Podcasts about OMERS

In the wake of the Canadian federal election and a tumultuous April, on this episode of The Unlimited Podcast, Brian speaks with Jon Love, Executive Chair and Founder of KingSett Capital. You may recognize Jon from his prolific LinkedIn posts, where he frequently shares his insight on politics, Canada's priorities, and much more. Brian and Jon discuss the founding of KingSett, Jon's thoughts on the election outcome, Canada's path forward under Prime Minister Mark Carney, and more!Jon Love is the Executive Chair and Founder of KingSett Capital, Canada's leading private equity real estate investment business – now with a staff of 170 professionals in three offices, and AUM of $18 billion.After graduating with an HBA from Ivey Business School, in 1976, Jon joined Scotia McLeod in Edmonton as a retail stockbroker, then joined Oxford Properties in 1980, eventually becoming President in 1987 and CEO in 1992. In 1995, Jon took Oxford public and 6-years later, in 2001, Oxford was privatized by OMERS in a $4 billion transaction.In 2002, 6 months after “going dark”, Jon founded KingSett Capital.Jon graduated with an Honours degree in Business Administration from Western University's Ivey Business School, where he is an Emeritus Advisory Board member. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Western University. Jon is a member of the Business Council of Canada, the Chief Executives Organization, and YPO. In 2023, Jon received the Ivey Business Leader of the Year Award, the NAIOP Rex Icon Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2024 the Fraser Institute's Founders Award. In 2018, Jon was awarded the Order of Canada.Timestamps0:00 Disclaimer & Intro5:51 Running Oxford in the 80s & 90s10:21 Jon's favourite times in his career12:00 Knowing when to sell a business15:58 Founding KingSett after "Going Dark"17:33 KingSett today vs. 20 years ago19:38 Why does KingSett only operate in Canada?22:00 Operating while being "Terrified"24:38 Jon's biggest lessons28:25 Implementing a succession plan33:06 Jon's view on the Canadian federal election40:00 Jon's recommendations for a housing plan45:52 Investing outside of KingSett47:30 Playing Offence48:46 If Jon could do anything, what would it be?50:30 Outro

As one of the first Insurtech operators turned investor, Dave leads OMERS Ventures Insurtech portfolio which includes investments in well-known players such as Clearcover, Foresight, WeFox and Joyn. Most recently at Hippo as VP of Growth, Dave oversaw the company's execution and strategy around Smart Home and emerging products. Dave's journey in Insurtech started in 2017 while at Comcast Xfinity where he designed a distribution partnership with Hippo to sell homeowners insurance to Comcast's 30M+ customers. In that role Dave secured his P&C license and set up a national agency. Dave was also part of the team at Comcast that led Hippo's $25M Series B in 2018. Additionally, Dave has founded and led several technology startups giving him a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Dave is passionate about the intersection of technology and insurance and is a firm believer that we are in the early stages of what will be a watershed moment for the sector. He is an active writer and speaker on the industry. Dave also is a Board Director of Joyn Insurance and a Board Observer for Clearcover, Foresight and WeFox as we well multiple Fintech investments. Dave has a BA in Policy Studies from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. He is also a licensed P&C insurance agent. Episode Summary
In this episode, we dive into the evolving landscape of InsurTech with insights from Dave Wechsler, a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist. The discussion covers the challenges and opportunities within the insurance industry, particularly in the context of technological advancements and market dynamics.
 Guest Background: Dave's journey through various startups and their transition into the venture capital world. Insights into the role of technology in transforming traditional insurance practices. Dave started the InsurTech Rap weekly podcast because of his feeling of the importance of networking and collaboration among industry professionals. Current Trends in InsurTech: The impact of AI and machine learning on underwriting and claims processing. Discussion on the shift from legacy systems to modern, tech-driven solutions. Embracing Experimentation: The willingness to experiment and learn from failures is crucial for success in the InsurTech space. As [Guest Name] noted, traditional companies often lack the flexibility to innovate, making it essential for startups to leverage their agility. The Role of AI: Artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape, offering new tools and capabilities that can enhance underwriting processes and customer engagement. However, it also presents challenges as new entrants can disrupt established players with more advanced solutions. Challenges for Entrepreneurs: Navigating the complexities of entering new markets and the importance of adaptability. The significance of building a strong brand and community in the InsurTech sector. Future Outlook: Predictions for the InsurTech landscape in the coming years, including the role of blockchain and smart contracts. The necessity for established companies to innovate and embrace new technologies to stay competitive. Resources Mentioned: insurtechrap.com Join the show live every Thursday at 2 PM EST for more discussions on InsurTech trends and insights. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

For episode 506, Brandon Zemp is joined by Chief Growth Officer Jonathan Wan & Smart Contracts Lead Jean Cavallera on the show to discuss LUKSO.Jonathan has been contributing to LUKSO since 2021, leveraging his experience in private equity and capital markets at Neuberger Berman, OMERS, and Ontario Teachers'. With a strong background in strategy and finance, Jonathan is now channeling his expertise to propel LUKSO's vision as Chief Growth Officer at the Foundation for the New Creative Economies. Since 2021, Jean has led the specification and development of LUKSO's core smart contract standards, forming the foundation for most products and tools built by the developer community. 

With cybercriminals leveraging AI to fuel scams and misinformation, how do we verify what's real? Joined by cybersecurity experts Shuman Ghosemajumder (former Global Head of Product Trust at Google and Co-founder of Reken), and Ken Nickerson (Inventor and Entrepreneur, iBinary, ex-Microsoft, ex-Rogers, ex-Kobo, ex-OMERS, and behind Sealed, a tool designed to verify digital content), John Stackhouse and Sonia Sennik confront a startling new reality where AI-generated deepfakes can mimic voices, images, and even entire identities with frightening accuracy. Together, they unpack the rapidly shifting landscape of AI-driven fraud, explore the concept of "zero trust," and highlight innovative solutions that could help us navigate an era where digital deception is the norm.They explore how to protect democracy, businesses, and personal identities in a world where proof of authenticity is harder than ever. 

In this episode, we dive deep into Omers remarkable story, starting with how he moved to New Zealand alone as a teenager from Turkey, built a thriving business, and then faced a shocking deportation that sparked national media attention.  We unpack the fight to bring him back, the intervention from Winston Peters, and what it was like to have his future decided by a government ruling. Omer opens up about his childhood in Turkey, the stark differences between life there and in NZ, and the devastating loss of his father, who left behind not just emotional scars but also hidden debts that bankrupted his family. Despite this, Omer went on to make millions in crypto, retire his mother, travel the world with his best mates, and build a life most could only dream of. We also explore what entrepreneurs in NZ need to truly succeed, the roadblocks to scaling a business, and how Omer's latest venture, Atlas Studios, is making waves in the eCommerce space.  Really enjoyed this, Omer's brilliance will shine on this! New episodes every Wednesday morning, big thanks to our sponsors, Moana Road and Kaboose Media! 

In this episode, host Robert Olson sits down with veteran finance leader and entrepreneur David Rogers, who shares his remarkable journey from corporate roles at Cooper's and Lybrand and TD Bank to creating Caledon Capital, which grew to manage $10 billion in assets under management. David offers candid insights into his career transitions, from joining FirstService in its infancy as Vice President and CFO to building OMERS' private equity program and ultimately launching his own successful investment firm. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes how his people-first leadership philosophy shaped his success, the importance of trusted mentors, and finding the right strategic partners for business growth. Now semi-retired and serving on Nicola Wealth's private capital investment committee, David reflects on balancing professional accomplishments with personal fulfillment. Highlights  3:40 - Early career beginnings 10:45 - Creating OMERS' private equity program and investment approach  14:40 - Lessons in leadership and building a people-first culture 16:00 - Identifying market gaps and launching a business 22:15 - Strategic partnerships and business evolution 24:50 - Balancing advisory roles and achieving work-life balance  29:00 - Career reflections Sign Up for our Newsletter

After catching you up on all the news that was in the business world in The Briefs this week, Amanda Lang checks in with Satish Rai, the former chief investment officer with Ontario pension plan OMERS to discuss his new book on financial literacy, focusing on what ordinary people can do to get their financial lives in order.

In Episode 69, two Canadian market structure experts, Doug Clark, Head of Equity Product Design for TMX Group, and Rob Gouley, Equity Trading Principle, OMERS, join the podcast to dig in on all things Canadian equity market structure. The conversation starts with a quick elevator pitch on what are the key differentiating features about trading in Canadian shares versus other market models, including the troublesome growth in F Class trading of Canadian shares in the US OTC market. Rob provides his perspective on venue innovation in Canada, and also gives a positive take on the TSX's revised market on close mechanism, which now looks and feels a lot like Nasdaq's US MOC mechanism. Doug provides a 411 on both Alpha X in Canada, and the recent launch of AlphaX US, and Rob outlines the better late than never CSA response to the SEC's market structure rule changes. The two speakers end up in a thought exercise on what Canada's market would look like if Canada banned OPR and Fair Access. This podcast was recorded on January 24, 2025. Chapter Times: 05:45 - The Elevator Pitch on Trading in Canada10:00 - Canadian Trading Volume on F Class Shares in US13:50 - The Pros and Cons of Transparent Broker IDs17:30 - New Marketplace Innovations in Canada28:58 - TMX Dips its Toes into US Ocean35:50 - Canada's Reboot on Market on Close39:52 - Canadian New Issue Market in Atrophy43:55 - Canada's Response to SEC on Ticks and Access Fees50:43 - A Case for Canada to Ban OPR and Fair Access For relevant disclosures, visit: tdsecurities.com/ca/en/legal#PodcastDisclosure. To learn more about TD Securities, visit us at tdsecurities.com or follow us on LinkedIn @tdsecurities.

When planning for retirement, many Canadians rely on a government pension like OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) as their foundation.  Do you need savings in addition to your government pension to maintain the lifestyle you want? A buddy called me from his car and said, “I'm driving. Will I get to my destination on time?” I asked, “Where are you going and where are you now?” It's the same with the question of whether retiring with just your pension is enough. Well it depends on your lifestyle, your goals, and whether you want the freedom to enjoy big-ticket items, like vacations or regular nice dinners. The answer depends on your vision of retirement. If your goal is to replace 70-80% of your working income, you'll need to fill the gap between your pension and that target with personal investments like RRSPs, TFSAs, or non-registered savings. In my latest podcast episode, you'll see examples of people with different investment setups to help you discover what's right for you. You'll learn: What is the formula to know how much your government pension will be? What is the rule of thumb for your pension with 30 years service? How much do you need to retire with the lifestyle you want? 10 examples of a retirement plan with a full pension. Do you need to invest more conservatively after you retire? How does a Financial Plan become the GPS for your life?  

In this episode of the Dakota Fundraising News Podcast, Konch covers key job changes, including Michael Graham's retirement from OMERS and Tim Kane's new role at Oregon State Treasury. We also highlight RIA/FA M&A activity, including Amber Knipes joining Edward Jones and LPL Financial's acquisition of Northern Plains Financial. In institutional coverage, we discuss recent searches and investments, including updates from the Weymouth Retirement System and Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association. Tune in for the latest trends in institutional and private wealth channels!

Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/404083?lang=biWatch the Full Class: https://youtu.be/YrP-HnwjiNc

Source Sheet: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/404083?lang=bi Watch the Full Class: https://youtu.be/YrP-HnwjiNc

Speaker: Blake Hutcheson, President and CEO, OMERS OMERS President and CEO Blake Hutcheson, recent recipient of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award and the Order of Ontario, will highlight how this Canadian success story is positioned to deliver for its members in the years to come and the positive impact that their pension promise is having on our provincial and national economies.

