Priti Singh Named CPP Investments' New CRO and Heather Tobin Replaces Her

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BNN Bloomberg reports Canada Pension names its second chief risk officer in 18 months:

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board moved Priti Singh to chief risk officer, replacing a former BlackRock Inc. executive who had been in the role for only a year and a half.

Singh is taking over immediately from Kristen Walters, who was appointed in January of last year. CPPIB, Canada’s largest pension manager, made the decision two years ago to split the risk role from the chief financial officer’s job.

“After more than 30 years in risk management, Kristen Walters will be leaving CPP Investments to be closer to home,” the Toronto-based fund said in a statement Wednesday. “Walters has made a significant contribution in establishing the CRO role as a standalone function and setting the enterprise risk strategy and we thank her for her service to CPP Investments.”

A spokesperson for the $632 billion (US$462 billion) fund declined to comment further.

In addition to BlackRock, Walters previously worked at Natixis Investment Managers and Pacific Investment Management Co., according to her Linkedin profile.

The Canadian fund elevated Heather Tobin to its executive team, asking her to run capital markets and factor investing activities in place of Singh. Tobin’s promotion “demonstrates the bench strength we continue to cultivate throughout the organization,” Chief Executive Officer John Graham said in the statement.

CPPIB reported an 8% net return for the fiscal year that ended March 31.

Earlier today, CPP Investments issued a press release announcing senior executive appointments:

TORONTO, ON (July 17, 2024): John Graham, President & CEO, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) announced today two senior executive leadership appointments.

Priti Singh is appointed as Senior Managing Director & Chief Risk Officer (CRO), effective immediately. In this role she will be responsible for our global risk management functions, including incorporating risk perspectives into all investment and operational processes. She most recently served on the executive team as Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Capital Markets and Factor Investing.

Heather Tobin has been promoted to Senior Managing Director & Global Head of Capital Markets and Factor Investing, effective immediately. In this role, she will be responsible for leading the External Portfolio Management, Systematic Strategies, Investment Engineering & Analytics and Strategy, Risk & Operations groups. She was previously Managing Director, Head of Investment Portfolio Management in the Office of the Chief Investment Officer, responsible for active portfolio design and recommendations on investment signals. She will join the organization’s executive team.

“These appointments position us well to continue building long-term value for the CPP Fund. Priti’s leadership, knowledge of the Fund and experience in investment risk management have been valuable to the CPP Investments’ senior management team – all attributes that position her well to step into the CRO role,” said John Graham, President & CEO. “In addition, Heather’s deep experience across multiple departments in the organization makes her ideally suited to take on expanded leadership roles. This promotion demonstrates the bench strength we continue to cultivate throughout the organization.”

After more than 30 years in risk management, Kristen Walters will be leaving CPP Investments to be closer to home. Walters has made a significant contribution in establishing the CRO role as a standalone function and setting the enterprise risk strategy and we thank her for her service to CPP Investments.

About CPP Investments

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments™) is a professional investment management organization that manages the Fund in the best interest of the more than 22 million contributors and beneficiaries of the Canada Pension Plan. In order to build diversified portfolios of assets, investments are made around the world in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York City, San Francisco, São Paulo and Sydney, CPP Investments is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm’s length from governments. At March 31, 2024, the Fund totalled $632.3 billion. For more information, please visit www.cppinvestments.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram or on X @CPPInvestments.

Alright, on a relatively quiet Wednesday in mid-July, CPP Investments announces some pretty big senior executive appointments.

First, Priti Singh is moving from her role as Global Head of Capital Markets and Factor Investing to become the new Chief Risk Officer. That's a significant move and one that is well thought out as she has extensive experience and can help the Fund in all aspects of risk mitigation and risk taking.

In my opinion, a good CRO needs to have solid investment experience and know when it's time to seize opportunities and where to allocate risk. Working with Ed Cass, the CIO, and other members of the senior management team, she will play an instrumental role in allocating risk and making sure all risks including operational risks, are taken into account in all investment decisions.

I will not speculate here except to say that this was a smart strategic move by John Graham, one that he thought of very carefully before promoting her to this new role.

Heather Tobin will be replacing Priti as Global Head of Capital Markets and Factor Investing and she has big shoes to fill in this all-important role where her group is in charge of investing globally across public equities, fixed income securities, currencies, commodities and derivatives. She will oversee the External Portfolio Management, Systematic Strategies, Investment Engineering & Analytics and Strategy, Risk & Operations groups.

Heather joined CPP Investments in 2009 and before this appointment she was Managing Director and Head of Investment Portfolio Management in the Office of the Chief Investment Officer. 

That role allowed her to gain important knowledge and experience which will serve her well in her new role.

I publicly congratulate both women for this important nomination and I do note they are both highly qualified women.

CPP Investments is Canada's pension fund, the most important pension fund in the country and as such it must reflect the diverse nature of our country. 

If you look at CPP Investments' senior management team, you will count 10 men and 6 women and three of those ladies have senior investment/ risk roles.

Now, there is another reason why I think John Graham is shaking things up a little at the executive manager level.

The dynamics have shifted in a post-pandemic world. 

On the investment side, we see higher for longer and other issues impacting real estate, private equity and even infrastructure and a lot more concentration risk in public equities as the Mag 7 garner an unprecedented amount of attention.

Private credit is all the rage lately but as I keep stating, that asset class has yet to go through a significant downturn where defaults soar.

Add to this mix heightened geopolitical risks as we saw recently with the attempted assassination of President Trump and you get the picture why John Graham is shaking things up at the senior level.

I will add one more thing, now more than ever, CPP Investments has to leverage off its strategic relationships across private markets and public markets including top hedge funds they invest with to really gain better edge in their investments.

They know all this, I'm not stating anything new here or earth-shattering but execution risk is probably one risk they can live without and they really need to focus given their size doesn't allow room to make grave errors.

Anyways, those are my thoughts but before I leave you, one more piece of advice, stop hanging on Trump's latest rhetoric, don't worry about protectionism and worry more about the balance of opinions out there which are way too bullish in my opinion:

Read my lips: we are heading toward a very hard landing in Canada, in the US and across the world and I don't give a damn how smart you think you are, if you think otherwise, you will get your head handed to you when the tide shifts abruptly.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, don't worry, there's still some time to trade before the Fed starts cutting rates and markets tank, just hedge your risks and position yourself accordingly.

Below, New York Life Investments' Lauren Goodwin, Truist’s Keith Lerner and Axonic’s Pete Cecchini join 'Closing Bell' to discuss market outlooks. Listen to her comments carefully, she's spot on.

And Exante Data’s Jens Nordvig and Sprott Inc’s Ryan McIntyre join 'Power Lunch' to discuss the weakness in the US dollar and gold's run. 

I have no positions in gold and remain LONG USD. I also added to my small cap biotech positions today and see the bull market in small caps continuing until the Fed starts cutting rates (the trick in biotech is to use volatility as an opportunity and focus on where top biotech funds are invested).

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