Leadership & Pension Staff

The York University Pension Investments team is committed to providing pension plan members with retirement income that is secure and sustainable for the future. It is our top priority to provide retirement income to plan members now and in the future. This means ensuring that investment decisions are made so that the Pension Fund is appropriately invested to meet the plan’s obligations over the long term.

The hybrid nature of the plan creates investment challenges for the fund. Investments need to be well diversified to manage and reduce volatility and protect returns in declining markets. Managing these key financial objectives and risks requires a long-term approach, as both the long-term result achieved over an entire market cycle and the pattern in which results are delivered within the market cycle are important factors in achieving the objectives.

To provide retirement income to almost 9,800 working and retired plan members, we actively manage and invest the fund’s over $3 billion in assets with a long-term vision that optimizes growth and carefully manages risk. Over the last 10 years, we achieved a 9.1 per cent overall annualized Fund Rate of Return, which is in the top 5 per cent of comparable Canadian pension funds.

Over the past few years, during remarkable global change and economic volatility, our investment team has sharpened its focus on sustainability and on managing the fund in a thoughtful manner that delivers the value that our members expect.

Our leadership team also continues its steadfast commitment to embodying the University’s longstanding commitment to sustainability by integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors in all our fund investment activities. We have embraced sustainable investing for many years and during the past year, we reviewed key ESG metrics of the fund’s managers, such as the Weighted Average Carbon Intensity (WACI) score and are proud that we are very well-positioned to successfully achieve the transition to net-zero.

These key metrics inform how we make investment decisions and engage with our managers. We’ll continue to manage risk, respond to market volatility, and focus on growth through sound fund management practices.

As sustainable investing evolves, and the links between risk, opportunity, and return become more apparent to the market, the York University Pension Investments team will continue to balance long-term risk and reward so we can continue to provide dependable retirement income to our York community.