Michelle Ostermann

Chair (Pension Protection Fund)

UK

Michelle joined the PPF as CEO in April 2024. She has over 30 years of experience in the global pensions and investment industry and has held senior positions at several leading firms including Sun Life Global Investments where she managed a $10 billion fund-of-funds portfolio; Manulife Investments where she headed up a $35 billion annuity product line; and British Columbia Investment Management where she led the $150 billion total fund strategy, investment risk, client portfolios and communication teams.

Michelle was Managing Director at Railpen Investments in the UK where she was ultimately responsible for the £30 billion railway workers’ pension fund. In this capacity, she oversaw the entire investment business including investment and operational activities. Most recently Michelle was the Senior Vice President and Global Head of the $120 billion Capital Markets team at PSP Investments, the fourth largest pension fund in Canada.

Michelle was appointed Chair of the global pension industry association, International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM), in January 2024 after five years as Vice Chair. She also served as Vice Chair of the Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC). She has a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Economics and both the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) designations.

Michelle is recognised as a thought leader in the pensions industry, having contributed significantly to the global landscape. She is well recognised as an inspirational leader and excellent communicator and very passionate about the growing and important role asset owners play in financial systems. Her extensive global network gives her an exceptionally broad perspective on best practices and trends. She is best known for her experience in governance, strategy and risk management. Throughout her career she has developed a track record of transforming businesses and cultures.

Matilde Segarra

Vice-Chair (APG US)

United States

Matilde Segarra (re)joined APG in February 2022 as Chief Executive Officer APG US. In this role she is responsible for overseeing APG US’ investment activities and operations to ensure they produce the desired results and are consistent with the overall strategy and mission of the company and APG’s clients. In this role she serves as the Chairperson of the APG US Executive Board, the Crisis Management Team the Change Initiative Board, and the Private Equity Co-Investment Committee. She also serves as co-Lead of APG Asset Management’s Global People & Culture Strategy and is a proud Board sponsor of the APG US Women’s Forum.

From 2019-2021 Matilde worked for Fidelity International as Chief Risk Officer Asia Pacific. In this role she was responsible for the implementation and oversight of FIL’s Global Risk Management Framework for all risk types across FIL’s APAC business locations. Aside from her APAC risk oversight duties she also coordinated the build-out of Fidelity’s Global Risk monitoring and oversight framework for Sustainable Investing and Corporate Sustainability and represented Global Risk in the Sustainable Investment Oversight Committee and Corporate Sustainability Committee. During her tenure at Fidelity, she served on the Board of Fidelity’s Korean and Taiwan business entities and as the Manager in Charge for Risk Management in Hong Kong.

Between 2005 and 2018 she held various positions at APG Asset Management, starting as a Portfolio Manager on APG’s Global Tactical Asset Allocation team based in Amsterdam. In 2010 she transferred to APG Asia in Hong Kong where she was appointed to the role of Global Co-Head of Investment Risk Management in 2012. She relocated to the United States to join APG US in 2015 where she was promoted to Chief Finance and Risk Officer US in January 2018.

Prior to APG, Matilde has worked for AEGON Asset Management (The Hague) and ABN AMRO Rothschild Bank (Hong Kong) in Investment Strategist and Capital Market Analyst roles.

Matilde holds a MA degree in Economics from Utrecht University and is a CFA Charter Holder.

She speaks English, Spanish, Italian and Dutch.

Stewart Brentnall

New South Wales Treasury Corporation

Australia

Stewart Brentnall joined TCorp as its first Chief Investment Officer in March 2017. The position was created following a merger between TCorp and two other NSW funds (State Super and iCare, formerly NSW WorkCover). He oversees asset allocation and manager selection. In this position, Mr Brentnall is responsible for running an aggregate portfolio of $110bn, representing defined benefit pension assets, insurance reserves, an infrastructure recycling assets and an intergenerational sovereign wealth fund.  Mr Brentnall has led the evolution of TCorp’s investment model to a Total Portfolio Approach.

From 2010-2017, Mr. Brentnall was Chief Investment Officer for ANZ, one of the large Australian banks. In 2009, ANZ bought out its joint venture with ING to strengthen its position in wealth management. He was brought in to oversee the transition, and to design and implement its asset management strategy.

Mr. Brentnall was previously Head of Investment Solutions at BT Financial Group, a newly created business unit to manage external funds. He also held various leadership roles in asset management at Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), Goldman Sachs and Schroders. He began his career as an auditor with Deloitte.

