also effective March 31, Christian Deckart, CFA, PhD., will assume the role of Deputy Chief Investment Officer for the firm and continue his role as lead-manager of the Global Small Cap strategy and co-manager of the Global Equity strategy.
After ten years as President of the firm, Michael Mezei plans to retire from Mawer Investment Management. Mr. Mezei will remain in his role as President until a successor is in place, likely by the end of 2018, and will continue serving on the firm’s Board of Directors at least until the end of 2019. A succession committee is in place to guide the selection process for the new President and a precise retirement date and successor will be shared once plans have been solidified.
Scotiabank to Acquire Jarislowsky Fraser
On February 12, 2018, it was announced that Scotiabank will acquire Jarislowsky Fraser, one of Canada’s leading independent investment firms. Following the announcement of the acquisition and the details surrounding it, we are relatively reassured based on the information that was communicated. In the short term, we will meet with Jarislowsky Fraser’s management in order to identify the impacts on the funds offered on our platform.
According to the announcement, the firm will maintain its independence and its investment approach will remain unchanged. Moreover, the majority of the partners have agreed to invest half of their proceeds from the closing of the transaction into Jarislowsky Fraser’s investment strategies. The strategies’ returns will therefore have a direct financial impact on them. Finally, Jarislowsky Fraser’s management team will maintain its headquarters in Montreal.
We will however remain attentive to the medium and long term impacts and will communicate any relevant information related to the potential impacts of the transaction.
Nomination at Fidelity
It was announced that Vadim Zotnikov will join Fidelity in the second quarter of 2018 as head of the Global Asset Allocation group. Nancy Prior previously held the role and will continue to manage the fixed income team. Fidelity confirmed that the change will have no direct impact on the daily management of the Fidelity Canadian Balanced Fund and the Fidelity ClearPath target date funds.