Ontario Teachers' Pension Names New Head

Date: Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Author: Leanna Orr, aiCIO

Retiring President and CEO Jim Leech’s successor will come from within the C$130 billion fund.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has named Ron Mock, its senior vice-president for fixed income and alternatives, to succeed Jim Leech as president and chief executive officer. 

Mock will take over the top position effective January 1, 2014, according to the fund.

Leech is retiring after more than 12 years at the C$130 billion retirement system, having spent the last six as CEO. 

"Ron brings the ideal combination of experience, knowledge and leadership acumen to the CEO role at this high performance organization," Ontario Teachers' Chair Eileen Mercier said today. "We have every confidence that he will lead the organization to new levels of success as CEO, as Jim has and Claude Lamoureux did before him."

Leech presided over a decade of strong returns. Based on the latest data, the fund has 10-year returns of 9.6% and gained 10.1% annualized since its creation in 1990.

CEM Benchmarking has put Ontario Teachers' top among its peers in a global ranking of pension funds for the last three years.

The fund has been actively searching for a successor since 2011, according to a spokesperson.

Mock joined Ontario Teachers' in 2001 as its director of alternative investments, and was promoted to vice-president later that year. He is also a board member of mall-developer Cadillac Fairview, which is wholly-owned by the fund and manages its $21 billion commercial and retail real estate portfolio.

He will be working closely with Leech until the current CEO's exit at the year's end.

"I have the luxury of inheriting the leadership of a thriving and successful organization," Mock said today.