Jonathan Hausman
Managing Director and Head of Strategic Relationships, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan
Jonathan Hausman is Managing Director and Head of Global Strategic Relationships at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he is responsible for developing and cultivating key investment partnerships around the world. He is also responsible for coordinating the Fund’s efforts in Latin America. Previously, he served as Vice President, Alternative Investments and Global Tactical Asset Allocation, responsible for Ontario Teachers’ global hedge fund portfolio, as well as its internal global macro and systematic trading strategies. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’, Mr. Hausman was Executive Director at Goldman Sachs, where he held positions in its New York, London and Hong Kong offices, managing sovereign risk strategy and advising government clients on their external financing and international credit ratings. His clients included the Republic of South Africa, the Republic of Italy, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea, which in 1999 conferred on him a National Award of Merit in recognition of his advisory work for the Korean government through the Asia Crisis.
Mr. Hausman is a Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, which he helped to found and where he lectures on Global Markets and International Political Economy. Mr. Hausman received an Arbor Award for this service to the university. He also serves as Chair of the Canadian Council for the Americas, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Capitalize for Kids, and a member of the Hold’em for Life Charity Challenge Committee. In 2009, Mr. Hausman was selected by the Canadian International Council to be an expert panelist for its Global Positioning Strategy, a major non-partisan initiative to design and recommend to the Canadian government a new approach to international affairs in the changing global environment.
Before beginning his career in international finance, Mr. Hausman worked as Special Assistant to the Premier of the Province of Ontario. He holds a BA (Hons.) from McGill University, an MSc. (Econ.) from the London School of Economics, and an MPA from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He also has ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Mr. Hausman is a native of Toronto and lives in the city with his wife and two daughters.
Jim Hwang
Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Jim leads the Portfolio Research group in our Total Portfolio Management (TPM) department. He and his group are responsible for identifying and researching systematic investment factors, and articulating our Total Portfolio’s exposures to these factors.
Previously at CPPIB, Jim headed the Portfolio Management group within TPM during which he and his team developed the investment process for and managed the systematic exposures of the Balancing portion of our Total Portfolio. Prior to that, Jim managed the Portfolio Engineering team in PMI-Quant Equities where he was responsible for the daily production of quantitative investment models and related analytics.
Before joining CPPIB Jim held various roles managing quantitative portfolios and portfolio management teams at Seekers Advisors HK, Bosera Asset Management Co. in HK & China, and Barclays Global Investors and UBS Brinson Inc. in the US.
Jim has a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT. He is also a CFA charter holder.
Marlene Puffer
Partner, Alignvest Investment Management
Marlene Puffer is a Partner of Alignvest Investment Management. Dr. Puffer has more than 25 years’ experience in investments, pensions and capital markets at world-class financial institutions and in academia. Prior to joining Alignvest. Dr. Puffer was a Chief Strategist at BCA Research, a global leader in independent macro investment strategy, and she was the President and Founder of Twist Financial, an independent firm providing investment strategy and advice for institutional investors, boards, unions, government agencies, and other market participants. Dr. Puffer also serves as vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees and was previously Chair of the Asset-Liability Management Committee at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). She is a past-President of Women in Capital Markets and is the WCM representative with the Canadian Gender and Good Governance Alliance.
Dr. Puffer’s previous experience includes roles as chief investment officer at NAV CANADA Pension Plan, in business development and fixed income portfolio management at PIMCO Canada and Legg Mason Canada, and in debt capital markets at BMO Capital Markets and as head of fixed income analytics at RBC Capital Markets. She began her career as Assistant Professor of finance at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Puffer holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Applied Statistics and a M.Sc. in Business Administration from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Economics from the University of Toronto. She holds a CFA charter and the ICD.D designation granted by the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Karl Schamotta
Director of Global Market Strategy, Cambridge Global Payments
Karl Schamotta is Director of Global Market Strategy at Cambridge Global Payments, where he leads the firm’s currency research group - focused on analyzing shifts in the world economy and creating strategies that help businesses harness market volatility. He has built risk management and trading programmes for hundreds of major corporations, and has extensive experience in managing complex exposures across major, minor and exotic currencies. Karl is a regular contributor to a number of international finance publications, and is regularly quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNN and CNBC.
Brett House
VP & Deputy Chief Economist, Scotiabank
Brett House is Vice-President and Deputy Chief Economist at Scotiabank. Prior to joining Scotiabank in October 2016, Brett was Chief Economist at Alignvest Investment Management in Toronto and Global Strategist at Woodbine Capital Advisors, a New York-based global macro fund.
Earlier in his career, Brett served as Principal Advisor in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General and as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund. He cut his teeth in financial markets at Goldman Sachs International in London and at the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Brett is a Rhodes Scholar with degrees in economics from the University of Oxford and Queen’s University at Kingston. In addition, he has taught at Oxford and McGill University in Montréal, and has held research roles at Columbia University in New York and Massey College at the University of Toronto.
Brett sits on the investment committees of Pearson College and the Canadian Rhodes Scholars’ Foundation. He received the 2014 Québec Notable Award in Finance and the 2015 Good Citizen Award from his hometown of Lincoln, Ontario.