Dr. Wing Lim hosts Physician Empowerment Masterclass Faculty Member and Certified Financial Planner Nick Giovannetti on the show today. Wing and Nick talk about Individual Pension Plans, or IPPs, breaking down how they work, who qualifies, and what sorts of benefits they provide for physicians. Nick has a wealth of knowledge about CPPs, RRSPs, and IPPs that he shares in this episode.Nick Giovannetti explains that IPPs are not a new financial tool, they've been around for over thirty years in Canada. But RRSPs have been around longer and are less complicated than IPPs to administer. There are more complex forms and filings to fill out for the CRA where IPPs are concerned and Nick says the lack of awareness about IPPs and the fear associated with the complexity prevents some accountants and planners from informing their clients about the IPP benefits. So Wing and Nick dive into exactly what an IPP is and how you can best benefit from it. They cover everything from contribution limits and family member beneficiaries to buyback and defined contribution versus defined benefit pension plans. This episode gives an overview of why Individual Pension Plans are worth exploring.–About Nick Giovannetti:Nick is a Certified Financial Planner® with a fully Integrated Wealth Planning Team. His approach to financial planning centers around a deep understanding of clients' goals and objectives, fostering long-term relationships built on trust and transparency.Nick is one of Physician Empowerment's professional Masterclass Faculty members.__Resources mentioned in this episode: “Kentucky Fried Pensions” by Christopher B Tobe and Kenneth C Tobe--Physician Empowerment: Physician Empowerment MasterclassLive Conference 2024--TranscriptDr. Kevin Mailo: [00:00:01] Hi, I'm Doctor Kevin Mailo, one of the co-hosts of the Physician Empowerment podcast. At Physician Empowerment we're dedicated to improving the lives of Canadian physicians personally, professionally, and financially. If you're loving what you're listening to, let us know! We always want to hear your feedback. Connect with us. If you want to go further, we've got outstanding programing both in person and online so look us up. But regardless, we hope you really enjoy this episode. Dr. Kevin Mailo: [00:00:35] Hi everyone, so glad to have you out tonight for another webinar featuring the topic of IPPs, Individualized Pension Plans, which were in fact established by the federal government back in the 90s. They were not very well known until last 5 or 10 years when they've started to take off. But there are a lot of ins and outs to using these properly, and they have certain advantages over RRSPs that incorporated professionals really need to be taking a close look at. So to go on this deep dive, well, I shouldn't say it's that deep a dive, the deep dive is going to come with the masterclass. So if anybody's interested in that, do reach out to me and we'd be happy to talk further about having you join the masterclass, because this topic is dense. So Wing is going to take us through it tonight, and he's going to do it with one of our masterclass faculty, Nick Giovannetti. And Nick is an Integrated Wealth Planning Specialist, holds a lot of designations, and he and our other masterclass faculty member, Simon Wong, have done a ton of outstanding teaching on topics like this. Because you want to know what it is you're you're using when it comes to wealth creation and advanced tax planning. That's where these topics are so, so powerful to cover, like we're going to do. So again, if you have questions, you're interested, reach out to us. But let me take it from there, Wing, and hand it off to you. If you want to go ahead and introduce Nick to everybody. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:02:08] Sure. So good to see everybody and hear everybody's voices later. And yeah, this is very exciting episode in December this year. And we thought we'll wrap up the year by something that is really important. And that's about the RRSP, IPP, and the pension world. And like we said in the intro on social media, we're going to unpack this mystery box. So our guest today for our fireside chat is Nick. And Nick has a lot of designations. And he's actually also a multi-talented Renaissance man, I guess, he was previously an international recording artist. You might want to explore that on the different dimension of him. And we just talked about one of his designation is about cash flow personalities. Right? And we'll probably do an episode on that, definitely will be a lot of fun. But today we're going to talk about this project, sorry, this platform. There's RRSP that everybody probably heard about and some people do RRSP, some people don't believe in RRSP. Right. But then there's IPP pension world. So Nick, maybe you should walk us through, when we talk about this, you said you got to bring in CPP too, so may as well bring in CPP, RRSP, IPP. So walk us through a little bit of a history lesson and how it's pertaining to incorporated professionals. Nick Giovannetti: [00:03:33] For sure, yeah, thanks for having me, everyone. Like Kevin had mentioned, you know, the Individual Pension Plan, it's not a new financial tool. It's actually been around for over 30 years here in Canada. And as we know, the RRSP or the Registered Retirement Savings Plan has has been around even longer than that. It's been around since the 50s, and it was actually something introduced by the Canadian Medical Association because physicians even back then, yeah, physicians even back then were saying-- Dr. Wing Lim: [00:04:02] -- one for us-- Nick Giovannetti: [00:04:04] -- hey, we need a retirement vehicle. We need something tax sheltered. They'd done a lot of research back then, and to them it made sense to say, hey, where can I put money now, get some tax relief today, invest and grow that pot of money in a tax sheltered environment? And then I can strategically, you know, pull it out in the future and give myself predictable and secure income, something that I can count on in the future. So that's really what happened in the early 90s, was that small/medium business owners, they wanted pension plans. You know, a lot of people look at especially medical professionals around the hospital, how many of your coworkers and colleagues in the hospital have pension plans? And that's something that I think a lot of physicians look at and say, what if I could have that? What if I could even just contact the Healthcare of Ontario or OMERS or Teachers Pension and say, hey, can I just contribute to this? Can I become a plan member? And then I can also have a defined benefit pension in the future. Nick Giovannetti: [00:05:07] So physicians are not alone. Business owners have been wanting that, self-employed people have been wanting that. So in the early 90s, the first ever one of one, so one person to one company pension plan was allowed by the Income Tax Act. And it's called an Individual Pension Plan. So you could be one business owner, have one pension plan, and you're the only plan member, but you can take advantage of all of the rules that all the other pension plans in Canada follow. So everything that everyone is very fond of, federal government workers, teachers, firefighters, police, you can benefit from those same retirement savings rules. So from contribution limits to tax deductions to predictable guaranteed income in the future, you can create your own. And it's been around a long time. So if you're a physician that is incorporated, you should really look at this as part of your overall planning. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:06:05] So how does it compare to RRSP that everybody knows? Nick Giovannetti: [00:06:09] So there's a few key takeaways or few key differences and one would be that the RRSP happens on a personal level, and the Individual Pension Plan happens on a corporate level. So what I mean by that is if you want to participate in an RRSP, you're going to have to pull money out of your corporation, pay some tax, and then you're going to have to then contribute to an RRSP with your after tax personal income, and then hopefully get a tax refund on the personal side. Now the RRSP is also limited to a certain amount of contribution room, so I'll touch on that in a second. The Individual Pension Plan side, it works a little bit differently. So you can actually earn money to your corporation and if you have a pension plan, the corporation can right away save that money into a pension before any tax has ever happened on those dollars. Okay, so that's one of the big key advantages. So then the second one I touched on was contribution room. So Registered Retirement Savings Plans are capped to 18% of your salary that you pay yourself or bonus, so it's got to be salary or bonus, on the personal level, defined benefit pension plans can get as high as 30% of salary, which is a big difference. We get into, you know, a difference of 30 grand a year to 50 grand a year when it comes to maximum savings room. And on the pension side, because the government really treats pension plans favorably, you have a lot of additional ways you can put money in a pension plan. So I'll touch on a few of those. Nick Giovannetti: [00:07:46] First one is, the government cares about what the rate of return in an Individual Pension Plan is, and what they want to see is a minimum 7.5% rate of return and a maximum ceiling of it's about 9.375. They want to see pension plans grow in that window, averaging every three years. And if your pension is not growing at that rate, you're actually allowed to put in more money. When we look at the RRSP, nobody cares if your RRSP grows at 7.5%. You care, but the Government of Canada is not going to let you put more money in if your investments are not performing well enough. So you got a fail safe there. And you can also do strategies like dry powder hedging, where you purposely underperform your investments so that you can put in more money. So there's some unique strategies there. I would say another one is, defined benefit pension plans your income is based on a formula. So you know, very predictably, what are you going to have as an income stream in retirement, whereas your RRSP, it's totally up to you how you want to pull the money out. Some people pull out a lot quickly, some people don't pull out enough, some people just do the minimum that the government wants to see you pull out. So there's a lot of room for error on the RRSP side, where the Individual Pension Plan can be more predictable and easier to plan around because it's been created for you by a formula. Now there's a few different, Wing, that we could dive into. But I'll punt it back to you and we'll see where we go. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:09:28] So I guess it's a good time to talk about these formulas. Who writes these formulas? Who dictates these formulas? Nick Giovannetti: [00:09:36] It's a great question. So it's a legal framework that goes back to when the first Income Tax Act was created. Your pension plan could be structured in a way so that you're going to have, you know, a flat benefit. So it might be I paid myself this much salary, I worked for my company this many years, I'm this certain age, so I get a flat benefit based on a formula of a couple factors like that. There's also another factor which could be career average earnings. So it doesn't matter if you paid yourself lower salary in the beginning and then you upped it later on, you know your pension could be calculated on an average. You could also do it so that it's a final or best average earnings. Or a percentage of contributions. So these formulas, when you set up and register your Individual Pension Plan, the CRA actually has a registration form. And on the form you're going to check off these boxes of how do you want that formula to be identified. And it's in the Income Tax Act as to how that calculation will be made. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:10:41] Right. So this is way more complicated than RRSP. Right? So maybe we could just maybe help, maybe I will use a layman's way to bring everybody on the same page. So basically if you work for a big firm you have a nice pension plan. Right? And the employer and the employee are different people. But now with this IPP platform, they allow professionals or business owners to actually be the same person, that the employer/employee is the same entity, well same person, right, different entities. But to ensure that the benefactor of the pension plan gets so much dollar sometimes guaranteed and so that's why they have these elaborate formula. Right? But then who is funding it, well in our case it's the PC. So if you come to our masterclass, the whole series is called Fat PC Skinny, right? So you want to have a fat PC but you want a skinny me, but not a starving me, right? So you definitely want the money to come out, especially in the golden years, right? That you've done your hard work. And so you want the pension to come. And now is a way to efficiently fund this piggy bank called IPP. Right? And so that's why there's a lot more calculation than RRSP. So let's look at, yeah there's some difference. What about some similarity? At age, what, 71 both plans have to kind of be put an end to it. Can you elaborate on that, Nick? Nick Giovannetti: [00:12:11] For sure, yeah. So the similarity there is that the government of Canada, so the Income Tax Act wants you to have to start pulling money out of either an RRSP or your pension plan by age 71. You can, in an RRSP, decide to pull it out earlier, and you can do so with a pension plan as well. Some pensioners I've seen start an IPP and actually turn on their pension income as early as their mid 40s. So you have a lot of flexibility there as to when you want to start drawing the money out of these accounts. But traditional retirement age in Canada is 65, and you can delay that to 71 if you want to push it off as far as possible. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:12:55] So with IPP, you still have to do the like the RIFF and all that, right? Like there's to pull the money out there's no difference whether you have RRSP, IPP. Is there a difference the way that you pull the money out past 71? Nick Giovannetti: [00:13:07] Yeah, that's a great question. So with an RRSP it gets converted to, you mentioned it, it's called a RIFF. It turns into a Registered Retirement Income Fund. And the government will have a calculation as to how much you have to pull out each year as you age. And you're going to be doing that through wherever it is, your money managers, your trading, what have you. You have to pull out that minimum, but you could ultimately pull out whatever you want. With an Individual Pension Plan, you actually have three different options to how you want to pull the money out. So the first option is whoever's managing your Individual Pension Plan, you're going to just instruct them and sign the form that I'm retiring from my corporation and they will ask you, how do you want to pull out the money? Do you want monthly installments based on your defined benefit formula, or do you want a one year, once a year, lump sum, boom here's my payment? So that's the first way you could. So the money manager continues managing your money. Same with a RIFF and you're just getting your distributions. Okay? The second way, if you don't want any market risk, you can actually take your defined benefit pension that you save for yourself and you could go to a life insurance company and you could actually buy something called a copycat annuity. Nick Giovannetti: [00:14:24] So these are available even now for teachers, firefighters, police officers, doesn't matter. If you have a defined benefit pension, you can go to an insurance company and buy something called a copycat annuity. Now the word copycat means whatever your income you are guaranteed to have, so the distribution let's just say it was 200 grand a year of pension income, the annuity will guarantee you that paycheck every year for a certain chunk of whatever your investments were in that defined benefit plan. And then depending on interest rates and annuity rates, you might actually have a little extra so you'll get paid a bit of cash and you'll have this guaranteed income the rest of your life. Now, the third way is you could shut your Individual Pension Plan down entirely and go right back to RRSPs. So we call that a wind up. So you could shut it all down back to RRSPs or into a RIFF, and you're going to have a certain amount of your pension that's allowed to transfer. So it's a tax free transfer back to the old way. But generally speaking, you will have a chunk of money that is extra that can't transfer back to an RRSP. So you'd have to take that as an income the year you decided to do a wind up. But you actually have three different ways that you could collect. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:15:47] Right. Okay. So you got more choices, more diversity, right? More versatility. That's great. Let's talk about defined benefit versus defined contribution: DB versus DC. Because as physicians we haven't heard a lot about it, we just know that most people nowadays have a defined contribution plan meaning that the company would match you. Right.? Some of you may, listeners, may be working for a big hospital. You might be in a pension plan already. So defined contribution meaning that they define how much you contribute. They did not define how much you get, which is the benefit. And way back, there's every plan is a DB plan and now who's left with these juicy DB plans indexed with inflation? Well, our Premier, our Prime Minister, a lot of politicians do, but most corporate owners they only define a contribution not define benefit. So let's talk about DB and DC in the IPP world. Nick Giovannetti: [00:16:46] For sure, yeah. So a defined contribution pension, I think you already touched on it, Wing, the only thing defined is the amount you can contribute. And it's actually the same contribution amount to that of an RRSP which is 18% of your salary up to the maximum allowable each year. So you can put in 18% of your salary. And then when you retire, it generally just turns into a RIFF. So same as RRSPs, right? So you're going to have the choice of taking out the minimum that RIFF allows or as much as you want, but whatever you pull out of that is going to be taxable income when you pull it out. So there's nothing really more predictable about a defined contribution pension than that of an RRSP. It's just that defined contribution pensions you can contribute through your corporation, whereas an RRSP you contribute personally. Now defined benefit pension, what's defined is your benefit, the predictable guaranteed income that you're going to receive for the rest of your life. And Wing touched on it, it could be indexed to inflation, meaning that if the cost of living goes up 3%, then your pension distributions next year will go up 3%, right? That just happened with Canada Pension Plan. Everybody got a 6.5% bump to their income because inflation changed in Canada. It was a big bump to the cost of living. So everybody collecting those defined benefit Canada pension plan cheques got a nice bump. So defined benefits are formula based on what you're going to receive in the future. Defined contributions are really a corporate version of an RRSP. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:18:30] I guess some people have a fear that if they're stuck in a DB thing, that they, if they don't have a good year, they can't contribute. Right? But you say that it's just like the RRSP, right? And if there's a year, let's say you fallen sick or you had a bad year, you took a sabbatical, and you cannot contribute that much into the IPP, would it collapse? Nick Giovannetti: [00:18:52] That's a really great question. So it was, I believe it was the end of 2020 where if you're a connected person to your IPP, meaning I own 10% or more of the shares of the company that is sponsoring the IPP, so in most cases for a physician, it'll be your MPC sponsoring the company, you own all the shares, or hopefully you own at least more than 10%. You're what's called a connected person. You don't actually have to contribute to your IPP at all because you're a connected person to that pension. You own majority share of the company sponsoring it, or at least 10% of it. Your family members are also connected. So if you added a spouse or children, you don't have to contribute for them either. So a lot of the fear, Wing, of having to contribute to an IPP to top it up or boost it up, if you go on sabbatical you're behind, maybe you don't have the cash flow that year, a lot of those fears are now gone. If you were to have an IPP set up and you didn't own the company and somebody set that up for you, they would be liable to fund it the same way that if you worked for the hospital, teacher, firefighter, whatever, they have to top it up, right, General Motors, big union companies, they have to top up their pensions. So you have some flexibility as the owner. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:20:08] Right. And for the years that you didn't contribute full amount, then there is buyback or catch up. Right? There's this feature? Nick Giovannetti: [00:20:16] There is, yeah. So even if you've been incorporated let's say for 15 years and you've never had an IPP and you decide to open an IPP right now, they can do a calculation and they look at pension adjustments, your RRSP room, your your current RRSP balance, how much you paid yourself in the past and they can go back in time and say, okay, Doctor Lim, you have a catch up of 300,000 just for setting up a pension and never paying yourself salary again, but you just have, you still currently have 300 grand of room. And then you could pay yourself a salary that year, have a percentage of salary and carry forward. So you do have the ability to buy back, but it will be offset if you took care of some, if you were contributing to RRSPs. because they're going to do a pension adjustment to offset what did you put in RRSPs? What were your unused room? How well did the RRSP perform? And then that will work into the calculation of the buyback. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:21:17] So if you have had an RRSP and you're contemplating starting IPP, so what happens to the RRSP once you start the IPP? Nick Giovannetti: [00:21:25] So if you want to participate in the buyback, then they're going to use your RRSP balance as part of the calculation. And what will happen is, high level example, when you have 500 grand to buy back but based on the pension adjustment calculation, you have to take 250 grand from your RRSP, and it's called a qualifying transfer, it's tax free, you have to move 250 grand from your RRSP over to your pension, and then it would allow you 250 grand room to contribute. The rest of your RRSP, whatever's over and above that minimum transfer, you could leave it external, leave it as an RRSP, or you could bring it into your pension under a secondary account known as an additional voluntary contribution account. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:22:15] Right. So there's a lot of flexibility. And then there are certain age related benefits, right? With the room, contribution room versus RRSP. So when does the gap start to widen big enough to be meaningful? Nick Giovannetti: [00:22:30] Yeah. So, defined benefit pension plans, the formula of the matching of the salary is about 12.5% of your salary when you're 18 years old for a defined benefit plan. And RRSPs are 18%, and defined contribution plans are 18%. But by the time you're 38, the defined benefit matching curve has caught up to the 18% already. It's a little over 18% by the time you're 38. And then from the age of 38 all the way to 71, it gets as high as almost 30% of salary. So really, you'll see a lot of people heavily look at Individual Pension Plans if they're going to do the defined benefit schedule. A lot of people will heavily look at it when they reach 40. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:23:18] Right? So 40 is kind of the turning point. Nick Giovannetti: [00:23:21] The turning point for most, unless they have one of the combination registrations, so their pension has both types. You can have it where you have both types, a defined contribution and defined benefit. So if you registered it that way, a lot of those professionals will just start whenever they start, because you don't lose contribution room and you can just convert it over whenever it makes sense. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:23:43] Right. So you talk about a lot of these calculations that have to be done right. And if it is not, I heard that there's very stiff penalty from CRA. Right? And so who does all this, all these calculations? Nick Giovannetti: [00:23:59] Yeah. So when you have a pension plan it's really important to have a good team. So as part of that team you need actuaries. There's got to be an actuary or a team of actuaries that's calculating all the math behind these complex pension calculations. And there's a lot of them out there, lots of different companies doing that. So it's important that's kind of step one. You could go a step further and make sure on that team you have pension lawyers. And it's good to have pension lawyers because they can also help with a lot more of the compliance factor of your pension plan, because you will be registering it with CRA as Doctor Wing Lim pension plan, registered pension plan. So it's important to have a team that is familiar with pensions, they're able to help you manage the non-investment related factors, and then you'll have an investment team that takes care of the money. And hopefully you have an accountant and a planner that help you with the distribution and the planning side. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:24:56] So the beneficiary of these plans, so it could be me, the doctor, the spouse. What about kids? Nick Giovannetti: [00:25:02] Yeah. So you you can, you can absolutely name your children as beneficiaries, and you can even add children to an Individual Pension Plan if they work at all or have any level of employment with your corporation. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:25:17] So if they're employed, not a dividend, not T5, but they have to be T4 as well, right? Nick Giovannetti: [00:25:23] That's right, yeah. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:25:24] Right. Then they could be part of the IPP itself. But for the beneficiary let's say after you turn 71, right, you want to take money out. So kids probably well grown up by then, so they don't, do they have to be employed by to get the benefit, they don't have to be, right? Nick Giovannetti: [00:25:40] So if they, if you wanted to make them a beneficiary so if you passed away where would all these assets go, no, they don't have to work for your company to be a beneficiary. But if they wanted to be a plan member because you're looking for some different intergenerational wealth benefits, then at some point they would have to have an employee relationship with your company. I've seen the employment income as low as $3,500. I've seen some people hire their kids to do admin and social media work. Maybe they pay them 10, 15 grand for that. Whatever you do, they just have to be paid at least minimum wage for whatever job it is that they're doing. And they could be added with just one year of service. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:26:23] One year of service. And this applies not just to kids, but to the spouse as well. Right? Nick Giovannetti: [00:26:28] 100%. Yeah. So a lot of professionals and business owners will find work for their spouse to do, and then they can add their spouse to their pension plan, and the company can contribute to that spouse's pension plan. Right? Because most likely a pension plan contribution room will be quite a bit higher than that of an RRSP. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:26:49] Right. Yeah. And so this, we talked about TOSI in other episodes. Right? Test on, Tax On Split Income. So it's pretty harsh, but IPP is just one really smart, astute and legal way that you can do the income splitting, especially in the latter days, when you're drawing money out. Nick Giovannetti: [00:27:06] Exactly. Yeah. It's a very black and white way to get money into your spouse's hands by paying them legitimate T4 income, so salary or bonus, and saving for their retirement. And in the future you mentioned pension plans you can do income splitting on the income that comes out of it. So these are very CRA-approved registered pension plans that there's a lot of peace of mind knowing that that part of your strategy is ironclad. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:27:37] Right. And so who are not eligible for IPPs? Nick Giovannetti: [00:27:41] So those that wouldn't be eligible are those that are paying themselves out of their corporation dividends or capital gains. So if you're doing pipelining, capital gains stripping, and that's your only source of income out of the company, or non-eligible dividend, then those would not qualify for pension contributions. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:28:02] So if you have done T5 all along, right, and then you have never given yourself T4, then there is no room. Is that true? Nick Giovannetti: [00:28:10] So that means you won't have any buyback room. That's correct. Now you could change today. So you could say, because pensions are based on current year, RRSP contributions are based on previous year income, so you could decide in the year I'm going to pay myself salary this year and open a pension that year and participate in the pension that year. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:28:31] What about if you're not incorporated? If you don't have a PC, you're sole proprietor. Can you do IPP? Nick Giovannetti: [00:28:37] No. So you do need to have a corporation. Now another corporation could do an IPP for you. So if you worked for another clinic and they were employing you, they could register one for you, but you would now be a non-connected person. So they would have to fund that pension plan. And a lot of employers wouldn't do that because of the risk. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:28:58] Right. Yeah. I want to point this out because there are always exceptions to the rule. Right? And so that's what because some of our listeners, they, the first five years of practice, they haven't even incorporated yet, or they say the accountants told them there's really no reason if you spend it all, then you don't need a PC. And I have a colleague, 30 years after they started the practice, the accountant still says no need for PCs, and all these benefits, these powerful strategies, don't apply to them. Right? Or my personal story, my accountant way back said, no, don't believe in T4, only give yourself T5. So the first 20 years of my practice I only got T5, zero T4. So by the time I knew about IPP, my buyback is really small amount, right? And I wish I knew, right, I wish I knew earlier. And so that's why for people who are in the early or mid part of your career, this is something to plan. Nick Giovannetti: [00:29:52] Yeah. And I've heard all kinds of stories. And you bring up a good point because your accountant didn't only talk you out of being able to participate in your own IPP, but your accountant also doing what they did for you there, they talked you out of participating in Canada Pension Plan, because when you make the decision not to pay T4 income to open an IPP or an RRSP, you're also shutting yourself down from getting any Canada Pension Plan. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:30:20] Now this is really interesting because a lot of accounting accountants of my vintage, right, 30 years ago, but even newer ones I'm shocked to hear as they now you invest better than CPP. Do you want to make a comment on CPP? Nick Giovannetti: [00:30:36] Yeah, I mean, I've heard all kinds of very competent investors think that they can outperform Canada Pension Plan. Um, Canada Pension Plan is probably one of the best run pension plans in the entire world. And in order for you to compete with that, we could dive into that maybe in the masterclass or in another session, but if we wanted to calculate what you would have to earn, consistently guaranteed every year from now all the way till you pass away, to be able to recreate what Canada Pension Plan created for 6 to 7 grand a year worth of savings, it would be a very, very difficult thing for anybody to do, even an astute investor. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:31:19] Right. So CPP is a good thing. Right? And so when you offer RRSP and IPP, you also offer CPP right? Nick Giovannetti: [00:31:26] You do by default, you get two pensions. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:31:28] Yeah. Now, so then let's go back further about this accountant thing. And I'm not trying to belittle or badmouth any accountants. But a lot of accountants and advisors are so against IPP or so ignorant about IPP. Why is that? Nick Giovannetti: [00:31:46] That's such a great question. And from what I've come across, a lot of it is lack of awareness and fear. Or they're looking for something easy because it's easier for an accountant to pay a dividend. Right? There's a little more work involved if you pay T4 and you got to remit tax at source, they got to make sure they account for Canada Pension Plan, they got to do your pension adjustments, like there's reasons why it simplifies their life. And I've actually heard an accountant one time say to a physician, I was on this joint call, I don't mind paying you salary but I'm going to have to download all that work to you, Mr. and Mrs. Physician. It was the most unbelievable comment I'd ever heard. And sure enough, they asked me after the call, can you help introduce me to an accountant that would do this work for me? So it's not that big of a deal. A lot of it is very simplified. They do it for a lot of other business owners, because a lot of other business owners do have IPPs, so they have to do the salary. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:32:48] I'm just saying that this is a few years ago, 2020 before Covid, right? I read some stats that of all the eligible people in Canada for IPP, which is like millions, only 2% were implemented, right? The market penetration is like 2%. That's abhorring right? Nick Giovannetti: [00:33:08] Yeah. And again, a lot of that is it's lack of awareness and fear. So I've seen, I've seen what kind of benefit an accountant that is forward thinking and stays on the top of their game with pension plans, how well their clients have done and they stand out from the rest. And that's probably some of the 2%, because why would a business owner know to ask for an Individual Pension Plan if it didn't come from their accountant or their planner? And a lot of financial planners know very little to nothing about Individual Pension Plans. And where I say the fear comes from is because there is filings with CRA that need to be done. It's either done by your administration team or your planner or your accountant. And if they screw up, I've seen people wait years to get their pensions off the ground, and there's all this compliance problems and they're just not doing it properly. So again, if you're working with a team that's familiar, this stuff is like cakewalk, right? They do these things in their sleep and you get a lot of benefit. Why so many are afraid is because it is complex. It's more advanced planning. And just not everybody's prepared for that. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:34:17] So don't just find somebody that would just wing it, just by my name. This is not a place for somebody to wing it. This is complicated stuff. It has to be done properly. Nick Giovannetti: [00:34:28] Yeah. I've seen the big banks steer away from things that are complicated because they can't scale. So why do they push RRSPs even? It's because it's easy. You just sit with them, you meet for five minutes, you sign a form, boom. You got an RRSP, right? That's scalable. That's easy for them to administer. So even the big banks have participated in why only 2% of the eligible population are doing it because a lot of people deal with the bank. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:34:59] Exactly. Now. So this is awesome, Nick. Final question topic is messy one. Pension world. So if we can now do our own pension plan, what about different badging together like MEPs of the world? Even our medical associations are tapping into this thing. Can you just give us a quick overview of what that is about? It's a very mysterious world. Nick Giovannetti: [00:35:23] Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different pension types out there. There's Individual Pension Plans, there's Multi-Employer Pension Plans, there's Joint Employer Sponsored Pension Plans, there's Specified Multi-Employer Pension Plans. So pension plans are a complex world. They're actually an entirely different section of the Income Tax Act than that of the RRSP. It's got its own section because there's so much complexity of how you can put these together. And I'm sure you'll see if you dig into this world, there's so many different ones out there. And the biggest thing that I find is that a lot of pension plans have been rolled out, and they may claim to be something that sounds great and polished, but until you know the underlying way it was registered and all those little details of how much do I contribute, does my company sponsor it or do you sponsor it? Who has control? What if I don't like how you're managing it? Can I take it and go somewhere else? Can I add my kids to this plan? So there's so many things there. What about indexing, right? What happens if there's a market correction? So there's so many things out there that you do need to make sure you're aware of. And one thing I find that most business owners and professionals want is flexibility and control. And the IPP generally checks off both those boxes. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:36:52] Right. Because there are talks, right, because we're busy professionals just nose down, bum up, working to our bones. And so we don't have time to think about, oh, if some big brothers sisters come and create this plan, even our own association or a fragment of our administration, right, we thought then they must do a better job just because there's bigger group of people, more asset under management that the sexy term AUM. But like you say it may not be managed well. Right? So I listen to podcasts and there is a book called The Kentucky Fried Pension. And this is a guy who is a whistleblower, which is actually a paid job in the US, and he was investigating the Kentucky State Pension and how screwed up, this is like you say, the firefighters, nurses, policemen, that how not just mismanaged, but there is just hankie panky mismanaged, like funds got stolen, siphoned to Wall Street, some favorite pals, you know, who worked there and get whatever kickback. It's just, bigger doesn't mean better. Nick Giovannetti: [00:37:59] That's so true. And you know what I, the most interesting thing I've heard recently, Wing, was there's a pension plan out there that is saying that they're going to give you a defined benefit income stream. So predictable guaranteed income stream. But when you look under the hood and the mechanics of how it's built, it's built like a defined contribution pension. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:38:22] Mhm. Nick Giovannetti: [00:38:23] Well defined contribution pension plans don't have any of the defined benefit fail safes. If the pension underperforms you can't put more money in. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:38:34] Mhm. Nick Giovannetti: [00:38:35] Right? Based on my age I can't put more money in. If there's massive market problems, can't put more money in. If I retire early, right? All these fail safes that define benefit pensions have to give people security in retirement, because anything could happen. Retirement could be 30, 40 years. Right? Look at Sears. Those pension plans were mismanaged and people lost their pension. So it matters. What are the fail safes? And if you claim a defined benefit income for the rest of someone's life, but you don't have any of the fail safes, and your contribution schedule is that of a lesser contribution room, how could you promise that? Dr. Wing Lim: [00:39:19] Right. I just want to address one more misconception, and then we'll move on to the next one, which is Q&A, and that is, there's different brands of the IPP. And you may have heard even in the physician world. And they package them, call themselves something else, but in front of CRA, there's only one thing. It's called IPP, right? You can say mine is curry chicken, mine is kung pao chicken, mine is coconut Thai chicken, curry chicken, but at the end of the day, there's only chicken. CRA only recognizes chicken, right? Not the fancy brand. And sometimes they mislead people. I don't know if it's consciously or subconsciously but that's what we want to educate on our listeners what is an IPP. And that's just it, right? There may be different ways they twist it, but at the end of the day, IPP is an IPP is an IPP. Nick Giovannetti: [00:40:14] Well, and I can give you a good example. Everybody here I would assume is familiar with the term Group RRSP. Group RRSP is not defined in the Income Tax Act. It's a made up term for RRSPs that are pooled benefits through a group. But if you look up Group RRSP in the Income Tax Act you won't find it because the underlying what CRA recognizes as the investment is just RRSP. You could call it fancy banana, but it's an RRSP. So again IPPs will follow the IPP rules and registration. They could be registered as defined benefit only or as a combination. So that might be one kind of flexibility piece. But just be aware of how it's registered. Dr. Wing Lim: [00:41:03] Right on, okay. So I want to thank Nick for so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much information and the perspectives. Right? So we actually blown by quite like instead of half hour, way over. So we'll stop here the official one. Dr. Kevin Mailo: Thank you so much for listening to the Physician Empowerment podcast. If you're ready to take those next steps in transforming your practice, finances, or personal well-being, then come and join us at PhysEmpowerment.ca - P H Y S Empowerment dot ca - to learn more about how we can help. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd really appreciate it if you would share our podcast with a colleague or friend and head over to Apple Podcasts to give us a five-star rating and review. If you've got feedback, questions or suggestions for future episode topics, we'd love to hear from you. If you want to join us and be interviewed and share some of your story, we'd absolutely love that as well. Please send me an email at KMailo@PhysEmpowerment.ca. Thank you again for listening. Bye.  

