New joint pension plan for Ontario universities taps OTPP veteran as first CEO
The construction of a large pension plan for universities across Ontario — with the potential to manage $25 billion — took a step forward Tuesday with the appointment of seasoned pension executive Barbara Zvan as chief executive.
Zvan, who will be responsible for getting the University Pension Plan Ontario running by next July along with a board of trustees, is a 25-year veteran of the $200 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where she was most recently chief risk and strategy officer.
The defined-benefit University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) was established in January with three founding higher learning institutions — Queen’s University, the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto. As the UPP gears up to become operational and replace the five pension plans now in place at those universities, with $10 billion in assets, it is being built to incorporate other universities should they opt to join.
Ontario has 21 universities, with about $25 billion in assets in 32 pension plans.
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For those that choose to participate in the UPP, the universities will be joint sponsors alongside unions and faculty associations representing members. The pension plan’s board will include trustees selected by the employer and employee sponsors and non-unionized members.
“Working together, we can ensure smart and agile responses to new and emerging issues — like COVID-19 — and safeguard the long-term sustainability of Ontario university pension plans,” said Zvan in a message to UPP plan members on Tuesday.
Zvan, who left Teachers’ at the end of February, had been viewed as a potential successor to Teachers’ CEO Ron Mock, who stepped down in December. However, the top job went to another Teachers’ insider, Jo Taylor.
Zvan is an actuary by training and her roles at Teachers’ included crafting that pension plan’s responsible investing and climate change strategy and directing the organization’s enterprise and operational risk management approach. She also serves on the board of the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services, and the Responsible Investment Association.
Zvan said she will use her term as the university pension plan’s inaugural CEO to help “create a new plan that delivers stable and secure results” for members.
The final step for the UPP to get off the ground will be regulatory approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario and the Canada Revenue Agency.
University plans aren’t the only pension assets being combined under a single umbrella in the province of Ontario. Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, established in 2016 as an asset manager capable of providing greater scale and diversification opportunities, now manages about $70 billion worth of assets for the pensions of Ontario judges and government employees, as well as the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.