Kristina Koutrakos

Virginia Retirement System

United States

Kristina Koutrakos has been Director, Portfolio Strategies at Virginia Retirement System since 2015, where she is responsible for the development and implementation of multi-asset portfolios and investment strategies at the $100+ billion U.S. state pension plan. Prior to this role, she was Managing Partner and founder of an investment firm to research and invest in women-run alternative investment funds. Kristina has served on ICPM’s Forum and Events Committee for the last year, which ensures member-exclusive events such as the in-person Discussion Forums and virtual round tables remain on point and relevant and for ICPM’s Research Partners.

Susan Christoffersen

Rotman School of Management

Prof. Christoffersen joined the Rotman School as a finance professor in 2010 after spending more than a decade as a faculty member at Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. In her role as Vice-Dean, Undergraduate & Specialized Programs at the Rotman School from 2015 to 2020, she provided the leadership and energy to both re-invent undergraduate education and build three new pre-experience specialized programs. The Master of Financial Risk Management (MFRM), Graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting (GDipPA) and Master of Management Analytics (MMA), were launched in quick succession as a key part of the Rotman School’s growth. She was also a driving force behind the redesign of the Master of Finance program (MFin) as well as the fundamental transformation of the Rotman Commerce program including a curriculum restructuring and the more than doubling of resources including space and staff dedicated to the program, in partnership with the University’s Faculty of Arts and Science.  In addition to her work as Vice-Dean, she also founded and contributed to the growth of the TD Management Data Analytics Lab, an important hub of activity for advancing the School’s research and teaching in the field of data analytics. She also served as co-academic director of the Lab.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree from the University of British Columbia and earned her PhD in finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mel Duffield

Universities Superannuation Scheme

United Kingdom

Mel Duffield is currently Chief Scheme Strategy and Stakeholder Officer at Universities Superannuation Scheme, the £75.5bn hybrid scheme for universities and higher education institutions in the UK. Mel’s executive responsibilities include oversight and coordination of valuations, corporate communications and external relations, stakeholder support and strategy and insight. Prior to joining USS in 2015, Mel held positions at organizations such as Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) and Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). She was also a senior economic advisor at HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Education. Mel has served on ICPM’s Pension Education Committee since 2019, which oversees the growth of education programs tailored to pension boards.

Kenneth Corts

Rotman School of Management

Canada

Professor Kenneth S. Corts is Vice-Dean, Research, Strategy, and Resources and Academic Director of the Lee-Chin Institute for Corporate Citizenship at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. He also holds the Desautels Chair in Entrepreneurship and is a professor in the Economic Analysis and Policy area.

Professor Corts has previously served in a number of other academic leadership positions at the University of Toronto, including Interim Dean at Rotman; Acting Vice-President, University Operations and Acting Vice-Provost, Academic Operations at U of T; and Director of the Rotman Commerce, a role that reports to the Deans of both Rotman and the Faculty of Arts and Science. He has been a visiting professor at UCLA and INSEAD and a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley and IESE. Before joining the Rotman School in 2003, he was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the Competition and Strategy area at Harvard Business School. He received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 1994.

Professor Corts is a microeconomist with research and teaching interests in industrial organization, competition policy, organizational economics, and energy policy; he has published his research in leading academic journals such as the Rand Journal of Economics, the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Journal of Law and Economics. Professor Corts has also published a number of Harvard Business School case studies that are used at top business schools throughout the world, served as Editor at the Journal of Industrial Economics from 2005-2010, and won grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition to his academic contributions, Professor Corts has provided expert testimony in competition policy cases before the Competition Tribunal and the Ontario Superior Court, co-authored a policy analysis paper for the UK Office of Fair Trading, and consulted on antitrust matters in the U.S.

Jeroen F. J. de Munnik

PGGM

Netherlands

Jeroen de Munnik joined PGGM as Chief of Institutional Business in 2013 and is a member of PGGM’s Executive Committee. He is responsible for managing clients. In addition, he is responsible for advice with respect to investment management and with respect to pensions.

Prior to PGGM, Dr. de Munnik spent almost 20 years at Aegon (1993 to 2012) where he held various positions in asset management and operations. He ultimately became responsible for Aegon’s entire pension business.