The Portfolio Managers at TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) are always hard at work behind the scenes expanding our innovative offerings, and through their dedication TDAM continues to be one of the top asset managers in Canada1. With a focus on building and maintaining strong relationships, and a commitment to understanding the unique needs of retail and institutional investors, asset managers at TDAM are driven to provide competitive solutions to help our clients achieve their goals.Building on these strengths, we recently launched TD Global Investment Solutions (TDGIS), a new institutional identity bringing the combined multi-asset expertise of TDAM and Epoch Investment Partners, Inc. (TD Epoch) to the global investing community with the ability to expand our offerings in existing and new jurisdictions.In this episode  of our Breadth of Experience podcast series, Jason McIntyre, Vice President, Head of Retail Distribution, TDAM, welcomes Mark Cestnik, Managing Director, Head of Global Institutional Distribution, TDGIS, for a look at some of the challenges asset managers face in the current market environment of GICs and "safety-seeking" behaviors of investors, and provide a deeper dive into TDAM capabilities at both the retail and institutional level.Highlights include:What has enabled our asset management businesses to be successful in both the retail and institutional space? (0:42)What are some of our institutional Portfolio Managers' distinctive capabilities? (2:58)What are the main challenges for institutional asset management in the current market environment? (5:32)Perspectives on the launch of TD Global Investment Solutions (9:13) For a full transcript in English and French, please visit the TD Asset Management Podcast page: https://www.td.com/ca/en/asset-management/insights/Please follow "TD Asset Management" on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/showcase/tdassetmanagement/X: @tdam_canada

"If you're pension-backed you gotta deliver returns, buddy." OMERS Ventures senior managing partner Michael Yang recounts a turbulent year for the pension-backed VC firm, and what the future holds for "OV 3.0". Sponsored by Cisco Secure Firewall and Ada: a full customer service team, powered by AI.

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, a private equity firm focused on technology-enabled growth and disruption investment strategies. As a firm run by entrepreneurs, funded by entrepreneurs, and for entrepreneurs, Maverix invests in health and wellness, financial services, transportation and logistics, live, work, play and learn, and retail. John chairs the Investment Committee, guides the strategy of the firm, is deeply involved with fundraising and sourcing and leading investment opportunities, particularly within the technology industry.  He led Maverix's first investment in Viral Nation and sits on their board.  John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. Over the course of his leadership as the CEO of OMERS Ventures, they invested over USD$500 million in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Xanadu, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments, and as its Executive Managing Director, he formed OMERS Growth Equity and led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John co-founded the Council of Canadian Innovators with Jim Balsillie, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale globally.  

This week we have a titan of Private Equity and Real Estate in Canada, Jon Love the Founder and CEO of KingSett Capital.Jon shares some incredible stories from his early years of running Oxford Properties, the lessons he learned from helping the firm navigate two real estate market downturns, and how the eventual sale to OMERS came to be.Jon discusses the reasons he decided to launch KingSett Capital back in 2002, how his leadership style has evolved from his days at Oxford, and how he has been able to grow the firm's assets to over $17B.We dig into how Canada is falling behind on many aspects of innovation, the return-to-office mandates CEOs are facing today, and his thoughts on the current political climate in Ottawa.Plus we have John Ruffolo back to talk about the week's news.About Jon Love:Jon Love is the founder and CEO of KingSett Capital, a prominent private equity real estate investment firm. Since its inception in 2002, KingSett has impressively managed over $17 billion in assets, earning a strong reputation for its effective investment strategies across various sectors, including Growth, Income, Urban Development, Mortgage, Residential Development, and Affordable Housing.Before his leadership at KingSett, Jon had a distinguished career at Oxford Properties, beginning in 1980 and eventually becoming President in 1987 and then CEO in 1992. He notably guided Oxford's transition to a publicly traded company in 1995. In 2001, Oxford was privatized when it was acquired by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) in a $4 billion deal.Jon actively participates in prestigious business organizations and has received numerous accolades for his leadership and academic achievements, including an Honorary Doctorate from Western University in 2016, membership in the Order of Canada (C.M.) in 2018, and prestigious awards such as the Ivey Business Leader of the Year Award and the NAIOP Rex Icon Award in 2023.In this episode, we discuss:(0:01:04) News rundown with John Ruffolo(0:21:57) Jon Love's career journey(0:23:08) Advice his father Don Love gave him as he took over Oxford Properties(0:24:12) How Jon's experience selling Oxford shaped his view on when to sell(0:26:47) The importance of leveling with creditors and investors(0:30:50) Why he didn't view as a Oxford a family business(0:33:35) How Jon's approach evolved when he started KingSett Capital(0:34:26) On second-guessing himself for starting a new business(0:35:38) Making the jump to entreprenuership(0:38:40) How KingSett works to retain talent(0:40:30) How Jon's approach to fundraising has changed over time(0:41:16) Why no deal is too small for KingSett(0:42:18) Derisking deals to protect against broader market trends(0:44:11) What current market conditions have meant for KingSett(0:45:23) The state of equity deals(0:46:18) Why innovation is lagging in the Real Estate sector(0:48:22) The importance of ESG to Jon and KingSett(0:50:42) Thoughts on the Canadian residential Real Estate market(0:54:39) Advice to younger leaders and CEOs(0:56:15) Why face to face is important(0:57:30) How Jon uses his Family Office Jona Capital(0:58:32) Jon's passion investments(0:59:34) Political ambitions(1:02:19) How competitive Canadian capital is in the global marketplaceFast Favorites:*

Brian interviews Randall Bartlett. Randall is the Senior Director of Canadian Economics with Desjardins Group. He talks about Housing Crisis in Ontario, housing market, affordability and immigration, in addition to policies to relieve the housing supply crisis. Based in Toronto, he leads a team covering the Canadian and provincial economies & housing markets outside of Quebec, as well as government budgets & fiscal policy. Before coming to Desjardins, Mr. Bartlett was the Director of Economic Research on OMERS' Total Portfolio Management Team, where he was responsible for global economic research and forecasting.

In der Rubrik “Investments & Exits” begrüßen wir heute Amanda Birkenholz, Investment Managerin bei UVC Partners. Amanda bespricht die Finanzierungsrunde von Redwood Materials und Valyuu. Das US-Batterierecycling-Unternehmen Redwood Materials hat in seiner Series-D-Finanzierungsrunde über eine Milliarde US-Dollar von Investoren eingesammelt, was das gesamte Eigenkapital des Unternehmens seit seiner Gründung auf fast 2 Milliarden US-Dollar erhöht. Die genaue Summe der Series D wurde nicht bekannt gegeben, aber sie übertrifft die erwarteten 700 Millionen US-Dollar deutlich. Redwood plant, die Mittel zur Erweiterung seiner Kapazitäten, zur Stärkung der Batterie-Lieferkette in den USA und zum Verkauf von in den USA hergestellten recycelten Batteriematerialien zu nutzen. Investoren in dieser Runde sind unter anderem Goldman Sachs Asset Management, T. Rowe Price Associates und neue Partner wie OMERS und Microsofts Climate Innovation Fund.Das niederländische Startup Valyuu hat in einer neuen Finanzierungsrunde, angeführt von Rubio Impact Ventures und Slingshot Ventures, zusammen mit US-amerikanischen Investoren wie Techstars, Golden Egg Check Capital und verschiedenen Angel-Investoren, 2,4 Millionen Euro eingesammelt. Valyuu hat das Ziel, die Plattform zur Förderung der Wiederverwendung von Elektronikgeräten wie Smartphones, Tablets und Wearables zu erweitern und die Markenbekanntheit in den Benelux-Ländern zu steigern sowie international zu expandieren. Das Unternehmen hat eigenen Angaben zufolge bereits über 20.000 aktive Käufer und Verkäufer auf der Plattform und bietet eine transparente Produktbewertung, was eine nachhaltige Wahl einfach, erschwinglich und profitabel macht. 

John is back! And here's the news that he and Matt discussed:(00:21) The loss of Damien Steel at OMERS(03:38) Who will fill the void left by OMERS(05:06) Tiger Global's mysterious liquidity memo(09:08) The importance of a long-term view of relationships with LPs(10:49) ChatGPT Enterprise(13:57) With Kleenex leaving Canada, why is it so hard for US-companies to service us?Follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

In this episode of The Role Forward, Joe Michalowski hosts a deep dive into the world of venture funding. The guests — Joe Garafalo, Marissa Moore, and Eugene Lee — share their insights and experiences. The conversation revolves around the importance of good financial modeling practices, the current state of venture funding, and the future outlook. The guests also discuss the importance of understanding the customer base, assessing risks, and the role of metrics in investor conversations.The episode concludes with advice for companies planning to raise funds in the future. The key takeaways include the need to build relationships with investors, the importance of adaptability, and the value of clearly understanding future expectations. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in venture funding and financial modeling.Guests-at-a-Glance

In this episode of CIBC Mellon Industry Perspectives, Darcie James Maxwell, Head of Canadian Operations, Data and Platform Solutions, BNY Mellon and CIBC Mellon joined Caroline Cakebread, Co-CEO and Founder, Canadian Leadership Congress, and Tristan Robinson, Vice President, Finance Platform, Capital Markets, OMERS, to discuss how Canadian pension funds are transforming their organizations to better integrate data into their business processes and decision making. This episode is moderated by Gord Kosokowsky, Executive Director, Business Development, CIBC Mellon. This presentation contains the presenter's personal views and not those of CIBC Mellon or any other person. It may be considered advertising, and provides general information only and neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon nor any other person are, by means of this presentation, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This presentation is intended for general informational purposes only.  It may not be regarded as comprehensive nor as a substitute for professional advice.  Before taking any particular course of action, contact your professional advisor to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. Neither the presenter nor CIBC Mellon accept responsibility for any loss or damage occasioned by your reliance on information contained in this presentation. ©2023 CIBC Mellon. CIBC Mellon is a licensed user of the CIBC trade-mark and certain BNY Mellon trade-marks, is the corporate brand of CIBC Mellon Trust Company and CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company and may be used as a generic term to reference either or both companies.  None of CIBC Mellon Global Securities Services Company, CIBC Mellon Trust Company, CIBC, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and their affiliates make any representations or warranties as to its accuracy, currency or completeness, makes any commitment to update any information.  No part of the presentation is an offer or solicitation in respect of any particular strategy and may not be construed as such.  Services referred to may not be offered in all jurisdictions nor by all companies.  CIBC Mellon does not provide investment or asset management services. This presentation, either in whole or in part, must not be reproduced nor referred to without the express written permission of CIBC Mellon.  Trademarks, service marks and logos belong to their respective owners.

On this week's podcast, we run through top stories in the market including: OMERS invests in Canadian fibre operator Beanfield Financial close for Boswell Springs Wind Project Syndication for Rio Grande LNG due to launch Enel Chile to sell 416MW solar portfolio to Sonnedix Sacyr reaches financial close on Colombian highway UKIB provides £250m of debt to nextfibre Freyr awarded EU grant towards Giga Arctic project Release by Scatec raises $102m

The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail.Let's get right to it, because our topic today is elemental. We are going to dig deep – DEEP! – into the economy. More specifically, what I really want to do here is put Bank of Canada policy, and its antecedents, under the microscope.What led them to last week's rate increase? What's going to be required to get us to 2% inflation? Is that even worth doing and what will be the ramifications? How hard a landing are we in for here, and how do mortgage and debt holders cope? And this emotional undercurrent to sum it all up, Herle Burly-ites: Why oh why does an economy with almost no unemployment … feel so goddamn lousy to so many people?Here to help me sound smart on all of that are Dr. Lindsay Tedds and Randall Bartlett. Dr. Tedds is currently Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary. Her primary research is in tax policy, public economics and public policy design and implementation. She publishes far and wide and, in her own words, it's important that her work be accessible to broader audiences in order to spark conversations about public policy beyond the academic community. So, it's not at all shocking that her blog is called “DEAD FOR TAX REASONS”.Randall Bartlett is Senior Director of Canadian Economics with Desjardins Group. Based in Toronto, he covers the Canadian and provincial economies & housing markets outside of Quebec, as well as government budgets & fiscal policy. Before Desjardins, Mr. Bartlett was the Director of Economic Research on OMERS' Total Portfolio Management Team. And he's a frequent publisher of what's on his economic mind on both Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as various other media.Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or your favourite podcast app.Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

Carrum Health CEO Sach Jain noted that 2022 “was a big year for us” that included nearly doubling its book of business.

