CAASA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019
Overview
WHO ATTENDS?
The CAASA Annual Conference brings together speakers and participants from private and public pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, single and multi-family offices, consulting firms, investment dealers, Canadian and global investment management houses, and affiliated service providers. Panels and break-out sessions will focus on key issues facing investors and managers in Canada and elsewhere including structuring, legal & tax issues, IT and operational areas, and investments – including: hedge funds, CTAs, private equity, private lending, real estate, infrastructure, and crypto- assets/blockchain-related investments.
All content is subject to Chatham House Rule.
Our 2018 conference delegation included 35% investors, 33% managers and 32% service providers and other industry players.
View the 2019 Conference brochure, HERE.
When
- November 4, 2019
- 9:00 am – 4:00 pm EST
- November 5, 2019
- 9:00 am – 4:00 pm EST
Where
900 Boulevard René-Lévesque O, Montréal, QC H3B 1X8, Canada
SPEAKERS
Mario Therrien, CFA
Senior Managing Director & Head of Strategic Partnerships
Developed Markets, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
Sylvie Bernier
Olympic Gold Medallist – Canada’s first gold in diving & Québec’s first female Olympic Champion
Art McDonald, PhD
Nobel Laureate, Astrophysicist & Gordon & Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics
Emeritus, Queen’s University
Mario Therrien, CFA
Senior Managing Director & Head of Strategic Partnerships
Developed Markets, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
Mario Therrien leads the Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets team, which is responsible for developing a network of sustainable and high-quality local partnerships in these markets. He also oversees all investment activities in external hedge funds and public equity funds, in addition to applying an integrated management approach to the Growth Markets mandate in the Equity Markets portfolio. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving CDPQ’s in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Executive Committee.
Mr. Therrien joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role
of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities
in liquid-asset classes.
Mr. Therrien holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.
Sylvie Bernier
Olympic Gold Medallist – Canada’s first gold in diving & Québec’s first female Olympic Champion
In winning the gold medal in the three-meter event at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Sylvie Bernier made history by becoming the first Quebec athlete to win gold at the Olympics, as well as the first—and, to this date, the only—Canadian gold medallist in diving. Her win fuelled the dreams of an entire generation of athletes.
After this achievement, Sylvie retired from competition and took up a new cause: promoting a healthy lifestyle. She would do so on radio and television for more than 35 years. Following her degree in business administration, she completed in 2011 a master’s degree at McGill University “International Masters for Health Leadership”. Since 2012, Sylvie has been a healthy lifestyle ambassador and chairs the Table sur le mode de vie physiquement actif (TMVPA) and the Table québécoise sur la saine alimentation (TQSA).
This Olympian has a rich and varied résumé. She embarked on a second career in communications as a radio host and speaker. A recipient of the Orders of Quebec and Canada, she was also inducted into the International Aquatic Sports Hall of Fame, the first Canadian to receive this honour in diving. Sylvie returned to the Olympic Games in a volunteer role as Assistant and Chef de Mission for the Canadian delegation in 2006, 2008 and in 2012, where the entire Canadian team appreciated her leadership.
In April 2019, she published a book and a documentary, both entitled “The day I could not dive”, having the drowning of her nephew Raphaël as a narrative. These allowed Sylvie to begin a next step of her great life project: awareness and prevention of drowning amongst children. She is the honorary spokesperson of the Lifesaving Society’s Swim to Survive program. She dreams that all children in Quebec will be introduced to swimming.
Mother to three daughters, Sylvie Bernier is an inspiration for the generation that saw her dive for gold. She is dedicated to ensuring that the next generation grows up educated and healthy.
Art McDonald, PhD
Nobel Laureate, Astrophysicist & Gordon & Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics
Emeritus, Queen’s University
Art McDonald, CC, O. Ont, O. N.S., FRS, FRSC, P. Eng, is a native of Sydney, N.S. Canada. He has degrees in physics from Dalhousie University (BSc, MSc) and Caltech (PhD) and fourteen honorary degrees. From 1969-1982 he was a Research Officer at AECL Chalk River Laboratories; 1982-1989, Professor at Princeton University; 1989-2013, Professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, 2006-2013 Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics and 2013 became Professor Emeritus. Since 1989 he has been Director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) Scientific Collaboration. Among many awards, he is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Co-recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with the SNO Collaboration. He has over 160 scientific publications and continues to be active in basic research in Neutrinos and Dark Matter at the SNOLAB underground laboratory.