Irshaad Ahmad is a Principal of William M. Mercer Limited and is Head of the Toronto office of Mercer Investment Consulting. He is also a member of Mercer’s Canadian Investment Consulting Practice Group. In addition to his management responsibilities, Irshaad advises institutional investors on asset mix policy, risk management, investment manager structure and selection, and performance analysis. Irshaad is a frequent speaker on leading trends and issues in the investment industry and is on the faculty of the Pension Investment Management School. Irshaad graduated with a BSc from the University of Toronto in 1987, and joined Mercer that same year.

Rudy Dabideen is the director, Investments for the $ 4.1 Billion fund of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan (CAAT). Mr. Dabideen has been a frequent speaker at numerous pension organizations and has served on a variety of pension forums. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He is also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), as well as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Mr. Dabideen began his career with IBM Canada in 1985 where he held various positions in the financial area. Mr. Dabideen is currently Chairman at the Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC), and was the past Chair of the Investment Practices Committee at PIAC. He is on the Advisory Board of the Benefits and Pensions Monitor magazine and a member of the Investment Committee of the Children’s Aid Foundation.

Greg Edwards is president, Chief Executive Officer and a co-founder of YMG. Greg brings over 25 years of investment management experience to the firm. He began his investment career specializing in quantitative investment research at Sun Life (1976-1978) and managing equity portfolios for the Toronto-Dominion Bank (1978-1980). Greg was in charge of equity portfolio management over a three-year period at Crown Trust and Fidelity Capital Management, ending in 1983. At YMG, Greg is responsible for the day to day management of the business as well as its equity management team and YMG’s product development effort.

Leona Fields is the manager, Pension Fund at York University. In this role, Leona manages and co-ordinates all functions relating to the York University Pension Fund, which currently has assets of approx. $880 million. Leona also acts as Secretary for the York University Pension Fund Board of Trustees and the Sub Committee on Investment Performance. Leona has been working in the pension industry for over 12 years and has experience with investment policy development, performance evaluation, pension governance, fiduciary education, and the actuarial field. Prior to joining York University in 1999, Leona worked at Cortex Applied Research, and with the Asset Consulting Group at Towers Perrin.

Eric Innes is chairman and Chief Investment Officer for YMG Capital Management. The first 20 years of Eric’s investment career was spent trading bonds and managing bond portfolios for McLeod Young Weir and Royal Trust. In 1983 Eric and his partner founded YMG to introduce state-of-the-industry quantitative products to the Canadian investment market, the first firm of its kind in Canada. YMG currently manages over $14 billion in investment portfolios for pension plans, mutual funds and other financial institutions. Eric currently oversees YMG’s asset allocation and the firm’s fixed income strategies, as well as directing marketing and client service activities. Eric was educated at Bishop University and graduated with an honours BA in Economics in 1971.

Robert A. Jaeger is vice-chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Evaluation Associates Capital Markets, which invests in a broad variety of hedge-fund strategies on behalf of domestic and offshore clients. He is also executive vice-president and Chief Investment Officer of Evaluation Associates, which provides investment consulting services to tax-exempt institutions. Mr. Jaeger joined EAI in 1983; previously, he was a faculty member at Yale University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He holds a BA from Princeton, a B.Phil from Oxford and a PhD from Cornell.

Peter is vice-president–Fixed Income and Derivatives at OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System). He has over 20 years experience in the financial industry and the day-to-day asset-mix rebalancing process in one of his functional responsibilities. In addition, his responsibilities include cash and fixed income management, as well as derivatives usage in all investment areas. Prior to OMERS, Peter was senior portfolio manager–Fixed Income at TAL Investment Counsel, director in charge of Fixed Income and Trading of Scotia McLeod in London, England, and a VP in various roles at Nesbitt Thomson. A CFA and past president of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts, Peter is a graduate of the University of British Columbia BA (Economics). He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI).

Larry Johnson is director of Pension Investments for Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and is responsible for managing C$3 billion in retirement plan assets, primarily in Canada, but also in the U.S. and the U.K. He assumed this position in mid-1999 and has been employed by Abitibi and predecessor companies for over 20 years, primarily in strategic planning, marketing, and financial analysis roles. Larry is an American and holds Certified Public Accountant and Certified Management Accountant designations. He lives in Vermont with his wife and two teenagers.

Ron Kahn heads BGI’s active equity activities based in San Francisco, including all U.S. equity investments, Japan and Canada equity research, and international tilts managed in San Francisco. Ron is a well-known expert on portfolio management, risk modeling, and quantitative analysis. Prior to joining BGI, Ron spent over seven years as director of research at BARRA, where his research spanned the equity and fixed income markets both in the US and globally. He has published numerous articles on investment management, and he ran the BARRA Research seminars for many years. He co-authored, (with BGI’s Richard Grinold), the influential book Active Portfolio Management: Quantitative Theory and Applications. The book’s second edition and Japanese-language edition were both published in 1999. He developed and has taught the course “How to Research Active Strategies” to hundreds of investment practitioners around the world. He is on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Journal of Investment Consulting. Ron received his PhD in physics from Harvard University in 1985, his AB in physics, summa cum laude from Princeton in 1978, and was a post-doctoral fellow in physics at UC Berkeley.