Raising a round of financing is always a stressful endeavour. But in today's economic climate, it's even more so. So how can a founder navigate these choppy waters and not lose their shirts? Our guest today is Peter Hass, Associate Partner at Maverix Private Equity. Peter knows the ins and outs of deal structure and has guidance for founders at all stages to help them raise capital. Peter broke all of this down in a tremendous article he share recently here.We also recap tech headlines with Antony Mouchantaf of RBCx.About Peter Hass:Peter Hass is an Associate Partner with Maverix Private Equity. He is focused on leading deal execution including financial modelling and leading due diligence. Peter also works closely with portfolio companies in strategic and financial management as well as the evaluation of add-on acquisitions opportunities.Previously, Peter worked as a Director of Home Services within Mattamy Ventures at Mattamy Asset Management and OMERS where he was a founding member of OMERS Growth Equity.Peter is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business.In this episode we discuss:(01:22) News roundup with Antony Mouchantaf(19:34) Peter's journey to becoming an investor(21:28) Working at OMERS(23:49) How different investors value investments(25:05) What Maverix invests in(27:24) What is structured financing means in VC(28:55) Items founders should be aware of(30:52) Examples of what new investors will ask for(35:01) How preferred shared get treated in a liquidation event(37:02) What does participating pref or full participation mean(38:11) A liquidation scenario explained(41:56) How should founders manage all these transactions and terms(47:49) Why raising less at times can be smarter for your business(48:46) Terms that Maverix typically offers(50:54) When founders need to take a down roundFast Favorites:*

HR plays a critical role in promoting ESG considerations within companies. Specifically, HR departments can help ensure that a company's internal policies and practices align with its ESG goals. For example, HR can help to implement diversity and inclusion initiatives, develop employee training programs on environmental sustainability, and ensure that employee compensation and incentive structures align with ESG performance.Additionally, HR can help to recruit and retain employees who share the company's ESG values and culture, and who can help the company to achieve its ESG goals over the long term.Our guest in HRchat episode 544 is Dr. Shilpa Tiwari. Shilpa is Global Executive Vice President Social Impact & Sustainability at Citizen Relations. Shilpa has experience as a consultant and held executive positions at OMERS and Manulife. She has spent her career advancing sustainability, social impact, and EDI across a variety of sectors including mining, oil and gas, forestry, financial services and consumer goods.We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.   

Mike Woollatt is Managing Director and Head of Canada for Hamilton Lane. Prior to joining Hamilton Lane in 2019, Mike was a Director at OMERS pension plan in the venture capital and growth equity groups. Before that Mike was the CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. He has also co-founded a management consulting firm and has held senior executive roles at a few major Canadian corporations.  Prior to entering the private sector, Mike worked for the Government of Canada, first as a research economist and then as a political and policy advisor to the Minister of Finance. Mike has also worked overseas as an economist on World Bank funded international development projects and taught economics at the university level. Mike is a frequent commentator on both broadcast and print media on the state of the Canadian private capital markets.   Mike holds a Masters in Economics from the University of British Columbia. 

“If this is the environment we're in today, what should we do?” Aleeza Hashmi (Bessemer), Michelle Yu (Georgian), and Laura Lenz (OMERS) join BetaKit senior editor Meagan Simpson for a conversation about why the beginning of 2023 will be just as hard for startups to fundraise in. Recorded live at SAAS NORTH on the BetaKit Keynote Stage. Sponsored by Caravel Law.

Host Halle Tecco talks with two of her favorite long-time colleagues in digital health: Chrissy Farr and Malay Gandhi.Chrissy started her career in this space as a digital health reporter for VentureBeat, FastCompany, and CNBC before becoming a venture capitalist at OMERS ventures.Malay started his career in management consulting before joining me at Rock Health where he served as Managing Director and CEO before going onto be an EIR at Greylock Partners, an executive at Eviction Health, and now Head of Strategy & Corporate Development at Benching.The episode transcript is available here at http://www.heartofhealthcarepodcast.com/episodes/chrissy-farr-malay-gandhiVisit the Heart of Healthcare website for more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Michael Yang is a Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, a VC that invests in fintech, healthtech, construction & proptech. Michael joins Matt to share what they look for in a proptech company, how investors are navigating the down market, and what it means for the commercial real estate industry. Tune in for his insights and predictions on the future of proptech.

Jed Buchwald, author and carpenter, joins Lexman to talk about his new workshops on using nett in construction along with Constantan and Coco.

This session will explore the approaches and measures that founders and leadership teams can take to successfully scale their business and expand into new markets. It will be led by Harry Briggs, a founder turned VC with experience both in building his own business with customers in over 35 countries and supporting his portfolio founders in executing their international expansion plans. OMERS Venture Managing Partner Jambu Palaniappan led Uber's EMEA expansion and Harry also shares some of Jambu's learnings from Uber.   Full video: https://youtu.be/I56lkBqi5yI   Want to join the SaaStr community? We're the

There are times where going old school is perfectly acceptable. I love a good charcoal barbecue, or listening to jazz on vinyl. But when it comes to business continuity management – the old tools just don't cut it. Hello everyone, welcome to episode 48 - as the Resilience Think Tank presents the Resilient Journey podcast! This week I'm joined by Marie-Helene Primeau, Executive Vice President at Premier Continuum and Senad Cehajic, Director of Business Continuity and Corporate Security at OMERS. And this week, we're talking about BCM Software. Listen as Marie and Senad share two perspectives of BCM software, one as the service provider and the other as the customer. We discuss: The advantages of using software to manage your BC program Some misconceptions about using software Must have features Ways to justify the expense to senior leaders Be sure to follow The Resilient Journey!  We sure do appreciate it! Learn more about the Resilience Think Tank here. Connect with Premier Continuum here. Want to learn more about Mark? Click here or on LinkedIn or Twitter. Special thanks to Bensound for the music.

In today's episode, Allan and Lauren talk with Laura Lenz, Partner at OMERS Ventures. Laura talks about Net Dollar Retention. What is NDR? Is NDR just for SaaS companies? Is there a company size that's too small or too early to track it? Is NDR a factor in valuation of a company? “My advice is to know the number right before the investor that you're talking to. But also know it for your business because operating your business is way more important than raising the capital. My second piece of advice is that the pandemic has taught us a lot about reaping the rewards of good customer relationships.” If you love learning about metrics, you'll love MetricHQ, Klipfolio's online resource for all-things metrics and KPIs: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/. Metrics mentioned in this episode:Net Dollar Retention: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/saas/net-revenue-retention-rate Net Promoter Score: https://www.klipfolio.com/metrics/product-management/net-promotor-score-nps 

"That impact that's being felt in the public markets will start to trickle down to the earlier rounds." Damien Steel, managing partner and head of ventures at OMERS Ventures, takes umbrage with how valuations - or more specifically, the sticker price placed on funding rounds - are paraded in the media. Sponsored by Osler.

On our 167th episode of FNO: InsureTech, Rob talks with Dave Wechsler, Principal at OMERS Ventures. With over 30 years of professional experience, including five tech startups, tenure at Comcast Xfinity, and most recently Hippo Insurance, where he served as the VP of Growth, Dave is aware of the challenges faced by startups, especially those in large industries. Rob had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Dave and explore his work experiences and journey, all leading up to his current role as Principal at OMERS Ventures. You don't want to miss this episode. Like what you hear on FNO: InsureTech? Let us know: Email us at amuya@alacritysolutions.com!

Welcome back to Fully Occupied Season 4! Recently, Occupier has announced a $10.5 million Series A fundraise, so to kick off Season 4 Matt is joined by two special guests: Michelle Killoran, Principal at OMERS Ventures and Liz Christo, Partner at Stage 2 Capital. In this episode, Michelle and Liz share their insights on why they invested in the proptech space and their predictions for the future of commercial real estate.