Dr. de Munnik spoke at ICPM’s Toronto Discussion Forum in June 2018. He is a member of the Supervisory Council and Chair of the Audit Committee at Isala Clinics in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

He holds a PhD in Econometrics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Poul Winslow

Independent

Canada

Poul has more than 3 decades of global experience within multi-asset class and alternative investments. Poul retired from CPP Investments in May 2022 as Senior MD and Global Head of Capital Markets & Factor Investing; he worked at CPP Investments since 2009 as Managing Director and Head of Thematic Investing and Managing Director and Head of External Portfolio Management. Before CPP Investments, he was Chief Investment Officer of Swedish AP2/Andra AP-fonden and also held several senior leadership roles at Nordea Investment Management in Denmark, Sweden and the US. Poul also served as a Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI/HFSB).

Thomas Lee

New York State Teachers’ Retirement Fund (NYSTRS)

United States

Thomas K. Lee is currently responsible for the investment of plan assets totaling $132B.
Reporting to a 10-member Board of Trustees, he oversees the work of NYSTRS’ investment staff
in managing the internally-managed investment portfolios, developing and performing due
diligence on potential external private and public investment opportunities, and monitoring and
reporting on the activities and performance of third-party investment managers in which the
System has invested. In his capacity as executive director of the Retirement System, Tom
oversees the administration of retirement benefits to more than 442,000 active members,
retirees and beneficiaries. He is also responsible for overseeing members’ service credit and
salary information as reported to the System by it 822 participating employers.
 
As of June 30, 2022, NYSTRS paid approximately $8.0 billion in annual benefit payments, over
80% of which was distributed to New York residents. The Retirement System is among the best-
funded public pension plans in the nation. Based on the market value of assets, our funded
ratio at June 30, 2022 was 97%. Using the actuarial value of assets, the funded ratio was 99%.
 
Prior to NYSTRS, Tom was Executive Director of Maryland State Retirement and Pension
System. He has various professional affiliations, such as serving as a member of the Investment
Committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Board of the
National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), the Board of the PREA
Foundation, the Board of the International Centre for Pension Management, and the Council of
Institutional Investors’ U.S. Asset Owners Advisory Council.
Mr. Lee has a BA in Political Science and Sociology from Dickinson College, a MA in Political
Science from Temple University, and a MBA from George Washington University.

Praneel Lachman

FirstRand Retirement Fund

South Africa

Praneel Lachman is currently the Board Deputy Chair at FirstRand Retirement Fund and chair of the Funds Investment Committee. He has held various roles at FirstRand Limited such as in areas of strategic operations, portfolio management, Chief Risk Officer for group ALM risks, acting group Chief Audit Executive and now Head of Balance Sheet Management. He has contributed to the effective corporate governance across the group including prior responsibility for the group’s Asset, Liability and Capital Committee, the centre’s Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and custodian of the group’s ALM relationship with regulators. Praneel is also a trustee of the FNB Umbrella Retirement Fund that was launched to help its small-to-medium and commercial enterprises clients provide a simple and cost effective retirement savings product to their staff. He is also a member of the Thinking Ahead Institute, which is a global think tank aimed at mobilizing capital for a sustainable future

Edwin Denson

State of Wisconsin Investment Board

United States

Edwin joined SWIB in 2018 as managing director, asset and risk allocation. He was appointed executive director/chief investment officer in April 2021. Before joining SWIB, Edwin was managing director, strategic tilting, at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Prior to joining CPPIB in 2013, Edwin spent 13 years in asset allocation, currency, and risk management as a portfolio manager at William Blair & Company, managing member at Singer Partners LLC, and managing director and head of asset allocation at UBS Global Asset Management. Earlier in his career, Edwin was an economist at Lehman Brothers, Primark Decision Economics, and Putnam Investments, and he also briefly managed a commodity trading adviser and a quantitative equity strategy. Edwin holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Cornell University and a PhD in economics from Northwestern University.

Tim Mitchell

Annuitas Management Limited

New Zealand

Tim Mitchell is the new Chief Executive of Annuitas Management Limited in New Zealand, which is responsible for providing executive functions to the Government Superannuation Fund Authority and the Board of Trustees of the National Provident Fund. Both are closed defined benefit pension schemes.
Prior to this, he was WTW’s (formerly Willis Towers Watson) Global Head of Governance Consulting and Head of Investment Organisational Effectiveness, as well as consulted a variety of Crown entities.
Tim Mitchell is a familiar face at ICPM events from his nearly 14 years at New Zealand Superannuation Fund as General Manager Corporate Strategy and General Manager Public Markets. He was also CIO of Colonial First State Investment Management NZ.