OTPP Appoints Dale Burgess to Oversee Equities

Last week, OTPP announced the appointment of Dale Burgess as Executive Managing Director, Equities: 

Toronto, Canada - Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') today announces the appointment of Dale Burgess to the position of Executive Managing Director, Equities, effective immediately.  In this role, based in the Toronto office, Mr. Burgess oversees the Equities investment department globally.  He has served in this role on an interim basis since February 2025.

Mr. Burgess joined Ontario Teachers' in 1996 and most recently served as Executive Managing Director, Infrastructure & Natural Resources (INR), responsible for overseeing infrastructure acquisitions and asset management globally. He was previously head of the INR team for Latin America where he oversaw portfolio companies as well as business development and origination in target countries across the LATAM region. Mr. Burgess will continue to oversee the global INR team in the interim until a replacement has been appointed in the near term.

In his new role, Mr. Burgess will continue to be a member of the Investments Senior Leadership Team and report to Gillian Brown, Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments.

“Dale is a seasoned investing leader and highly respected colleague who has made significant contributions over his almost three decades at the Plan,” said Ms. Brown.  “He is well positioned to lead our Equities department, which will continue to play an important role in creating value for our members.”

Mr. Burgess holds a BA (Accounting) from the University of Waterloo, is a Chartered Accountant, a CFA charterholder and a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors.

About Ontario Teachers’

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $269.6 billion as at June 30, 2025. Ontario Teachers’ is a fully funded defined benefit pension plan, and it invests in a broad array of asset classes to deliver retirement security for 343,000 working members and pensioners. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

Let me begin by congratulating Dale Burgess on this important appointment.

Dale is a seasoned veteran who has delivered solid long-term results overseeing Infrastructure and Natural Resources.

He was asked to oversee Equities when Romeo Leemrijse who had replaced Karen Frank as Head of Teachers' Private Capital left the organization earlier this year.

I think Gillian Brown, Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments, made the right decision by placing Dale is charge of all Equities, including private equity.

They need stability, to focus on execution and value creation and this appointment sends that message. 

Recall, back in March, OTPP was reassessing its private equity strategy to work more closely with strategic partners and do less purely direct deals. 

When I recently spoke to Gillian Brown when I covered their mid-year results, she shared this with me on the challenges in private equity:

I asked Gillian if she thinks there is a secular shift going on in private equity and gong back to what Stephen said about tariffs and we haven't seen the full effects on inflation, I wonder how this will play out on all asset classes including private equity.

I also asked her how much they're leaning more on their strategic partners because Jo made a reference to that last time we spoke to dive value creation and get better co-investment opportunities.

She responded:

I'll take the beginning and the end of that and let Stephen respond to other bits. I do think there's a secular shift going on, there's clearly been a shift in the rates and inflation environment that we are living in and that means companies cannot lever the way they used to have at the same rate as in the past.

I think we've also seen an adjustment where there was probably a modelled assumption around multiple expansion during the life of an asset that just doesn't hold anymore. When we are looking at new assets, we now are assuming a turn or so less on exit rather than assuming you're going to get your returns out of that. 

And what that means is you're actually leaning into the operating performance of that business, again it's part of our plan of setting up the Portfolio Solutions group that can get into the operating aspects of a business. We will sit down with the deal teams even during underwrite, here are the five value creation levers we see for this company, and none of those are going to be multiple expansion or financial engineering, they're going to be actual operating performance growth of the company.  

And the Portfolio Solutions group can work hand in hand with deal team around making sure the KPIs that were identified on the way in are being delivered during the life of the asset.  

So I do think you're filling into that more and with that comes the strategic partners you referenced making sure we are humble about where we are experts and not, and where we are not, let's make sure we are finding the right partners to be with. There are certain sectors that are going to require very specialized knowledge, very specialized operating support so let's make sure we are picking the right partners to work on those assets.  

So there are certain geographies we are not going to have a big presence, so let's make sure we are picking the right partners versus some where we feel we have a good track record that gives us conviction that sector will continue to perform and we will continue to be competitive there. 

There you have it, time to focus and execute through value creation with the right partners.

Below,  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), one of Canada’s largest pension funds with over C$266 billion in assets, is pivoting its private equity approach—moving from direct acquisitions toward partnerships and co‑investments. CEO Jo Taylor says this shift helps mitigate risk amid high interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, and the growing complexity of managing entire companies.