Ottawa's energy ecosystem is unique, with long-standing localized and green generation. In fact, did you know Hydro Ottawa is the largest municipally-owned producer of clean, renewable energy in Canada? Bryce Conrad, Hydro Ottawa President and CEO, joins Dan and Rebecca to discuss the company's commitment to making its entire operations net zero by 2030. Related links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryce-conrad-2ab1b352/ https://hydroottawa.com Check out our new Think Energy Podcast website To subscribe using Apple Podcasts To subscribe using Spotify: To subscribe on Libsyn: --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: YouTube Podcast Library Keep up with the Tweets at Think Energy Twitter Check out our cool pics on Instagram More to Learn on Facebook Transcript:   Dan Seguin  00:06 This is the energy. The podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, and my co host, Rebecca Schwartz, as we explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry.   Dan Seguin  00:30 Hey, everyone, welcome back.   Rebecca Schwartz  00:32 To refresh our listeners, or in case they missed it in December, our organization Hydro Ottawa announced that it will make its entire operations net zero by the time 2030 rolls around. And by my calculations, that's only eight years away. In order to achieve net zero, you have to remove as much greenhouse gas emissions or more than you're currently putting into the atmosphere.   Dan Seguin  00:54 Now, to put it into further perspective, Ottawa's electricity grid stretches 1100 square kilometers. It's essentially Ottawa's largest machine. Add to that our fleet of bucket trucks and other vehicles, various work centers across the city and more than 700 employees, you start to realize that this is no small endeavor.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:23 Our President and CEO likes to call it our moonshot after the Apollo 11 mission where we sent a man to the moon in the 1960s.   Dan Seguin  01:31 Actually, the timeline to achieve both is pretty similar. President Kennedy announced his ambitious goal to Congress in 1961. By 1969, a man was on the surface of the moon. In those short, eight years, it must have seemed impossible to many.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:54 While Canada's putting as much pollution into the atmosphere, unfortunately, as it did a generation ago- 730 million tons to be exact. Canada's electricity industry is one of the cleanest in the world. In fact, 80% of the electricity in Canada comes from non emitting resources.   Dan Seguin  02:11 And Ontario's electricity sector is even more impressive. With 94% of its electricity we produce completely free of greenhouse gas emissions, some experts say that fully decarbonizing the electricity industry will be the key climate change solution for Canada.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:31 Here's today's big question. What will it take to get Hydro Ottawa to net zero by 2030? And what inspired the decision to be the first municipally owned utility in Canada to do it? We've been building an impressive resume here at Hydro Ottawa when it comes to environmental sustainability. Most recently, we even won the Canadian Electricity Association's Sustainability Electricity Company Designation in 2021. But we'll get into all of that with our special guest later today.   Dan Seguin  02:59 Bryce Conrad has been the President and CEO of Hydro Ottawa since 2011. Under his leadership, Hydro Ottawa has become one of the most innovative utilities in Canada, regularly winning awards and accolades for its customer oriented services and its commitment to environmental sustainability. It is the largest municipally owned producer of clean, renewable energy in Ontario. He's also my boss, Bryce, welcome to the show. Now Hydro Ottawa recently made a net zero by 2030 commitment, and there's a lot of momentum in that direction in corporate Canada. Generally, what's your view on its importance? What makes for truly credible and meaningful net zero commitment?   Bryce Conrad  03:53 Collectively, we, as a society, have been talking about this for, quite frankly, too long. I mean, when I did this presentation to the board, any reference back to Kyoto and the Kyoto protocols, and then Paris, Montreal, I mean, every four or five years, they get around to having another meeting and collectively agreed to do something, but never do anything. So there's a whole lot of talk and nothing else much. So, from our perspective, as a company, it's time to start taking responsibility for our own house, and the impact that we have collectively on our own environments. That we can and will do better, that we can be part of the solution. And, I'd say this, as someone who spent time in the federal government, who's worked 15 years working in federal provincial relations. I mean, the answer to climate change is not going to come from some magical central government telling us what to do or what not to do. It's not going to come from a provincial government. The solutions are going to be local, they're going to come from the ground up, and they're going to be you and me doing the right thing each and every day. Changing our own behavior, recognizing that the behavior, that the path that we're on today is unsustainable, and being willing to make those changes. I love the idea that there's still some expectation that there is going to be some sort of savior that's going to come in and fix everything for us. And if you look at Jeff Bezos, you look at Elon Musk, I mean, the two wealthiest men in the world and they're trying to get off the planet faster than they can stay on the planet. So, by building rocket ships and stuff, so the answer is not there. What I do like about this time, what I do think is different this time, is, for the first time, at least from my perception, the first time is that it's not simply going to be the government's making commitments. You're actually starting to see the private sector come to the table with money and solutions. When you see people like Larry Fink, and you see OMERS, in the big pension funds, and the big banks, the big insurance companies - When you start seeing these massive multibillion dollar business, stepping up to the table and saying, we're gonna put our money where our mouth is, and we're gonna start to change behavior. That's kind of special. That's the secret sauce, it's necessary to solve this problem. And the perfect example, and I've used this before, and I'll use it again, is the largest public sector pension fund in the world, is a Norwegian pension fund, which effectively is the Canada Pension Fund for Norwegians. And they've got 1.6 $1.8 trillion under management. And the source of that funds, the genesis of that fund was essentially selling the offshore oil rights for Norwegian oil development in the North Sea. And now they're saying we no longer will invest in companies that produce fossil fuel. So, isn't it ironic that a company that a pension fund, the largest in the world, that's sourced began via fossil fuel money is now turning their attention to green technologies? That's new. That's different. That's something we haven't seen before.   Dan Seguin  07:49 Okay, here's a follow up question. Can you maybe expand on what you mean, when you say net zero is our 'moonshot'? What is behind the comparison of the Apollo 11 mission that inspired you? So on YouTube, you can go back and dial up all these old speeches and watch them and watch them anew. But look, if you go back to JFK in 1961, so he does this speech before for the joint House and Senate. And, it's not a long speech. So I'd encourage everyone to go watch it. There's, it's about a minute long, the clip that that's relevant anyway. And in that speech, he says, we are going to go to the moon before the end of the decade. So he's doing this in '61. Obviously, they went to the moon 69. So as part of that, he does something that people don't do enough of these days, right, he literally says - We're going to go to the moon. So that's our objective. And I have no idea how we're going to get there. I'm paraphrasing, obviously, I have no idea how we're going to get there, the technology doesn't exist, the fuel doesn't exist, the booster rocket technology doesn't exist. And that kind of the capsule necessary to get someone to and from the moon doesn't exist today. So he's making this bold announcement without having,  and then acknowledging that he doesn't know how they're going to do it. And, and I thought that's just so, quite frankly, refreshing in this day and age where everything is kind of pre packaged, right. Like, we know what we're going to do this next two years, but we already know that we've got it in the bag, and here's how it's going to be done. I like the idea of setting the big, hairy, audacious goal for the company and saying, I've said this to the management team. I have no clue how we're gonna get there. I don't know. Like, I I know what we need to start doing. But I don't know what the answer is. But I work with some of the smartest people in the game and I know that if they're empowered to do this, and we put our minds to this, we will do this. Like, that's what Kennedy counted on '61. And that's lo and behold what happened. So, when I liken it to the moonshot, it's just that- it's the it's the big, hairy, audacious goal, without any real clear roadmap as to how to accomplish that goal. And I think quite frankly, that's what served us best is when we don't necessarily have the answers, we have to make up. We have to figure our way through this stuff. And I see that every day of the company, right? If you look back at what we how we handle the tornadoes, if you look back at the way we handle the floods, if you look at the way we handle our system. Yeah, there's a lot of prescriptive stuff. Yes, there's a lot of this is how we do things. But there are a lot of days we throw out the rulebook, you throw out the manual, and you have to figure your way forward. And that's when this company is at its best. So, that's the that's the moonshot.   Rebecca Schwartz  10:53 Now, how concerned are you about climate change and environmental damage? What does the energy transition mean for Hydro Ottawa as it exists today, and for you personally, as we look to the future?   Bryce Conrad  11:05  So let's just state categorically that climate change is real. As I sit here, today, it's like minus 27,000 degrees outside. People go 'oh if it is global warming why is it so damn cold', and of course, you just want to smack people that say things like that. But, God's honest truth is climate change is not about the day to day weather, it's about weather patterns. It's about how, in the past, we've had wind storms and ice storms, we've had eight tornadoes, including one in downtown to Nepean. We've had a one in 100 year flood, followed by a one in 1000 year flood. We've had heat waves that have stretched and taxed our system. And all of this is just like, quite frankly, within the past five years. So that's what climate change means. It means unpredictable, changing, dramatically changing weather patterns. And if you run a utility, like I do, or like we do,you don't like that. You know, our infrastructure is built to withstand X. It's not built to withstand x plus 30%, or x plus 50%. So, you know, when a windstorm comes through, you know, the infrastructure is ready to sustain winds up to 90 miles an hour or something like that? Well, you know, we all saw what happened when tornadoes came through, you know, 130 miles, or 160 miles an hour, right? Those poles snap like twigs. That's what climate change means. So, you know, it's terrifying. It's absolutely terrifying. And you know, it's something that we have to start to build into our plans as to how do we build better in the future? So are we building our infrastructure to withstand 90 mile an hour winds? Are we building them to withstand 150 mile an hour winds? Well, there's a cost difference to that. Obviously, the answer is, yeah, we've got to do a better job of building stronger, more resilient infrastructure. If you saw during the floods, our Chaudiere facility, our generating asset, Chaudiere Falls. You know, you were seeing for the first time in history, all 50 of the gates of the ring dam were open. I mean, and there was more, I think it was two Olympic swimming pools passing through the gates every second. The waterfall, the water, the speed, and the waterfall was faster than the Niagara Falls, like, I mean, these are things that shouldn't be happening in downtown Ottawa, but have happened, you know, three times since I've been here. And that's 10 years. So if anyone wants to have a debate about whether or not climate change is real, call me up. Let's have that conversation. Because it's, it's very real, and it's going to dramatically impact our future. In terms of the energy transition, I think I talked a bit about it. But, you know, when we bottomed out, and look at what our future looks like, 50 years from now, our infrastructure looks fundamentally different than it does today. It's in fundamentally different places than it is today. You know, we're gonna rely upon artificial intelligence, machine learning. You know, each and every one of those, like, everything will be censored up. So, you know, the idea is that, as opposed to us rolling a truck to fix something that's broken or down, we can sort of simply reroute it from the control center. So yes, we still have to get out there and fix what's broken but for you, the customer of Hydro Ottawa, you actually won't notice the impact because the power will have switched over to another source instantaneously. That's the goal. I think, you know, you'll see more and more people, and I've been telling people this for 10 years, right? The day in and the age of, you know, my grandmother who used to sort of wait patiently in the mailbox for the bill to come in so she could open it up that day, write a check, and put it back in the mailbox the next day. Those days are gone. And those people are gone. The people that are our customers today, they want to interact, they want more, they want to understand how they can measure utility, they want to understand how they can manage their energy consumption. Particularly if you start to put the onus on them with respect to climate change and what they're doing. So they're going to want to know, like, you know, do I plug my electric car in? If I plug it in? Now? You know, do I wait and charge it between two and 4am? Or do I charge it now? You know, can I charge my house with my car, you know, they're going to be part of this and will be part of the solution. But they're also gonna have expectations of us as a provider to be transparent, authentic, reliable, managing the costs. So that energy transition is going to be huge for us. And it's only going to get more complicated. And I haven't even talked about the downside, right? I mean, the more you open the kimono, and you allow the customers to sort of engage with you directly, the more opportunity you're giving for nefarious actors to sort of engage in the things that we don't want to be happening, things like cybersecurity.   Dan Seguin  16:54 Okay, let's talk energy now, Bryce. We've got an interesting energy ecosystem here in Ottawa with long standing localized and green generation. We had distributed energy resources before it was a thing. Is there a model here that can be applied more broadly?   Bryce Conrad  17:13 Yeah, you know what, so I always like to think that Hydro Ottawa was at the cutting edge of these sorts of things. So, we were doing distributed energy resources before for the term for it. We were cool before we knew it was cool. So short answer, yeah, we've got massive generating assets in our backyard, which theoretically, can be used as distributed energy resources. As we go forward, my expectation is that. And I'd be the first to admit that having Chaudiere and the big generating assets is a massive advantage for the company. But, where we haven't done so well with our customers is with respect to some of the other DER activity. Like, the local homeowner that wants to put up solar, solar panels and stuff like that. And the God's honest truth is, those little installations are a real pain. They're a pain to manage. They're all kind of one-offs. Every one of them is individualized, everyone requires a lot of time and attention. But that's not the right answer. The right answer is we should be treating these things as gifts. We should be doing everything in our power to support them and roll them out even further. So, my expectation is over the course of the next 5-10 years, you're going to see us serve as a catalyst role for further DERs in the community. So that's the first one I would say is if you're waiting to install solar panels, or you need to - you want t- - give us a call, we're here to help you support it. But one of the projects that I think stands out is kind of unique, certainly in Canada, and one that we're particularly proud of, just given the role we played, is down at the Zibi community. Which is, for those who don't know, sort of, well, it's on an island. No man's land between the two provinces. So half of it is in Quebec, the other half is in Ontario. Andthe developer down there, kudos to them. They are partners in dream properties, I guess, four or five years ago, six years ago with the idea of using these developments, which is 34 acres on the waterfront and turning it into a one planet, one world kind of community where it's zero carbon. You know, they could have just asked us to run pipe or run power lines, but we thought, here's an opportunity for us to get in on the ground and see how this actually works. So it's up, it's running, condos are being built for people living there today. There's the heat and cooling - the heat coming from effluent discharge under the Kruger paper plant over on the Gatineau side. So. essentially this is a waste product that's being pumped back into the pipes so we can heat the homes. Conversely, in the summer they're using the Ottawa River to sort of cool it. And again, it's it's a real, full scale model of what a zero carbon energy system would look like. And there's no reason you can't take that same model and apply it on a broader scale and even broader scale. Which is something that we're keen to replicate where, if and when we get the opportunity, but it's truly unique and we're quite proud of it. Again, we got in on the ground floor and said, this is something that we're interested in, so how can we help you. And full credit to the development team, they saw the opportunity to work with us and gave us an opportunity.   Dan Seguin  21:22 Now, a lot of focus is on national targets. But here in Ottawa, we see a central role for ourselves in working with the city, customers, and other stakeholders to help drive down emissions. How much of climate action needs to be local? How important do you see Hydro Ottawa's role being to affect change?   Bryce Conrad  21:46 Yeah, well, like I said earlier, I think if we're going to stand around waiting for the Federal government or the province, or some other larger national entity, to sort of tell us how to solve this problem, I think we'll still be standing around waiting for a few years. So, my perception is that all politics is local. And that the solution to this problem is local. And I just gave you an example of the Zibi community,  where that is a local project that has been done. It's been done locally, not because someone said at the Government of Canada," thou shalt build a zero carbon community". They did it because it was the right thing to do. And they felt they could do it in that environment. Again, no direction from the feds of the province. It was purely local. So the answer, as I said, is local. It's going to be local, it's going to be you and me and Rebecca, and everybody else coming up and making decisions on our own, that we want to leave this place in a better place for our kids. It's that little expression, ou Chair reminds me a lot on a daily basis. You know, leave the campsite in a better place than you found it kind of thing, right! So, that's our goal. That's, that's my goal coming to Hydro Ottawa was to leave the company in a better place that I found it. That should be our collective goals. So, the City of Ottawa has declared a climate emergency, they have announced their targets, they're ramping up a series of climate change initiatives to meet those targets. Our job is to support them, they're our shareholders. So, if we can bring our money, our expertise, to help support them deploying carbon free energy solutions, or just things that can help curb carbon, then that's what we'll do. I think we've got a pretty good track record, quite frankly, the fact that we've announced that we're going to be carbon neutral by 2030 is one thing to say, but we're doing it and we're on our way.  And that garnered the attention of other organizations in town who were saying, well, if Hydro Ottawa was going to do this, maybe they can help us do the same thing. Now, is 2030 an audacious goal for some of them? Yeah, it's probably unrealistic for some but, the point is, at least we're doing it and obviously it would be inconceivable for the City of Ottawa model to get there by 2030. But isn't it nice to know that they can count on a partner that is going to be carbon neutral by 2030 to help them achieve their objectives going forward? So look, we're an innovative company. We're the largest producer of green renewable energy in Canada. We've got a first rate utility, and we've got an energy solutions company that's there to support our customers, our businesses, and our shareholders. And we will deploy all three to that benefit. So, I think my expectation is that as we go into this next municipal election, climate change  will be -if it's not going to be number one or number two, on the agenda, I'll be shocked. Like, I honestly think it's risen to that level of importance for the citizens of Ottawa. So yeah, taxes are always there, but I think climate change is going to be right up there with it.   Rebecca Schwartz  25:33 So Bryce, as you know, we're in the distinctive position at Hydro Ottawa of having cross border assets in Ontario, Quebec and New York. How important is it that Canada's electricity system, as a whole, becomes more integrated across provincial boundaries? And what key steps can we expect will be taken in that direction?   Rebecca Schwartz  25:53 Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a great question, Rebecca. And I think what people don't really appreciate is just how, how amazing the electricity grid actually is. It is a fully integrated machine that works from one side of the continent to the other side. I mean, it's just truly magical that you can sort of walk into your room and turn on a light 99.999% of the time and that lights are gonna come on. And that's a credit to the people that built the system in the first place. So, the good news is that it is a fully integrated grid, Canada - US. Unfortunately, it's a little too north-south for my liking at the moment. Most of the grid runs north-south. So, power gets bought and transferred between Quebec and Manitoba. But, if you look at sort of the large clean energy supplies coming out of Quebec, most of them are directed south, into the US for export markets. Going forward, that's obviously going to have to change. Canada is capable. If you look at the Ontario grid, we're 90%, clean and green. When you look at something like Saskatchewan, or Nova Scotia or Alberta, which still heavily reliant on coal or natural gas or other fossil fuels, the answer is we have to share amongst our brotherhood, so that we have to get that clean power from Quebec and Ontario and British Columbia going east- west. And I should say, Yukon, Northwest Territories the same way- but access to more difficult but still access to sort of clean, green renewable. The point, that system has to sort of be brought to bear on a national level, so that the inter ties between Ontario and Quebec are more plentiful. The power gets shifted into Nova Scotia, so that we can, so that our energy system can be truly clean and green. And it shouldn't take that long. Unfortunately, what's gonna get in the middle of that is your classic nimbyism, right. Where no one wants to build or  have these transmission lines running through their backyard kind of thing, for obvious reasons. But we built the railroad and the railboard built the country, St. Lawrence Seaway. We've done some,incredibly impressive things from an infrastructure perspective, and I just think that's the answer going forward. We need to sort of build that infrastructure at a national level. So that, again, the power from Churchill Falls is flowing to Regina. And in Edmonton and Calgary and, yeah, that's my answer.   Dan Seguin  28:49 Okay, let's talk capacity. Getting to net zero by 2050 will mean roughly doubling clean electricity production in Canada. By one estimate, that's clean energy Canada. What do we need to be doing today to make that achievable?   Bryce Conrad  29:08 Well, again, the first step in the 12 step program is admitting that you have a problem. So, we have a problem. If you just step back and look at the politics, we can't build a pipeline in this country to save our lives. Now, whether you think that's the right thing or not, it's, it's a proxy for what's necessary. So okay, we're not going to build a pipeline, but you need to build big transmission lines east to west or west east or vice versa. So yeah, if you're gonna double the electricity, the clean electrical energy, which  is eminently doable. We've got plenty of sources and we've got lots of supply, we've got more thatwe can tap. You just need to sort of start to work together, collectively. Province to province, federal government with the provinces, to sort of make this happen. And again, I have hopes, because at the end of the day we're one country, we built some amazing infrastructure - the St. Lawrence Seaway is a perfect example. And, you know, the rail lines, we've done this stuff before. There's no reason we can't do it again. Faced with a face of the future where the costs of climate change are real. And they're only getting higher on an annual basis. It's only a matter of time before the politicians wake up and realize that this is the solution, and they have to do something, and they have to act. And it's in our best interest to do so as a nation. So, I'm hopeful.   Dan Seguin  30:55 Now, Bryce, I'm curious, what are the three most innovative sustainability projects that you're most proud of right now? That maybe people don't know Hydro Ottawa is doing or involved with?   Bryce Conrad  31:10 Sure. I can probably give you four. And I know, yes, you asked for three. But I'll give you four! The first, that I don't think people fully appreciate, is how significant our generating assets actually are. We're not talking about small run of the mill, solar facilities, we're talking about large, 150 megawatts of clean green, renewable energy - on both sides of the border, capable of powering well over 100,000 homes. We've grown that production by 500% since 2012. So we are a real player in this business. And these are assets that are carbon free. So, talking about future proofing your generating fleet, right, these are the things that everybody's gonna want when they realize that there is no such thing as clean coal. Or when they realize that fossil fuels are not the answer going forward. So, we have these assets and they're spectacular. And I'd encourage anybody in Ottawa, if you want to see some of them in action, to go check out the ones at Chaudiere Falls, which are a dam. Rebecca, I'm not sure if you've seen it but Dan sure has. I mean, just breathtaking to watch, particularly in the summer  -wouldn't go there today when it's minus 12,000 degrees because the wind coming off would be horrifying -but lovely in the sun. If you wait for Bluesfest, there's no better place to listen to the music than Chaudiere Falls! You get all the benefits of Bluesfest without paying or dealing with crowds. Anyway, so that's number one, our generating fleet. Number two is the thing I spoke about earlier, the Zibi community funding. Again, 34 acres of prime development down there, carbon free, and we were part of that solution to make it happen. And hoping to replicate it making bigger, better elsewhere. But just taking something which was otherwise a science project or a concept and sort of bringing it to reality, something that we're immensely proud of. And I think Ottawans will be as well. The third, just because my kids love it, is we've got this, this new substation going out, or transformer station going out in south Ottawa in the Barrhaven area, which is growing like a weed, obviously. With 10 or 12% growth every year. So, we had to build the new station out there. And we bought the necessary land for the station. It's called Cambrian station. It's going online sometime between now and June, I think. In fact, it's being tested as I speak. But the point is, we bought enough land up there that we've been able to donate 15 acres for a pollinator meadow to bring back the butterflies and plant some trees. So again, no real cost to us other than the land that was used that we bought for the transformer station itself. But here's another opportunity for us to do the right thing. And last but not least, the fourth one, which I'm very proud of is the role that we played in the conversion of the streetlights. So, Ottawa had high pressure sodium street lights, like every other municipality. And over the course of four years, we were able to convert all 56,000 lights to LEDs, saving the city a massive amount of money somewhere in the range of $6 million a year. And those are continuous savings, right? So, that's right to the bottom line. So these are street lights that are better, they're all IP addressable so, if the Sens win the Stanley Cup, we can flash red and white, whatever we want. The point is, they're good for a long time. And those energy savings will pay for them. Well, they already paid for the project once over already! Now, all the savings go right through to the taxpayer, so I am very proud of us.   Rebecca Schwartz  35:42 Another thing we're doing is targeting an entirely non emitting grid by 2035. What sort of changes will that mean for electricity, utilities and customers?   Rebecca Schwartz  35:52 Yeah, this is going back to the moonshot, Rebecca. In the sense that we're talking about it. And obviously, we're committing to do these sorts of things, but we don't necessarily have a clear cut perspective on how it's going to be done. So look, as I said earlier, in Ontario, the grids 92%, clean and green right now. The other 8% is natural gas. So yeah, we need to turn the grid into an automated grid by 2035. utilities like ourselves are going to have to invest in trying to find ways of managing line losses and just transmission. You know, the transmission of electricity from point A to point B emits ghgs, and that needs to be curtailed. So how do you do that? Well, I mean, there's technology that hopefully we brought to bear. I mean, today's minds are better than the lions 10-15 years ago. So I mean, I think the answer there is going to be technological change. The good news is we have a lot of smart, smart, smart people. Both academically within utilities, within the association's working on trying to solve this problem. But yeah, it' a challenge for us. And I don't necessarily have the right answer. I don't have an answer for you right now. As I explained to my Board, the iPhone is 12 years old this year. So, imagine what life -think back to where we were in 2008. I can't even imagine what my life, what our lives would be like if we didn't have an iPhone in our pocket, right? So, that's a technological change. That's made a fundamental difference in our life and in our society. Some good, some bad. But surely, the hope is that technological change will help us get to an automated grid by 2035 in an affordable way.   Dan Seguin  38:05 Now back in 2019, Hydro Ottawa opened its new office building, centralizing your operations, while ensuring a new building with a greener footprint. Can you tell us about this decision to move and how you've incorporated sustainability into your building operations?   Bryce Conrad  38:24 I joined Hydro Ottawa on August 15 2011. On August 16th 2011, we had a Board meeting, where they authorized the company to move forward with what is called ubiquitously The Real Estate Strategy. Which was effectively:  Look, you know, as a result of amalgamation we had buildings all over the place. We inherited Gloucester Hydro, Ottawa Hydro, Nepean Hydro and Kanata Hydro. So, we had all these buildings all over the place that we inherited. Some of them were in pretty good shape, others were absolute pig. Thinking of the one at Albion road would be the prime example. The point was there, they were in all the wrong places from an operational perspective. They were just in the wrong place. So we developed a plan and a strategy to sort of recapitalize our buildings, and we knew that, quite frankly, for every dollar I spent on Albion road, it was $1. I lost, because the value is not in the building, the value is in the land. I use the term value loosely. We made that decision and the Board exported it, the Ontario Energy Board, as part of our applications, endorsed the idea that we needed new facilities.So we launched the plan in 2014 with a couple of stutter steps along the way, trying to find the right lands. Finally we landed on the right places for us as a company. If you look at our headquarters we built, we opened in 2019. All the new buildings are built to LEED Gold standards. Both facilities have significant on site renewable energy, they have solar facilities on sites. We didn't want them to be ostentatious or flashy, we wanted them to be functional. We want them to be low maintenance to the extent that we possibly could. We wanted to do what we could on our GHGs and also environmentalism. And that came directly from our employees. As we're doing the builds and designing, we're constantly reaching into our workforce to see what was important to them, what they want to see. One of the things everybody obviously wants to light. So, if you've been to the facilities, you know they're wide open, everybody has access to fresh, good quality air. Everyone has access to daylight for the most part. So they actually turned out fantastic. It's exactly what we want. So, we installed a whole bunch of different environmental things. Solar solar charging stations at our headquarters, we've got electrical charging stations at the headquarters, we've got a lot of reduction facilities in place. So I think we're using 55 or 60% less water than we otherwise used to. We use the gray water return that gets used back into the gardens and stuff like that. I think we're diverting 90-95% of our non hazardous waste. Our kitchen supplier has  access to a dehydrator which allows them to dehydrate the food waste, reduce, and to use it as compost. From the design perspective, health and wellness was factored into it from day one. So we've got a, I wouldn't say world class gym facility, but it's pretty damn good. Got lots of ergonomically designed workspaces, the meeting rooms are flexible, we've got collaboration spaces everywhere. So the whole point was, I think Steve Jobs used to refer to them as collision points, where an employee could walk would bump into another employee and an idea would germinate. That's kind of the way we built the place. So throughout the building, there's collaboration spaces, both inside and outside. We've even got a walking path on our property. So, all of those have been done because we're the right things to do. They were the right things to do now. Post pandemic, or in the middle of a pandemic, I will tell you, all these open spaces are not our friends. There are points where you'd like to put up some walls again and close the doors, but it is what it is. And we'll get past this and get back to normal. And we'll be happy with what we got.But, facilities are great!  We love them.  I honestly haven't heard anybody complain about facilities which if you work in the utility industry is shocking.   Rebecca Schwartz  43:47 It seems every couple of months, we're hearing about an innovative new example of electrification of other economic sectors. Here in Ottawa, we're seeing multiple modes of public transportation transitioning to electric, for example: e scooters - Which I have to say, I use a lot in our super fun - to everything else, such as chainsaws and lawn mowers seem to be up for grabs when it comes to electrification. What's the coolest example of electrification that you've come across Bryce?   Bryce Conrad  44:18 I got like 15 answers to this one. So I love those electric scooters. I used them for the first time when I was in San Diego, whipping along the waterfront in San Diego on an electric scooter was one of the coolest things in the world. Of course I didn't look so graceful I fell, but so be it. So those are really cool. I've seen electric surfboards, which I think are really cool, too. I'm terrified to even conceive of how to get on one, but it's this kind of a wakeboard that you get elevated up in the air. So, you're you're surfing on top of the water, and it's purely electric powered, but that looks pretty cool. My neighbor here has one. I'm jealous when I see him out there on it. But honestly, the coolest one, quite frankly, is still the cars. There used to be a car that came out of the US military, it was called a Hummer. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, when he was governor of California, had a Hummer and he made his electric. A great personal expense to him, I'm sure. But these are cars that have a massive big V 12 engine. When you turn on the gas, and you turn the car on, you could literally see the ozone layer deplete behind you, that's how much these things were. And they were just pigs on gas. I don't even know whether they would get up to a gallon, probably like three kilometers to a gallon of gas back in the day. But they were just enormous. And so much like everything else, they went the way in the dodo bird, they got sold off and then shut down. Well, then lo and behold, they're coming back. So 2022, is the first year of the electric Hummer. And it is 1000 horsepower, it weighs 10,000 pounds, or close to 10,000 pounds. Tt goes zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds. And again, it weighs 10,000 pounds!  Like it's amazing what they're capable of doing. It's going to have a range of 580 kilometers or whatever, whatever it will be. But just the sheer improvements in these electric vehicles is -  I mean, Dan knows he's got two of them! - But we're a long way from when these first electric cars came out. Hydro Ottawa I had one of the very first electric cars and I would tell you, you know, cuz I used to park next to it in the garage. There would be weeks that go by where I wouldn't see that car because it was in the garage being fixed or something was wrong. I drove it one day and my teenage daughter who's probably 13 at the time, was in the backseat thinking she's really cramped in the backseat, because the whole damn thing is a big battery. So you just think about where that car was relative to the cars that we're seeing out there today. And I'm not even talking about the Tesla's, I'm talking about, you know, the Hyundai's  and sort of the traditional car makers, and the efforts that they're making in the space. Like, it's truly exceptional what they're doing and full credit to them. Dan referenced the Audi electric e tron, I mean, it's the coolest car in the world! And all these cars are just incredible. So my answer is yeah, as I was saying with the e-scooters, at least I don't fall out of my car!   Dan Seguin  48:01 With Hydro Ottawa customers, making it very clear that climate change is important to them and they want you to continue being part of the solution and pushing the organization to do more. How are you planning to assist customers in reducing their carbon footprint?   Bryce Conrad  48:21 It's a great question. And it'spart of the moonshot, right. I don't actually know what they need until, until we start dialing this in and getting a workout. But what I know is that they want to interact with this differently. They want information, they want access to information in a way that nobody else has ever asked us, right? They are interactive. It used to be that the average Canadian thought of their electrical company, nine minutes a year, when they're paying the bills. That's not the case anymore. When they're making decisions with respect to appliances, they're thinking about their consumption, and they're making decisions with respect to their cars and they're calling us. One of our affiliates, Envari, one of the services we offer is electric vehicle readiness assessments for small commercial and condo buildings. Because for example for Dan to live in his house and install car chargers, no problem. But if you're living in a condo corporation with 400 units, how do you build out the electric car charging asset? Is a bill to the house to the person that owns the electric car? Or are they sort of shared resources? So I mean, these are some of the challenges that we're dealing with and our customers are dealing with firsthand. So, our job is to help. Our job is to try to help navigate those issues and concerns and provide them with the information. And sometimes they'll make the right decision. Sometimes they'll make the wrong decision, but at least they're making an informed decision if nothing else. So that's an example. The electric bus initiative here in Ottawa, is another one that we're quite proud of. We're gonna partner with the City of Ottawa to sort of deploy and roll out 400+ electric vehicle buses. So if you've ever seen these buses, I mean, they are sleek, they are noiseless. They are, quite frankly, enjoyable to ride. You don't have that diesel smell, that's everywhere. You're not on Slater street looking down a canyon of diesel spewing buses anymore. So, those are all the things that we're going to do to help our community and our customers. And quite frankly, they're probably 15,000 other things that we're going to be doing as we get into this fight.  As we get into this and start climbing this challenge or responding to this challenge, we're going to find other things that they're going to want. And what I do know is that we've got a good brand, we've got social license within our community. If they are going to turn to anybody, they are going to turn to us for solutions, and it's our job to help them.   Rebecca Schwartz  50:58 So Bryce, as a community asset, will Hydro Ottawa pursue netzero, outside the confines of its own operations? And if so, what's your plan in terms of playing such an instrumental role in the broader progress of Ottawa towards becoming netzero? And or any other sorts of electrification programs?   Bryce Conrad  51:20 Yeah, yeah, I mean, let's be clear, that's one of the reasons we're doing a netzero commitment.  We made a commitment and the Board was very clear, we're not just doing this so that we can feather our own cap, we're not doing the sit here and put a banner that says mission accomplished in 2030. We're going to do this because we want to support our community in our city in moving to being netzero, whether that by 2040, or 2050, we want to get there. Hydro Ottawa actually becomes a catalyst to helping them achieve these things. And that means, you know, partnering with the city on their energy evolution file, working with the city on the electric bus stuff I talked about. Helping them look at their municipal buildings and say, okay, you know, the Nepean sportsplex - is it time for this thing to go through a deep retrofit so that we can sort of make it more energy efficient? I mean, the city's got massive real estate holdings, and a lot of buildings that predate me and predate you and predate us, which are in dire need of retrofitting. It's the low hanging fruit, isn't it. We've swapped out the light bulbs already. Like for us to make a difference and to sort of hit those targets that the city has set for itself we got to start doing some real meaningful stuff. Like, we got to start doing some deep retrofits to buildings we got to start doing with the city on the bus, you gotta start doing some big bold things. And we're there to help them do that.  So the true answer to your question, Rebecca, is yeah, we're there. We're there. We'll be there. We'll be partnering with them. We'll use our technology. We'll use our budget if necessary.   Bryce Conrad  53:04 Okay mon ami. How about we close off with some rapid fire questions? Since you've already been a guest on our program? We've come up with some special new ones for you, Bryce, are you ready?   Bryce Conrad  53:17 I'm good.   Dan Seguin  53:19 What are you reading right now? Bryce?   Bryce Conrad  53:21 It's a book by Congressman Jamie Raskin. It's called Unthinkable but January 6, last year, I guess. So Jamie Raskin is a Congressman from Maryland whose son tragically committed suicidelike days before January six. And then he, Jamie Raskin, went on to serve as the the head of the impeachment proceedings against former President Trump as a result January 6, so it's a book about that. So that's really depressing, but it's a fantastic book and terrifying at the same time. But I just finished reading the book by Mark Carney which I recommend to anybody and everybody I thought was really really well done. So if you haven't read that should read that too. Little more cheery.   Dan Seguin  54:13 Now, what would you name your boat if you had one?   Bryce Conrad  54:18 So, the short answer is I think all boats should be called the Enterprise. But I actually saw a boat on the and the Rideau, it was parked in front of the convention center this year. It was just a massive boat. And the boat's name was Size Matters, which was pretty funny. I'll stick with Enterprise!   Dan Seguin  54:43 Wondering if you could share with us who is someone that you truly admire?   Bryce Conrad  54:49 I mean, look, how can you not admire somebody like Nelson Mandela or you know, I think Winston Churchill is probably the greatest leader the world has ever seen. So out I'll go with Winston Churchill on Nelson Mandela and leave it there.   Dan Seguin  55:03 Now, what is the closest thing to real magic that you've witnessed?   Bryce Conrad  55:09 I haven't a clue, pass.   Dan Seguin  55:12 What has been the biggest challenge to you personally, since the pandemic?   Bryce Conrad  55:17 Before the pandemic, I probably logged, I don't know, 75,000 miles a year on the plane flying from one place to another. A lot of it out of it for meetings and stuff, but the lack of travel, the lack of contact, from a professional perspective, Whether it was going to CS Week or Distribute Tech, or any of these other meetings, you go to them and you'd come back kind of rejuvenated on the one hand, but also kind of inspired by the things that we were doing relative to our peers. And then you'd always pick up one or two little things that you thought the answer was cool. I wish we could do something like that. And quite frankly, it's been two years since I've been able to do that. And, you know, Zoom calls are great, but they just don't capture the same, you don't get the same benefit. Right. So I would say that, obviously, and just just day to day social interaction, it'd be nice to actually be able to have people over without worrying about whether they've been vaccinated and boostered. And all that nonsense, but I'm hopeful.   Dan Seguin  56:30 We've all been watching a lot more Netflix and TV lately. What's your favorite movie or show?   Bryce Conrad  56:39 Well, the greatest movie of all time is the Godfather. So that's the one that no matter what time of day or night it's on, if I, if I flipped by and said it's on, I will watch whatever's left of it. So that's just it. And then my favorite TV show - sounds stereotypical -  I love the Sopranos. I re-watched every Sopranos over the holidays, because David Chase came out with that new movie, The Saints of Newark, which I want to refresh my memory on all things Tony Soprano before I watch that.   Dan Seguin  57:10 And lastly, Bryce. What's really exciting you about the electricity sector right now?   Bryce Conrad  57:16 What's not exciting, right? The biggest challenge facing our country are the people, this generation, this climate change and how we respond to climate change. And where else do you want to be in the middle of a fight then right in the middle of it, right? So climate change is the challenge and electricity as the answer. And the electrical sector is going to be front and center in that fight. So, I can't think of a better place to be. I, like lots of people, have had other opportunities presented to me over the last few years, but there's no place I'd rather be than at the head of Hydro Ottawa as we go into this climate change. In fact, I just think the opportunities are fantastic. I think the impact is fantastic if we can get it right. And I'm just bullish on the sector. I think our  sector is the answer. Whether it be electric, transportation, or heating and cooling. It's going to be electricity. That's the answer. And it's just a question trying to find how do you fit it all together in a formal way that people can understand?   Rebecca Schwartz  58:35 Well, Bryce, that's it. We've reached the end of another episode of the thinkenergy podcast. Thanks again, Boss for joining us today. We hope you had a good time!   Bryce Conrad  58:44 Had a great time thanks, guys.   Dan Seguin  58:46 Thanks for tuning in for another episode of The think energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests or previous episodes, visit think energy podcast.com I hope you'll join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.  