Wayne Kozun is the vice-president of Tactical Asset Allocation and Real Return Assets in the Research & Economics area at the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board. His duties include currency portfolio management, tactical asset allocation strategies, volatility strategies, risk management, quantitative investment strategies and currency exposure management. Before joining the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Wayne worked in the Treasurer’s Department of Imperial Oil Limited, the Canadian subsidiary of Exxon. Prior to that, he worked in an electrical engineering capacity for Nortel Networks. Wayne holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. Wayne is a frequent speaker at conferences throughout North America on a variety of topics and he is a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research, as well as the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts. He has published articles in the Journal of Performance Measurement, in a book on Risk Budgeting, and in an AIMR publication.

Tristram S. Lett, vice-president, Quantitative Investment Products, has been involved with the development of quantitative investment strategies through most of his career, beginning at the Ontario Treasury where he was responsible for policy development of the CPP for the province. Subsequently, he joined J. B. Sparling & Co., one of Canada’s pioneer investment consulting partnerships, and spent five years providing investment consulting advice to major Canadian pension funds. The firm became registered as an investment counsellor with Tris as the CIO, and in 1983 began offering funds managed by firms selected and organized by the consulting arm. The firm pioneered a number of quantitative and derivative-based strategies for pension funds in Canada. In 1989, Tris was elected to the Board of Governors (a voluntary position) of the Toronto Futures Exchange, and in 1990 became the chair, a position to which he was re-elected for five successive years. During this period, he was also a member of the TSE’s Index Committee and has maintained a strong interest in index issues. Tris is a frequent speaker at pension and investment conferences on quantitative and risk management topics in the U.S. and Canada and has authored many articles for trade publications. He has his honours BA in economics from York University, and a masters of economics from the London School of Economics. Tristram is also a member of the Canadian Investment Review's Advisory Board

Dale Lockie is executive manager, Pension Investment, University of Guelph. Lockie has the overall responsibility for all aspects of the Endowment and Pension Funds’ Investments at the University of Guelph. He is past director of the Pension Investment Association of Canada and is a past member of PIAC’s Membership Committee. Lockie currently sits on the Board of Directors of two venture capital corporations, as well as being the president of a private corporation, which is subsidiary of the University of Guelph.

Richard McAloney is the CEO of the Nova Scotia Association of Health Organizations Pension Plan. Previously, he was responsible for all investment, pension benefit, and treasury operations for the Province of Nova Scotia.
He is also currently a director of the Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC), a director of the Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM), a member of PIAC’s Committee to address Ad Hoc Industry Issues, a member of the Industry Group, which advises CAPSA’s Investment Policy Committee, and a member of several advisory boards for investment vehicles. Richard is also a past director of several boards, including a founding director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), and Chartered Accountant (CA) designations.

Ron Mock is director, Alternative Investments, at the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board.
The Alternative Investments Department is responsible for investments in Hedge Funds and Commodity Trading Advisors. Ron entered the investment industry in 1985, joining Burns Fry after working at Ontario Hydro for 10 years where he was responsible for Nuclear Safety and Licensing. At Burns Fry and subsequently Nesbitt Burns, Ron was responsible for 120 sales and trading staff globally for Fixed Income Derivatives. Ron became involved in the hedge fund industry in 1991, managing institutional hedge fund assets in fixed income market neutral strategies. In 1994, Ron and his partners established Phoenix Research and Trading, a hedge fund manager with $400 million in assets in fixed income arb, convertible arb, merger arb and a CTA fund. Ron has served as a Board member on the Montreal Exchange and is a member of the Investor Risk Committee, a hedge fund industry committee establishing disclosure guidelines for Institutional investors on hedge fund disclosure.

Brian Moore is a Principal and senior consultant with the Mercer Investment Consulting practice in the Toronto office of William M. Mercer Limited. Brian has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has been in the investment management business for 18 years as the Chief Investment Officer of a major life insurance company and as the Chief Executive of an investment counselling operation. His experience extends to both the U.S. and Canada, and he has been actively involved in both traditional and non-traditional investment classes. He also has extensive general management experience and has served as the Chief Executive of a major life insurance company. Brian has a Bachelor of Science degree from Sheffield University in England. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, a fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

As the Business Development Executive for the Canadian Venture Exchange, Delilah Panio works with its key stakeholder groups to increase awareness, interest and ultimately preference for the public venture capital market. Responsible for the Ontario market, Delilah develops and executes business development programs to inform target markets of CDNX’s products and services. Delilah has been with CDNX since July 1999. Prior to that, she completed business development and strategic planning for the city of Calgary’s economic development organizations. Delilah has an MBA from the University of Calgary and a BA (English) from the University of Regina.

Adel Sarwat is president and Chief Executive Officer of PSP Investments (Public Sector Pension Investment Board). Prior to joining PSP Investments in September 2000, Mr. Sarwat was, since 1987, vice-president, International Stock Markets at Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec. He started this activity internally for the Caisse and was responsible for $22 billion of assets, heading an in-house team of 14 international portfolio managers and analysts and hiring outside managers. He was also chairman of the asset mix committee at the Caisse. Mr. Sarwat joined the Caisse in 1986 as senior portfolio manager, U.S. equities. He managed that portfolio for 8 years. Mr. Sarwat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Cairo University, Egypt, a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from University of Montreal, a Master of Science degree in Economics from University of Montreal and an MBA (finance) from H.E.C.(University of Montreal). Mr. Sarwat is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)