Outlook for 2025: Expert Insights on Short and Long-term Investment Opportunities
Roundtable Luncheon with Gillian Brown, David Ross and Rachel Volynsky
C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.
Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.
Gillian Brown, Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
Gillian Brown is the Chief Investment Officer, Public & Private Investments. In this role, she is accountable for the execution and management of investments across public and private markets through its Equities, Infrastructure & Natural Resources, Teachers’ Venture Growth, Real Estate, and Capital Markets investment departments.
Since joining Ontario Teachers' in 1995, Gillian has held progressively senior roles; most recently overseeing Capital Markets and previously as Managing Director, Credit, Insurance Linked Securities and Equity Products, and Director of Derivative Strategies and Trading within the Tactical Asset Allocation department.
Gillian has more than 20 years of industry experience in public securities investment management. She earned a B.Comm from McGill University, is a CFA charterholder and a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors. She is also on the Board of Canada Guaranty, one of Ontario Teachers’ portfolio companies.
David Ross, Senior Managing Director, Head of Capital Markets, OPTrust
David Ross, Senior Managing Director & head of the Total Portfolio Management (TPM) group at OPTrust. With net assets of $25 billion, OPTrust invests and manages one of Canada’s largest defined benefit plans with over 111,000 members.
At OPTrust, David is responsible for overseeing public market investment strategies, executed both internally and externally. Strategies are deployed in three value add programs, namely multi-strategy investing, credit, and emerging markets equities, as well as across asset classes at the Total Portfolio level. This includes the oversight of the Plan’s internal trading, funding and liquidity management, incubation investments in novel and transformative technologies, as well as the development and deployment of internally managed systematic strategies in the Total Portfolio.
Before joining OPTrust in October 2016, David spent 10 years at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) in Toronto. He served 8 of those years as a Portfolio Manager, pursuing discretionary Global Macro value-added strategies on the Global Opportunities desk before serving as co-head of the Emerging Markets Fixed Income & FX desk within the FICC group. Prior to OTPP, David focused on developing Emerging Markets investment strategies in roles based in London, New York and Toronto.
David has a B.A., Economics from the University of Western Ontario and an M.A., Economics from the University of Toronto. David has been a CFA charterholder since 2006.
Rachel Volynsky, Chief Investment Officer, Investment Solutions, Mercer Canada
Rachel Volynsky, a Partner, has served as the Chief Investment Officer at Mercer Global Investments Canada, a position she has held since her start in September 2019. Operating from the Toronto office, she heads the OCIO Investment Team, overseeing a broad range of institutional client portfolios with an expert team of over 20 which she assembled herself.
Rachel is a valuable member of the Mercer Global Asset Allocation and Liquid Alternative Committees and has previously served as the Chair of Equities Portfolio Management.
With a solid 25-year background in capital allocation, Rachel is well-versed in both public and private market investments and asset management. Her career path includes notable positions at leading investment firms in Canada and the US, including OTPPB, TD Asset Management, and Invesco. Before Mercer, she was the Head of Equities at SEI Canada, where she led a substantial restructuring of their multi-manager funds. Additionally, she was a Senior Global Portfolio Manager and Head of Research at Calvert Investments, focusing on sustainability in the U.S.
Rachel holds an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and is a CFA charterholder. Her ability to converse in five languages reflects her diverse interests and professional versatility.
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