Leigh-Ann Ing is the Director of Global Wellness and Benefits Strategy at OMERS. Beyond her professional experience in employee mental wellbeing, she has lived through burnout at various points in her career. In this episode, she walks us through handling burnout in high performance cultures and how organizations can better support employees dealing with excessive stress to build a culture of psychological safety.

Relationships are important in business. But what about the relationship between Risk Management and Resilience? Hello everyone and welcome to episode 22 of the Resilient Journey podcast, sponsored by ClearRisk. This week I'm joined by one of the most dynamic business leaders I've ever had the opportunity to work for. He's the Chief Risk Officer for OMERS in Toronto – it's Rodney Hill. In this episode, Rodney discusses that relationship between risk management and resilience and how to how to identify those areas of the business that matter to your executives so that your actions get proper attention. He even discusses the right way to identify which risks deserve your attention. Be sure to follow The Resilient Journey!  We sure do appreciate it! Big thanks to my friends at ClearRisk for sponsoring The Resilient Journey! Want to connect with Rodney? Click here. Want to learn more about Mark? Click here or on LinkedIn or Twitter.

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity. John’s focus will is on guiding the strategy of the firm, Chair of the Investment Committee and is deeply involved with sourcing and leading opportunities particularly within the technology industry. John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures. Through John’s leadership as Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Xanadu, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments as its Executive Managing Director. He has led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. Further, John sits on a number of boards of leading innovative organizations in both the profit and non-for-profit sector. John’s work has been recognized by numerous organizations. He has been selected as Canada’s MostPowerful Business Person by Canadian Business Magazine and as one of Toronto’s most influential persons by Toronto Life Magazine. John has been awarded with the Outstanding Progress and Achievement Award by the Schulich School of Business, an award for outstanding career achievements in their respective field. In 2018, John was honored with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic which made him a 5th Class Knight. In 2020, John became a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountantsof Ontario (FCPA).

When half a million Canadians are counting on you to look after their pensions, you need to stay squarely focused on the long term. “We often joke, ‘A quarter is not three months – a quarter is 25 years,'” says Blake Hutcheson, President and CEO of OMERS, which  manages the retirement savings of current and former municipal employees across Ontario. OMERS is one of the largest defined benefit pension plans in Canada, with net assets of more than $114 billion. So it's good to know that when Hutcheson looks to the future, he's optimistic about what he sees. “This is one of those times where there are outsized opportunities ahead – lots of reasons to believe in tomorrow, lots of reasons to believe in this country, and lots of reasons to believe in the future.”In conversation with Goldy Hyder on the Speaking of Business podcast, Hutcheson discusses the challenges of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also shares some of the lessons he learned growing up 200 km north of Toronto in the town of Huntsville. “To me the ticket for getting ahead as a society is putting [aside] differences and working together in a trusting way. Small towns do that.”Listen to Blake Hutcheson's conversation with Goldy Hyder – including his 2022 Stanley Cup prediction – in the Speaking of Business podcast.

Nous faisons le bilan des rendements des principaux indices de marchés en 2021 et ironiquement, ce que vous devez faire en 2022 pour perdre de l'argent et même votre chemise. Bien sûr, notre top 8 pour s'appauvrir en 2022 est au 2e degré et il sera plutôt conseillé de faire le contraire. Notre invité est Katie Lefebvre, entrepreneure propriétaire du logiciel Budget-Express. Elle explique comment, une fois pour toutes vous pourriez « dompter votre budget » et même y trouver du plaisir. Notre capsule historique avec Isabelle Juneau du jour raconte l'histoire du prestigieux fonds de pension OMERS.

In this episode, we meet Chrissy Farr, Principal at OMERS Ventures. Previously, she was a writer and frequent on-air contributor for CNBC, Fast Company and Reuters News, among other publications. She was raised in London, UK, and received degrees from University College London and Stanford University. Over the last five years, OMERS Ventures has invested more than $340 million of capital in nearly 30 disruptive technology companies across North America, creating over 5,000 jobs, and attracting an additional $1.2 billion for portfolio companies. Their portfolio companies include: 360insights, AmpMe, Busbud, Citizen Hex, D2L, DCG, Fusebill, Hootsuite, Hopper, Interaxon, Jobber, Kaleo, Klipfolio, Klue, Leafsift, League, Mojix, Nudge, Ranovus, Rover, Shopify (IPO 2015 — NYSE & TSX: SHOP), Smile.io, Vidyard, Vision Critical, Wattpad, Wave. Chrissy continues to write and share her perspectives here: https://ovsecondopinion.substack.com/ In this episode, Chrissy and I chat about: Chrissy's personal story: from her time at Stanford to her experiences as a journalist and her love for research, learning and connecting with innovators Her approach to investing and thesis development, areas of digital health which are underserved/overlooked and opportunities in women's health Digital health superlatives — Chrissy's takes on the most disruptive healthcare company of the year, most interesting merger/acquisition, innovative early-stage start-up to follow, and her favorite news sources Predictions for digital health in 2022, reflections and words of wisdom

John Ruffolo, Founder & Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, joins Bold Founder Caleb Parker for the second episode of Season 6 to discuss what fast-growing companies need from office real estate, and how office assets can support companies throughout their entire life cycle. They talk through the important of asking the users what they want, how changes in real estate have accelerated since the start of the pandemic, and what the most important things are for spaces to consider when building brand and community.  John shares his insights on hybrid working and back to the office and how there is space for more disruptive and bold companies to change the future of work conversation.  Connect with John Ruffolo on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joruffolo/  Connect with Caleb Parker on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebparker/ If you have any questions or feedback on this episode, email podcast@workbold.co Value Bombs:   And throughout history, if you look back at the major innovations that's moved the world forward, it's been during times of crisis. This pandemic is no different. - Caleb Parker   Traditional real estate, particularly during the pandemic, probably has the most visibility of an industry that's in need of massive change. - John Ruffolo [Real estate owners are] really trying to shoe horn a client opportunity to fit their buildings. - John Ruffolo The real estate industry didn't look at their customer as a customer. They looked at it as a tenant in that particular building, based on a geographic location. - John Ruffolo [Real estate] was one of the last industries, or maybe the last industry that was supply side focused as opposed to demand side. - John Ruffolo You are a deep expert in real estate at what was the last time that somebody was looking for space asked who the building owner was? - John Ruffolo In order to build loyalty and trust with that person you have to deliver a consistent experience. And that consistent experience is what becomes known as the brand. - Caleb Parker You use the term space as a service. I actually don't use that term. I actually use community as a service. - John Ruffalo Disruption always comes from the bottom, never from the top down. - John Ruffolo I think if you're a landlord right now, you have to be looking at as a service and figuring out how to get into your building in some capacity. - Caleb Parker I know these CEOs were led to believe that a transformation for them to work out of the home would have taken three years. It [only] took them three weeks. - John Ruffalo We haven't learned how to be as efficient using technology as we would have with those small conversations in the office. And that's really just because of our adoption. And I still think I love physically seeing people, that's who I am. - John Ruffalo Blackberry was the first time that I was personally untethered from my desk. So the hybrid work arrangement is a shrug in our office and it's a shrug for a lot of folks. - John Ruffalo Resources:   TSK's agile/flexible/hybrid article Maverix Private Equity Website OMERS Ventures Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat Podcast  10 x Podcast The David Suzuki Podcast    Shout Outs: Dave Cairns One Eleven Matthew Lombardi Michael Kravshik LumiQ Basil Demeroutis Bruce Daisley Richard Pickering About Our Guests: John Ruffolo  Follow John on Twitter  John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity.  John's focus is on guiding the strategy of the firm, Chair of the Investment Committee and is deeply involved with sourcing and leading opportunities particularly within the technology industry. John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures. Through John's leadership as Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments as its Executive Managing Director. He has led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, Xanadu, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-founder and Vice-Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. Further, John sits on a number of boards of leading innovative organizations in both the profit and non-for-profit sector.  Fun fact: John and his wife named each of their children after their favorite bottle of wine. About Our Host: Caleb Parker https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebparker/ Caleb Parker is an American entrepreneur in London, and Founder of Bold (acquired by Newable/NewFlex in 2019).He believes in "challenging the status quo" and is a champion for entrepreneurial and innovative thinking.Caleb has served as founder, Board member, advisor, investor and consultant to numerous startups and small businesses, and has a keen focus on innovation and technology, with interests in the MICE market, Space-as-a-Service, and the future of work.Caleb has been a guest lecturer, speaker, and moderator for topics such as entrepreneurship, the sharing economy, the future of work and commercial real estate at academic institutions and large corporations. He regularly takes the stage at numerous trade conferences as keynote speaker, MC, host or facilitator.Earlier in his career, Caleb was named one of Savannah, Georgia's “40 under 40” business leaders" in 2006 after launching two successful small businesses in the city's booming hospitality industry. A year later he moved to Washington, DC to join the The Regus Group DC management team. In 2009, Caleb co-founded a flexible workspace consulting firm where he brokered flexible workspace and advised businesses on agile working strategies.Caleb is one of the first licensed commercial real estate agents to speak on the flexible working trends and the rise of flexible workspace, and has been quoted in numerous publications.   Sponsors Headline Sponsor: TSK TSK creates inspiring workplaces for some of the world's biggest brands across the UK and Ireland, They've been working for 25 years to deliver the best employee experiences and the vision of their clients. Not only do they create great places to work, TSK share workplace content every week from the latest data to inspiring spaces they've designed and built. You can read their latest insights at www.tskgroup.co.uk or check out their LinkedIn and Instagram pages to become a follower, fan and friend. Fortune Favours the Bold Bold merges property management & Space-as-a-Service to drive asset value and help office customers grow faster. Now part of NewFlex (www.workbold.co)  Future Proof Your Portfolio with NewFlex NewFlex delivers and manages a range of branded solutions for every type of building, in every type of location, for every type of occupier. Including the flexibility to develop your own brand. All enabled by flexible management contracts where we are invested in making money for you. (www.newflex.com) Launch Your Own Podcast A Podcast Company is the leading podcast production company for brands, organizations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right equipment, training, and guidance to ensure you sound amazing. (https://www.apodcastcompany.com) Subscribe to the #WorkBold Podcast https://workbold.co.uk/podcast/

Michelle is responsible for researching and executing on investment opportunities in proptech. She's particularly interested in opportunities around democratizing home ownership, increasing transparency across the real estate transaction and automating workflows. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Michelle was a Senior Associate in Financial Advisory at Deloitte. As a part of the Valuations group, she provided valuation services to both public and private companies related to mergers and acquisitions, financial reporting, tax, and litigation. Michelle is a Chartered Accountant (CA), Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Business Valuator (CBV). She has a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University.In 2020, Michelle was named one of Venture Capital Journal's "40 Rising Stars under 40" in the global venture community.

