Alignvest Names Donald Raymond Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer

TORONTO, Jan. 8, 2014 /CNW/ - Alignvest Management Corporation is pleased to announce that Donald Raymond will join the firm as a Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer, effective April 1, 2014.  

Mr. Raymond, currently Senior Vice-President and Chief Investment Strategist at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), will join Alignvest Managing Partners Reza Satchu and Timothy Hodgson in building Alignvest into a world-class investment management business. In addition to using his investment acumen to enhance Alignvest's existing hedge fund and private capital investment platforms, Mr. Raymond will lead the development of new capabilities bringing leading portfolio design and management to small and medium sized institutions and ultra-high net worth family offices.

Mr. Raymond has devoted the last 12½ years of his career to helping build the CPPIB into a leading global investment organization. Mr. Raymond was the first employee in CPPIB's Public Market Investment department, where he oversaw the growth of CPPIB's public markets investment portfolio from $11 billion in passively managed funds to almost $100 billion in funds managed by more than 130 employees, including five active investment teams. In his current role as Chief Investment Strategist, Mr. Raymond serves as Chairman of the CPPIB's Investment Planning Committee, which has responsibility for overseeing the portfolio design and management of one of the fastest-growing investment portfolios in the world. He was also the principal architect of CPPIB's innovative Total Portfolio Approach, and was instrumental in the development of the United Nations' Principles of Responsible Investing (UNPRI), as well as their adoption by CPPIB in 2005.  

"Very few investment professionals have Don's insight or experience across strategies, asset classes, geographies and market cycles," said Reza Satchu, Managing Partner. "We are privileged that he has chosen to join Alignvest and believe our firm and our clients will benefit tremendously from his expertise."

Timothy Hodgson, Managing Partner, added, "Our clients not only demand sophisticated investment solutions – they require them. Don will significantly enhance our capabilities and enable Alignvest to make available to small and medium sized institutions and ultra-high net worth family offices a level of investment portfolio design and management that until now has typically been available to only the very largest institutional investors."

"I was attracted to Alignvest by its people, its philosophy and the opportunity to do something entrepreneurial with the next phase of my career," said Mr. Raymond.  "I was also very attracted to the strength and success of Alignvest's existing investing platforms and the long-term commitment each of the partners has made by investing a significant portion of their own net worth in the firm for at least 10 years. I know from my time at CPPIB what a huge advantage a longer time horizon can be. I look forward to working with Tim, Reza, the Alignvest team, and the firm's clients and investment partners in the years ahead."

Prior to joining the CPPIB in 2001, Mr. Raymond was a portfolio manager in the Quantitative Strategies group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York, which managed one of the world's largest hedge funds at the time. He began his investment career as a research analyst in the fixed-income derivatives department of Burns Fry, a predecessor of BMO Capital Markets. Prior to developing an interest in finance, Mr. Raymond worked for Schlumberger in China and trained as a pilot in the Canadian military. He holds a PhD in engineering from Queen's University and a CFA charter. Mr. Raymond is currently Chair of the International Centre for Pension Management and Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He is also Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Queen's University and Chair of its Investment Committee.

About Alignvest

Alignvest Management Corporation ("AMC" or "Alignvest") is a leading international alternative investment management firm that seeks to deliver exceptional risk adjusted returns for our clients by identifying and exploiting market discontinuities and attracting the very best talent to build industry leading investment platforms. The firm was created with the founding principle of increasing the alignment between asset managers and their clients.

Alignvest currently offers four investment platforms in both private and public markets strategies: Alignvest Private Capital, Alignvest Private Debt, Alignvest Capital Management, and Greyson Capital Management.

For more information about Alignvest, please visit www.alignvest.com.

SOURCE: Alignvest Management Corporation

For further information: Media Contact: Nick Anstett, Longview Communications, [phone], [email protected]