October 20, 2020 – William Robson, President and CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute, announces the appointment of Barbara Zvan as a Senior Fellow.
“Barb has already made major contributions to the C.D. Howe Institute’s work program through her participation in the Institute’s Pension Policy Council, and more recently with her insights on sustainable finance,” said Robson. “We are pleased to continue our association with her as a Fellow.”
“In today’s complex landscape, the C.D. Howe Institute gives home to the constructive dialogue needed to shape effective public policies for today and tomorrow,” said Zvan. “I am continually inspired by the work the Institute does to promote actionable, high impact policy in Canada.”
Barbara Zvan is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the University Pension Plan Ontario.
Formerly, she was Chief Risk & Strategy Officer for the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP). Under Barbara’s leadership, the Strategy & Risk team supported the plan’s sponsors in weighing plan design decisions, its board in setting appropriate benchmarks and risk tolerances, and its Investment division in designing a long-horizon total fund strategy. She crafted OTPP’s responsible investing and climate risk management strategy and directed its enterprise and operational risk management approach. After nearly 25 years, Zvan left OTPP in 2020 to pursue new opportunities.
Zvan is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and holds an Institute of Corporate Directors designation and a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo. She is on the board of the Global Risk Institute and the advisory board of the Queen’s University Smith School of Business Institute of Sustainable Finance. She has chaired the International Centre of Pension Management and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s Investor Advisory Group, and sat on the boards of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance, Cadillac Fairview, and the Chilean water utilities Esval (Essbio) S.A.
She was one of four appointees to the Government of Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance, which delivered its final recommendations in June 2019. She also played a significant role in creating the G7 Investor Leadership Network, which represents over $6T in AUM. Zvan is an honouree of Canada’s 2020 Clean50 and one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2008.
For more information please contact: C.D. Howe Institute at 416-865-1904, email: media@cdhowe.org.
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