Rob Gouley, Principal, Trading at OMERS, and Eric Stockland, Managing Director, Global Markets at BMO Capital Markets, speak with GlobalTrading Editor Terry Flanagan about how sell-side brokerage firms can use small-scale experiments to test new exchange order types.

This week on the podcast we sat down with Chrissy Farr, a HealthTech Investor at OMERS Ventures, where she focuses on women's health and behavioral health. In this interactive chat, Chrissy talked about her priorities for the remainder of the year, including focus areas of women's and behavioral health, as well as her experience making the change from being a full time journalist covering the health-tech beat at major publications like CNBC and Fast Company, to a venture capitalist, and how that has impacted her view on company storytelling. She also gave the inside scoop on OMERS Ventures and how to position yourself to get on her, and the broader company's, radar. Entrepreneurs: How to get investment from StartUp Health startuphealth.com Investors: How to invest in StartUp Health Moonshots healthmoonshots.com Want more content like this? You can subscribe to the podcast as well as other health innovation updates at startuphealth.com/content. Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.

Susan Ney hosts guest Dr. Paul Harrietha in a dialogue about gender equity and, to use the subtitle of his book, what's really holding women back in business – and how to fix it. Dr. Harrietha and co-author Holly Catalfamo confirm that women are held back from advancement opportunities (particularly the C-suite and board positions) by a number of invisible rules that continue to “tilt the playing field in favour of white men”. Their book The Invisible Rules: What's really holding women back in business – and how to fix it, is based on direct one-on-one interviews with 50 senior female Canadian executives who shared their personal insights, experiences, wisdom and real-life challenges. Learn about the four big biases women face, the CAPS Leadership Framework and what we all need to be doing to help finally achieve gender equity within our workplaces and organizations.About the Guest – Dr. Paul HarriethaDr. Paul Harrietha is a career executive and consultant specializing in global leadership and change management. During his 30-year career, he consulted to a range of leading international organizations, including PepsiCo, Honda, John Deere, Royal Bank of Canada, Eddie Bauer, Mobile Oil, and a range of associations, unions and not-for-profit organizations. Most recently, Dr. Harrietha was chief executive officer of the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System (OMERS) Sponsors Corporation, the design arm of a $100 billion pension fund servicing almost 450,000 active and retired municipal employees in Ontario, Canada.Prior to joining OMERS, Dr. Harrietha was a senior partner and head of the Communication and Change Management Practice at Eckler Ltd., a leading Canadian consulting firm. He also served as Chairman of the Executive Board for Abelica Global, a network of more than 30 independent consulting firms operating in 20 countries around the world. He is currently Chair of the Advisory Board of the Niagara University in Ontario and founding Principal of the CAPS Leadership Group. He received his PhD on Leadership and Policy from Niagara University, his MA in Industrial Relations and HR Management from Keel University, his MA in English from York University and his BA (H) in English from Queens. Current Research Interests: Advancing women in leadership, leadership diversity, culture transformation, employee/member engagement.Current Research Projects: Paul is currently working on a biographical novel inspired by the remarkable life of Barrington Francis, former Canadian, Commonwealth and World featherweight boxing champion.Current Teaching Interests: Global leadership, organizational effectiveness, change management, human resources, business communications If you wish to contact Dr. Paul Harrietha, he can be reached through any of the following: Website: www.capsleadership.caEmail: paul@capsleadership.caLinked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulharriethaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/capsleadership His book: The Invisible Rules: What's really holding women back in business – and how to fix it available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.ca About the Host:Susan has worked with people all her life. As a human resource professional, she has specialized in all aspects of employment, from hiring to retirement. She got her start as a national representative for a large Canadian union. After pursuing an undergrad degree in business administration, Susan transitioned to HR management, where she...

John Ruffolo is the Founder of OMERS Ventures. OMERS Ventures is the venture capitalarm of OMERS, the pension plan for Ontario's municipal employees. Over the course ofJohn's leadership, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investmentsin Shopify, Hootsuite, Desire 2 Learn, and League. John also formed Platform Investments, OMERS' innovation arm, where he led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-Founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators. A non-profit organizationdedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. John sits on the board of a number of leading innovation based organizations includingHootsuite, Ontario Centres of Excellence, and Ether Capital. In addition, John sits on theboard of a number of not for profit organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation,the Royal Ontario Museum, the League of Innovators, Caldwell's Top 40 Under 40 andSustainable Development Technology Canada.Prior to joining OMERS, Mr. Ruffolo was a Partner at Deloitte, and a member of Deloitte's Board of Directors. Mr. Ruffolo was formerly a partner with Arthur Andersen and has also spent time as an instructor for both the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and York University's Schulich School of Business, from which he holds a Bachelor of Business Administration.

Michelle Killoran, Principal at OMERS Ventures, joins Matt to discuss her thoughts on how the commercial real estate broker's role is changing, and how she is looking deeply at solutions that are reacting to fundamental changes in the world of work. In her current role, Michelle is responsible for researching and executing on investment opportunities in real estate and health technology. In 2020, Michelle was named one of Venture Capital Journal's "40 Rising Stars under 40" in the global venture community.

Wondering Wednesdays with Rabbi Mayer Freedman! This is just the question. Text or Whatsapp me any thoughts you may have on it at 404-951-1026.

The answer to this morning's question. Speak to you next week on Wondering Wednesday!

Philippe Busslinger, the Canadian pension’s head of infrastructure in Europe, explains what was behind its 8.6% return last year and how it plans to battle increased competition.

Brian Crombie talks with one of Canada's top investors, John Ruffolo, who has survived near death, has just launched a new $500 million VC fund. John was CEO of OMERS's very successful growth equity venture fund. Last year as he was launching his new fund, Ruffolo an avid cyclist, was knocked off his bike by a Mack truck paralyzing from the waist down. We discuss his accident, his recovery, his past tech investments, what he wants to invest in, and what he believes the secrets to success are in leading tech businesses and investments. One of the most inspirational interviews I have ever done.

How do you maintain great working relationships in the treasury profession? In this episode of The Treasury Career Corner podcast, I speak with Anh Duong, Group Treasury Director at ERM. We discuss the need for good communication and the surprising effects of working from home during the pandemic. He shares his thoughts on the pros and cons of working from home, the work-life balance, and the importance of face-to-face interactions. ERM is an ESG consulting company with approximately 100 BUs, 5,000 people operating in 40 countries across six continents. ERM is a private equity-backed business whose principal investors are its 700 partners, AIMCo and OMERS (AIMCO and OMERS, two large Canadian retirement funds with $100b AUM). Prior to ERM, Anh had roles as Head of Treasury at Imperial College London, Head of Forward FX and Interest Rate Risk Management at BP plc, and Interest Rate Derivatives Trader at Barclays Capital. On the podcast, we discussed… The importance of being flexible and diplomatic when joining a new team of people The importance of earning respect by doing good work The effects of working from home on team communication and the work-life balance Why Anh often prefers phone calls over email to solve problems Why face-to-face interaction is so important Essential skills needed in treasury. You can connect with Anh on https://www.linkedin.com/in/anh-duong-erm/ (LinkedIn). Are you interested in pursuing a career within Treasury? Whether you’ve recently graduated, or you want to search for new job opportunities to help develop your treasury career, The Treasury Recruitment Company can help you in your search for the perfect job. https://treasuryrecruitment.com/jobs (Find out more here). Or, send us your CV and let us help you in your next career move! If you’re enjoying the show please rate and review us on whatever podcast app you listen to us on, for Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-treasury-career-corner/id1436647162#see-all/reviews (click here)!

Christina Farr, Principal Investor and Health-Tech Lead at OMERS Ventures, talks with host Don Antonucci about her journey from journalist to investor. In this episode recorded in January 2021, Christina and Don discuss digital healthcare companies to pay attention to and trends in behavioral health, telemedicine, women's health, and health equity. Follow Christina Farr on Twitter @chrissyfarr and subscribe to her Second Opinion newsletter for the latest health-tech news on https://ovsecondopinion.substack.com/

Character matters. In a year in which we’ve faced a global pandemic and growing unrest in pockets around the world, this has never been truer. But what is it and can it be developed?   Dr. Gerard Seijts joins this episode of LeaderLab to explore the behaviours associated with leadership character and to offer concrete examples of how leaders can develop good character and embed it in their organizations. Based on research he’s been building since the 2008 financial crisis, Gerard shares the following insights on leadership character:   Character is dispositional. It’s not based on your role on the job, rather it’s how you show up in the workplace.  Character is defined by 11 dimensions: Judgement, transcendence, drive, collaboration, humanity, humility, integrity, temperance, justice, accountability and courage. Very few leaders get top marks in all dimensions. Instead, good character can be developed by continuously improving weaker areas.   Covid-19 has not only revealed character in world leaders, but has demonstrated in real time how good character can produce good outcomes.  Making time for reflection is important step in developing your leader character. There are specific actions organizations can take to develop character within their leaders and embed good character within teams – starting with integrating it specifically into their recruiting criteria.    Learn more about the 11 dimensions of leadership character here: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/leadership/research-resources/leader-character-framework/   Access more leadership research from Ivey’s Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/leadership/   Meet Dr. Gerard Seijts  Dr. Gerard Seijts is a professor at the Ivey Business School and a prolific researcher in a range of topics, including leadership, leading change, organizational behaviour, and performance management and staffing. Gerard also leads corporate leadership programs for organizations such as Aecon, Intact Financial Corporations, OMERS, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and many others. He has also worked with local government in Canada and Hong Kong on issues such as leadership and change. Gerard is the recipient of awards for research, innovation in teaching and outreach activities. He is the Executive Director of the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership.   About TILTCO  TILTCO is a boutique consulting company that helps leaders define and execute their strategies in order to achieve extraordinary business and personal results. Founded by Tineke Keesmaat, she brings her 20 years of leadership consulting experience rooted at McKinsey & Company and Accenture to supports today’s leaders achieve exceptional results.   

On today's episode of InsideOut, I'm joined by guest Chrissy Farr, Principal at OMERS Ventures along with guest co-host Dr. Jonathan Slotkin, Chief Medical Officer at Contigo Health a Premier company, to talk about all things healthcare investing. What makes Farr's perspective unique—and definitely worth the listen—is because she's newer to the investing world, having spent her career covering healthcare and recently the COVID pandemic. Most important to Farr's strategy, though? Transparency, in both journalism and investments.

In this week's episode of Women Talk Tech, our guest is Monique Allen, the EVP of Data and Technology for OMERS. She shares her observations about bias in the tech sector and how we can adjust our approach in dealing with this challenge. Tune in this week for your chance to win a copy of "The Collective Wisdom of High Performing Women" - The Judy Project.

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Blake Hutcheson - President & CEO of OMERS With Confidence, Resilience and Patience During COVID: Observations and Reflections during My First Hundred Days as OMERS CEO Blake Hutcheson shares observations and reflections he gained during his first hundred days at the helm as President and CEO of OMERS, one of Canada's largest defined benefit pension plans. Taking on this role at OMERS during the COVID pandemic has given Blake new insights into what it means to lead an organization managing direct investments on five continents, on behalf of its more than 500,000 members. Speaker: Blake Hutcheson, President & Chief Executive Officer, OMERS *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.* *Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*

Tech.eu’s founding editor Robin Wauters talks to Tara Reeves, partner at OMERS Ventures Europe, and Michael Kent, CEO of Azimo and co-founder of Tandem Bank.

Michael Ryder, senior managing director of OMERS Infrastructure and head of Americas, talks energy transition at OMERS and some initiatives it has taken at its Leeward platform. Later in the program, Marco Espinosa of Caxxor discusses a USD 3.3bn port-and-rail logistics project stretching from Mexico to Winnipeg.

On this episode Saar Pikar - Managing Director @ OMERS joins me to share his story! "Provide Value & Be Humble" is his foundation so get ready and enjoy Saar's story!YOUR INTENTION MATTERS...because that's the result you'll tend to get! www.everestperformance.com

TribalScale CEO Sheetal Jaitly is joined by Director of Communications at OMERS Ventures, Jennifer Janson! How is a company built, and what are the key takeaways on how not  to build it? What's the strategy to communicating with journalists, to spreading your company's message across a specific medium? This episode grants us an insightful convo on how to inject purpose into your business, how to be "relentless" in your expectations, and how to utilize your core values. 

Are they coaches, or are they OMers? The answer is – both! We caught up with a team of 11th grade OMers who run a creative problem-solving summer camp called "Makers, Take the Stage!" in western Pennsylvania. It's a mini version of Odyssey of the Mind that the students came up with a few years ago when they didn't want the fun to stop after competing. From Mt. Lebanon High School in western Pennsylvania, we're joined by Nikki LaSota, Anna Mares, Natalie McGee, Melody Reynolds, Ruby Siefken, Leah Vuillemot, and their coach Kerry McGee. They discuss the genesis of "Makers, Take the Stage!" and some of the things they've learned from the younger students they mentor. They also discuss their experiences as OMers, having competed in nearly every different long-term problem and applying their skills in unique, Ranatra-worthy ways.Support the show (http://www.paodyssey.com/podcast)

What do Shopify, Hootsuite, Rover, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, Wattpad, Touchbistro, Purpose Financial - some 40+ disruptive companies have in common?One man - Investment Wizard Mr. John Ruffolo.John is the Founder of OMERS Ventures and the Co-founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators. Over the course of John’s leadership, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, Wattpad, TouchBistro and League. John also formed Platform Investments, OMERS’ innovation arm, where he led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. The Council of Canadian Innovators is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. As Canada’s business council for a 21st-century economy, the Council is made up of CEOs from Canada’s most promising technology companies. The Council’s position is to promote, share, and collaborate with public policy leaders on key policy levers to optimize the growth of Canada’s innovation-based sector (full bio continues below).Over the course of our one-hour conversation, we will ask John to share his vision for the Canadian tech scene, his investment philosophy and how he sees the pandemic impacting our society and future investment opportunities.To learn more about John please reference:1) Globe and Mail: Inside the mind of legendary tech investor John Ruffalo: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob-magazine/article-inside-the-mind-of-legendary-tech-investor-john-ruffolo/2) John Ruffolo @ Canadian Innovators https://www.clubseries.org/speaker/john-ruffolo/

We cross state lines for our biggest episode ever! Coaches Doug MacConnell and Justin Sulsky join us with several of their fourth and fifth grade OMers from the Long Beach Public Schools in New York. Mr. Mac and Mr. Sulsky discuss how they started coaching teams a few years ago – coming in with no past Odyssey experience – and worked their way to bring teams to World Finals both in-person, and virtually this year. Their team members jump in with stories and strategies from creating their solutions. And even the district's assistant superintendent, Dr. Paul Romanelli, was on the call to lend his support!Our conversation emphasizes how an Odyssey of the Mind team is like a family. The young OMers discuss how they are using their Odyssey skills and teamwork to help their community with an Odyssey Angels project. As Mr. Sulsky says, "I think that global issues like racism and the pandemic, only prove more about why we need to nurture the talents of our young kids."Support the show (http://www.paodyssey.com/podcast)

A special edition of PODyssey of the Mind: We're joined by Odyssey alumni from across the state of Pennsylvania for our first ever Virtual Graduation Ceremony. Members of our state board who are past OMers shared their wisdom for our graduating seniors, who had their own stories to add. It was a special evening that we are excited to share with you! Congratulations to the class of 2020!Support the show (http://www.paodyssey.com/podcast)

What do a bubble machine, magnetic silverware, and melted Starbursts have in common? Find out in this week's episode featuring North Penn High School teammates Abby Boquist, Lorna Loughery, and Luca Scott! A graduating high school senior, an incoming high school senior, and a college freshman respectively, these three OMers reflect on how their Odyssey paths brought them together to advance to World Finals in 2019. Support the show (http://www.paodyssey.com/podcast)

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest John Ruffolo, Founder & former CEO of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder & Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators.John is well known around the VC and Tech ecosystem for starting the Ontario Municipal Workers Pension Funds Venture arm in 2011. John has been instrumental in helping develop some of Canada’s biggest tech companies and was an early investor in some of the biggest exits in Canadian tech. Johns portfolio includes companies such as Hootsuite, Hopper, PasswordBox (which sold to Intel), Shopify (which IPOd 2015), Wave (which sold to H&R Block) and countless others.On today's Talk, we ask John about his views on Venture and Growth Capital and how investors should be thinking about valuations during the crisis. We also talk to John about his views on the Canadian tech landscape and how founders should be thinking about building world class companies for the next decade.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guest John Ruffolo, Founder & former CEO of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder & Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators.John is well known around the VC and Tech ecosystem for starting the Ontario Municipal Workers Pension Funds Venture arm in 2011. John has been instrumental in helping develop some of Canada’s biggest tech companies and was an early investor in some of the biggest exits in Canadian tech. Johns portfolio includes companies such as Hootsuite, Hopper, PasswordBox (which sold to Intel), Shopify (which IPOd 2015), Wave (which sold to H&R Block) and countless others.On today's Talk, we ask John about his views on Venture and Growth Capital and how investors should be thinking about valuations during the crisis. We also talk to John about his views on the Canadian tech landscape and how founders should be thinking about building world class companies for the next decade.You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!

Lieutenant Colonel Eleanor Taylor recently completed a remarkable 25-year career as a Regular Force Infantry Officer. Eleanor candidly shares stories of painful and embarrassing failures and why she is grateful for them today. Eleanor also discusses her journey into motherhood, her transition from full-time service to part-time service, and her initial steps into entrepreneurship. To learn more about this podcast and its’ guests, please visit: www.truepatriotlove.com/for-her-country--This podcast was created by True Patriot Love Foundation.True Patriot Love Foundation is Canada’s leading foundation supporting the military and veteran community. The organization funds critical programs across the country to support those in the military who need it most. Through the Captain Nichola Goddard Fund, True Patriot Love provides support specifically for servicewomen, Veteran women and their families. Please consider donating today towards their mission at www.forhercountry.ca--Thanks to RBC for generously supporting this podcast series as presenting sponsor. RBC has been an advocate of True Patriot Love since 2010 and has committed over $1M to support Canada’s military members, Veterans and their families. This episode is sponsored by OMERS.  OMERS has been a proud supporter of True Patriot Love since 2017 and we thank them for sponsoring today’s episode.--Music credit: http://www.oceanicpiano.com

Good morning and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a jumpstart for your week.Equity had a busy last few days, so to help you catch up: Friday's episode was a lot of fun (Duolingo, Figma, OMERS, and aquafaba), and we also dropped an Equity Shot on Saturday, digging into the first major technology earnings week.But this morning we were busy digging through what's happened over the last few days, and what's to come. Here's the rundown:Silver Lake is following Facebook into Jio, at a higher price. Facebook's huge bet on the Indian mobile Internet giant raised eyebrows, especially as the deal could have some interesting net neutrality implications. Silver Lake's follow-on deal only makes Facebook's investment all the more fascinating.Intel wants to buy Moovit.And Uber is pulling out of some Eats markets that cost more than they were worth.It's another huge week of earnings. We expect to see Shopify, Roku, Uber, Beyond Meat, PayPal, Pinterest, Dropbox, Square, Peloton and Lyft. Each company should provide us with notes on how a slice of the startup market is performing.Two funding rounds that caught our eye: Classplus's $9 million Series A as edtech booms, and Oxwash's $1.7 million deal to make on-demand laundry better for the planet.We wrapped asking that's going to come for companies that were still speculative businesses before the slowdown. They're going to vaporize, right?

Good morning and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a jumpstart for your week.Equity had a busy last few days, so to help you catch up: Friday's episode was a lot of fun (Duolingo, Figma, OMERS, and aquafaba), and we also dropped an Equity Shot on Saturday, digging into the first major technology earnings week.But this morning we were busy digging through what's happened over the last few days, and what's to come. Here's the rundown:Silver Lake is following Facebook into Jio, at a higher price. Facebook's huge bet on the Indian mobile Internet giant raised eyebrows, especially as the deal could have some interesting net neutrality implications. Silver Lake's follow-on deal only makes Facebook's investment all the more fascinating.Intel wants to buy Moovit.And Uber is pulling out of some Eats markets that cost more than they were worth.It's another huge week of earnings. We expect to see Shopify, Roku, Uber, Beyond Meat, PayPal, Pinterest, Dropbox, Square, Peloton and Lyft. Each company should provide us with notes on how a slice of the startup market is performing.Two funding rounds that caught our eye: Classplus's $9 million Series A as edtech booms, and Oxwash's $1.7 million deal to make on-demand laundry better for the planet.We wrapped asking that's going to come for companies that were still speculative businesses before the slowdown. They're going to vaporize, right?

OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), has put together a new, $750 million fund to invest in both Europe and North America. The capital vehicle is larger than the group's preceding European and North American funds combined. In 2019 OMERS Ventures announced a €300 million fund Europe-focused […]

Khoi Le, VP Finance at Hopper I chat with Khoi about: His journey from RSM Richter in Montreal to progressive finance and operating roles at real estate and distribution companies, before making the plunge into tech at Hopper. Hopper — what company does and what its all about. His transition into his first finance operating role at a tech company and how it compares to other non-tech companies, including the challenges and opportunities specific to tech that he faces now. Going from his first 100 days as the first finance hire at a 90 person high growth tech company to raising $100M+ in venture capital funding from the likes of Omers, Caisse, Accomplice, BDC and others and scaling the team to 330+ people. The biggest misconception about the finance function within a technology company. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/backbone/message

As the real estate investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension plans, Oxford Properties Group is one of the world’s premier real estate investment, development and management companies. They manage over $60 billion worth of real estate assets, with a global portfolio spanning over 100 million square feet in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the recent opening of Hudson Yards in New York, the largest private real estate development in the United States. In this episode, Jeremy interviews Michael Turner about the company, its Toronto roots, and the phenomenal scale of projects it currently manages abroad and closer to home.

The Empire Club of Canada Presents: Blake Hutcheson In Conversation With Bruce Flatt On Real Estate and the Global Investment Landscape: The State Of The Industry And Where It Will Go From Here Toronto is one of the fastest growing cities in North America and has become an international development hub. No-one knows this better than Bruce Flatt, CEO, Brookfield Asset Management and Blake Hutcheson, President and Chief Pension Officer, OMERS and former CEO of Oxford Properties. These captains of the real estate and investment industry globally come to the podium of the Empire Club on November 28th to engage in a rare fireside chat on where the industry stands today and how it will continue to have a major impact on the economies of Canada, the United States and globally. Will real property continue to play such a prominent role in this city's and country's economy and is the present model sustainable going forward? Where else in the world do the best opportunities exist? What asset classes other than real estate are the best buy today? Where is the iconic Brookfield platform focused and what does the future look like for this global powerhouse? Will OMERS reflect upon, mimic, or refute the Brookfield global approach? This is a must attend event for any financial analyst, economist, real property professional or global investor who wants to better understand how leaders within these world class platforms make decisions and what the future has in store for two of Canada's most impressive investment platforms. Speakers: Bruce Flatt, Chief Executive Officer, Brookfield Asset Management Blake Hutcheson, President and Chief Pension Officer, OMERS *The content presented is free of charge but please note that the Empire Club of Canada retains copyright. Neither the speeches themselves nor any part of their content may be used for any purpose other than personal interest or research without the explicit permission of the Empire Club of Canada.* *Views and Opinions Expressed Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the speakers or panelists are those of the speakers or panelists and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official views and opinions, policy or position held by The Empire Club of Canada.*

John Ruffolo is the Founder of OMERS Ventures, the venture arm of OMERS. John is also the Co-Founder of the Council of Canadian Innovators. John sits on the board of a number of leading innovation based organizations including Hootsuite, Ontario Centres of Excellence, and Ether Capital. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/georges-khalife/support

You can become a patron of the podcast on Patreon by following this link https://www.patreon.com/Jazzviolinpodcast Becoming a patron of the podcast means that you are directly helping the podcast continue. This is a chance for you to help out with the running costs of the podcast, if you feel like you get a lot out of my interviews you can be a part of it by donating a small amount of money. I will be creating one extra monthly show specifically for my patrons where I listen back to previous shows and chat about some key points that my guests bring up. There are so many great ideas and concepts that these amazing musicians bring up and I would like to share with you some of my favourites! This is great for beginner jazz violinists who want a little direction once in a while. This episode is sponsored by Ithaca Strings. Ithaca Strings www.ithacastring.com/ Ithaca Strings IS Eric Aceto, a luthier, violinist and producer of the ISI dual pickup system. This system is by far the best and most honest sounding violin pickup system on the market right now! It blends an Electret microphone with a bridge pickup, both attaching to a stereo jack out under the chin rest. This means you get the solid sound of the pick up blended with the sweeter sound of the Electret mic without heavy cables attached to your instrument. Eric also makes amazing instruments and has made both pickups and violins for Jean Luc Ponty, Zach Brock, Matt Glaser and many other amazing musicians. Omer Ashano Omer Ashano is a Israeli violinist based in New York. He has his own unique style, taking influence from Didier Lockwood, post-bop and music from Africa. He has a great sense of sound and rhythm and his tone is amazing! We chatted over skype, sorry for any glitches in the audio we did have some technical issues but overall a good sound anyway.   The music at the beginning of the episode is Omers original tune 'Pnima' and 'Limehouse Blues from a recent recording of Omer on Denis Pol's new album 'New York' The music art the end is 'Whisper Not' by Benny Golson, recorded by my band Latchepen.

In this episode, I continue working my way through the peoples, places, and in this episode, the things found in the book of Exodus. Like I promised last week, in this episode I circle back to both date palms and oases, as seen earlier in the book. Then, forging ahead, I cover reeds, as seen in the Sea of Reeds, but also in the beginning of the book when Moses was placed in a papyrus basket among the reeds. I also cover the dry measurement known as an omer and the Sinai Peninsula. After listening, let me know what you think.

You can find our e-bulletins/blog posts on some of the cases covered in this episode here: Omers v Tesco: https://sites-herbertsmithfreehills.vuturevx.com/34/19250/compose-email/high-court-orders-tesco-to-disclose-sfo-documents-in-s.90a-fsma-shareholder-class-action.asp Kaefer Aislamientos v AMS Mexico: https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2019/01/29/court-of-appeal-gives-guidance-on-how-to-apply-jurisdiction-test-laid-down-by-supreme-court/ SPI North v Swiss Port International: https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2019/01/29/court-of-appeal-confirms-defendants-not-obliged-to-make-enquiries-of-third-parties-before-pleading-non-admissions/ Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton: https://sites-herbertsmithfreehills.vuturevx.com/34/19267/compose-email/court-of-appeal-decision-in-manchester-building-society-v-grant-thornton--clarification-of--advice--vs--information--distinction-when-applying-saamco.asp Sign up to our banking litigation e-bulletins here: bit.ly/2BRNe0I

Brian Kobus discusses the types of investment opportunities OMERS focuses on, and how to address the 'scale up' problem in Canada.

The Oxford Properties Story: Building a $50 Billion Global Real Estate Success

The Oxford Properties Story: Building a $50 Billion Global Real Estate Success

Welcome to the latest episode of On the Air with Palantir, a long-form (ad-hoc) podcast by Palantir.net where we go in-depth on topics related to the business of web design and development. In this episode, Allison Manley is joined by Juan Daniel Flores of Rootstack, and Juan dives into the Drupal world of Latin and Central America. TRANSCRIPT Allison Manley: Hi, everyone. Welcome to On the Air With Palantir, a podcast by Palantir.net where we go in-depth on topics related to web design and development. I'm Allison Manley, Sales and Marketing manager. Today, my guest is Juan Daniel Flores of Rootstack. Juan spent some time with me a few months back telling me about all the exciting things happening with Drupal in Latin America. Here we are at DrupalCon Baltimore 2017-   Juan D. Flores: That's right. AM: ... in the convention center at the corner of Pratt and Charles Street. I am sitting with ... JDF: Juan Flores from Rootstack from Panama. AM: From Panama. You came all the way from Panama. JDF: Yes, sunny, tropical Panama. Yeah. The temperature is quite a good a change for me. AM: Is it? JDF: I was born in Colombia, in Bogota, actually. The temperature is more or less like this. I really miss the cool temperature, because in Panama, sometimes it gets really, really hot. AM: Well, we're welcome to give you a nice, rainy break, so ... JDF: Yeah, I appreciate it. AM: Is this your first Drupal Con? JDF: Yeah, this is my first personal, my first Drupal Con in the States, but we have been attending Drupal Con like, since five years ago. We are three partners, and they do most of the traveling. AM: Okay. Excellent. How long have you been involved in Drupal? JDF: We have been involved with Drupal like from seven years ago right after college. We graduated, and we got our degrees, and we started the company. We started with Drupal right away. We learned about Drupal, actually, by a friend in the college. It was like we saw the tool. We saw all the things that you could do, and we were like hooked up, like, "We have to do this. We have to use this." It's been quite a long time. AM: Wow. That's great. Were you self-taught or ... JDF: Totally self-taught. In the university, they teach you certain things, but to be, to thrive in this world, you really have to be very proficient in learning by yourself. You have to be active. You have to be checking what's going in the world. Thanks to our desire to know more, we picked it up and here we are seven years later. AM: And here you are. Glad to have you. You call yourselves the Drupaleros, sort of jokingly. JDF: Yeah, that's the term we use for Drupal. That's in Spanish. It's a term that we use in general. AM: Universally. JDF: Yeah. Universal. AM: So that's not just the Panamanian- JDF: Exactly. Exactly. AM: Okay. I feel like there's a presentation next year for just the Spanish-speaking Drupaleros. I feel like there's some sort of presentation you should make around that and what's happening in Latin and Central America. JDF: That will be interesting. Even though like I feel that we're a little bit late to the party, in terms of doing stuff, there has been a lot of work that has been done by Latin developers. For example, there's Jesus Olivas, which is ... Well, and the team from We Know It, that they have been working hard with the Drupal console project, which is picking up, really, a great amount of fans. He gave a talk yesterday. He's from Mexico. There's another guy. His name is Omers. He's also from Mexico. The other guys, Anso and Kenya are from Costa Rica. AM: How many would you say there are total between Latin and Central America, you know, that you keep in touch with on a regular basis working in Drupal? JDF: It's hard to tell to know a certain number because, unfortunately, the community there is like a little bit shy. But I can say that, for example, if I can measure events that we have gone to, for example, the DrupalCon in Costa Rica, or the DrupalCon Central America that we did a couple years ago, I would say we could see around 400, but it's hard to ... They show up for events. There are a lot of people that show at events. It's the the building the community that's hard. AM: How did you start out? Tell me about the beginnings of your business, then. JDF: We were in college. One of the partners approach to us. He told us like, "Hey, I think we should do this. We should make a company for our own." We are good, each one, in our own stuff. For example, one of the partners is very good at business development, organizing. The other one is very good at developing. He's a very strong skill set. I'm more like the creative one in terms of design, in terms of implementing the science. We're sort like a match in terms of our skills. We started that in 2010, and we slowly grew. We recruited guys fresh out of college from our own university. Then, we started to build the team. One of the things that I have heard here is that it's hard to find Drupal developers. Which if it's hard for you, it's harder for us. It's been years of finding good people that we think that can be a good fit and training them. I think there's a value in that, in home-growing the developers. Because if they aren't there, you have to make them. AM: Right. How big are you now? JDF: We are 25. AM: Oh, so you went from 3 to 25 in just seven years. JDF: Yeah. AM: Wow. JDF: We have 18 developers. Then marketing sales, designers, so yeah. We hope to keep growing, and yeah. Basically, the objective is to be bigger, to go for more services. Even though we started as a Drupal shop, now we're doing more stuff. We're doing automations. We're doing mobile development. We're doing interesting projects in terms of challenges. For example, last year we did a project for a company here. Basically, we did a mobile app in Ionic that you could turn on, turn off, set the temperature of your spa machine. They sell spa machines that have a wifi antennae. You could be in your office, and you say, "Oh, I'm going home." You start the spa. You set the temperature. When you get there, there it is. AM: That's excellent. JDF: Yeah. AM: That's quite a range of services that you do provide already, even if you feel like you want to add more. JDF: Yeah, yeah. It is to find projects that are challenging and interesting. That's the what we're looking for. AM: What would you say is your main client base or what vertical? JDF: Basically, companies that split in two, in terms of half the company works with agencies here in the States providing Drupal services, so back-end, front-end development, and the other half of the team works with local clients. In terms of local and regional clients, our main verticals are government, banks, certain industries, like ... You have big clients like supermarket chains, people that are looking for very complex web projects, or automations, or yeah, that kind of solutions that we can provide. Yeah, that's what we are ... The companies, like two companies in terms of what we focus on. AM: Fair enough. Your first DrupalCon, what do you think so far? JDF: It's been great. I mean, the level of the sessions have been great. I really like the fact that people are very open to talk, very friendly. I know that in our conferences that, for example, I have been, it's harder to meet people, to find a point of conversation where you can start. But here, it has been great. The parties have been great, also. They provide a good space for talking. For example, yesterday, I was with the guys at Lullabot. They were super friendly, super fun. We have a lot of fun. Yeah, I really like. It's right what they say about the Drupal community. It's very open and very ... Well, even though what has happened recently, I think the people here are very good people, you know? AM: I would agree with that. JDF: Well, I hope that you go next year to Nashville. AM: I will be there in Nashville. I would love to go to Costa Rica if I could swing it, but- JDF: Yeah, so there in August. It's super fun. There's a good vibe always. We always do some, like after the camp, we always do like a trip to an island, or a beach, or- AM: Forest. Something. JDF: Yeah, very relaxing. AM: Sounds amazing. JDF: You can add your vacations and you do a- AM: Any others to look forward to or ... JDF: That's the ones I think right now the top of my head. AM: All right. JDF: I think Mexico is organizing one, too. AM: Fantastic. JDF: Yeah. AM: Look forward to it. JDF: Yeah. AM: Thank you so much, Juan. JDF: Yeah, look forward to seeing you. Thank you. AM: Thanks for listening. Follow us on Twitter at Palantir or read our blog at palantir.net. Have a great day.

Michelle Killoran graduated from Queen's University where she studied Commerce. She went on to work at Deloitte in Financial Advisory. In 2016, Michelle joined the investment team at OMERS ventures. Michelle talks about Canadian Venture Capital, healthcare tech, and her debut as a child star. Reach out to Michelle on Twitter.Stay up to date with Witty through our website, LinkedIn or email us at podcastwitty@gmail.com. Support the show (http://wittypod.com)

Aaron Hirschhorn is the founder, CEO and “Top Dog" of DogVacay, the leading online and mobile pet sitting company. DogVacay connects pet parents in need of services with more than 25,000 vetted and insured pet caregivers in 10,000 cities across the country. Founded in March 2012 and based in Santa Monica, CA, the company has over 80 employees and has raised $47M from investors including Omers, Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Prior to DogVacay, Aaron spent several years in venture capital and technology, working at Monitor Group, Upfront Ventures, and Monitor Ventures. Previously, Aaron was an analyst at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors.  In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How did Aaron come to found one of the startup hits to come out of LA? In the beginning what was the harder element the demand or the supply side? 2.) How did Aaron know when he had achieved product market fit with DogVacay? What were the signs and how did he follow this up? How did Aaaron react to VCs laughing at his concept and how did he stay energised and positive? 3.) How was the fundraising process for Aaron with DogVacay and Benchmark, Andreesen and First Round? How can founders look to control the dialogue? How many investors should founders look to target? What makes Aaron want and not want a particular investor? 4.) What business fundamentally work in the on demand economy and what don't ? How should marketplace founders be approaching the issue of unit economics and should growth still be the priority? 5.) What is it like having Bill Gurley as a broad member ? What will be the enabler that will allow DogVacy to achieve that market penetration required?   Items Mentioned In Today's Show:    Aaron's Fave Blog Or Newsletter: Bill Gurley, Jason Calacanis: Inside   As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Aaron on Twitter here! If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!   The Twenty Minute VC is brought to you by Leesa, the Warby Parker or TOMS shoes of the mattress industry. Lees have done away with the terrible mattress showroom buying experience by creating a luxury premium foam mattress that is order completely online and ships for free to your doorstep. The 10 inch mattress comes in all sizes and is engineered with 3 unique foam layers for a universal, adaptive feel, including 2 inches of memory foam and 2 inches of a really cool latex foam called Avena, design to keep you cool. All Leesa mattresses are 100% US or UK made and for every 10 mattresses they sell, they donate one to a shelter. Go to Leesa.com/VC and enter the promo code VC75 to get $75 off!