2025 International Best Practices Forum

Stewart Beck is the former President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Prior to joining APF Canada, Stewart served as the Canadian High Commissioner to the Republic of India with concurrent accreditation to the Kingdom of Bhutan and to Nepal. He joined Canada’s Department of External Affairs and International Trade (now Global Affairs Canada) in 1982 and served abroad in the United States, Taiwan, and the People’s Republic of China.

In Ottawa, he held a number of progressively more senior positions, including Director General of the North Asia Bureau, Director General Responsible for Senior Management and Rotational Assignments, and Assistant Deputy Minister for International Business Development, Investment, and Innovation. He was Consul General in Shanghai and prior to his posting to India, he was Consul General in San Francisco.

A Principal within Eckler’s Investment Consulting practice, Jason joined the firm in 2006. He provides investment strategy advice to a wide range of institutional clients, including DB and DC pension plans, endowment/foundations, single family offices, corporations and non-profit organizations.

In addition to consulting responsibilities, Jason is a member of the Investment Research Steering Committee which oversees investment manager and strategy research.

Jason’s specific area of expertise is alternative investments including infrastructure, real estate, private equity and private debt strategies.

An active volunteer within the pension and investment community, Jason has authored several articles and presented on investment strategy at numerous conferences. He is currently a member of the Canadian Investment Review Advisory Board, a volunteer on the CNIB’s National Pension Committee and a director with the National Ballet School Foundation.

Jason graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1999 with an Economics degree. He has also earned the designations of Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst.

Michel is an Associate Partner within the Investment Consulting practice of Aon. His responsibilities include advising clients on matters related to investment, policy, and governance of institutional assets. 

With over 30 years of experience, Michel has significant experience working closely with pension plans and foundations and is involved in all aspects related to investment consulting, particularly in terms of portfolio construction, performance monitoring and manager searches. He is also an expert in portfolio compliance monitoring, in the development and revision of investment policy statements, in optimizing asset allocation and in the application of responsible investment principles.

Michel earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in finance and international business from McGill University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder (CFA). He has also earned the CFA ESG Investing certification.

Christy Clark is the longest-serving female Premier in Canadian history and the only woman in Canada ever to be re-elected as Premier. She has made an indelible mark on the Canadian political landscape.

She led British Columbia through a period of remarkable economic growth, fiscal responsibility, and job creation.

Under Ms. Clark's leadership, British Columbia was Canada's economic leader for three consecutive years, a feat not accomplished since the 1960s.

BC was first in job creation among the Canadian provinces. She pulled her province out of a massive deficit to deliver five consecutive balanced budgets. When she retired from office, British Columbia was triple AAA rated and on track to eliminate its operating debt by 2020, a milestone not achieved since 1976.

She championed oil and gas, securing the largest private sector investment in Canadian history, the Shell Canada LNG Plant, which will ship its first gas to Asia in 2024. She is also responsible for turning Site C, a massive hydro project that had been on the books for 50 years, into reality.

Her legacy is marked by a deep commitment to planning for future generations, leaving behind a province with a diversified economy, expanded market opportunities, a visionary clean energy plan, billions of dollars invested in infrastructure, and a significant reduction in the public debt burden to be carried by future generations of British Columbians.

Ms. Eisenhower is well-known for her work as a policy analyst, much of which has been focused on national security, and related strategic issues. She has brought this work to light in her writing as an essayist, op-ed writer, biographer, and editor. She has authored hundreds of op-eds for newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. Her articles have also appeared in the National Academy of Sciences’ Issues in Science and Technology and the Naval Institute’s Proceedings. Early in her career, she wrote humor for The Saturday Evening Post.

Her most recent book has received critical acclaim nationally and internationally: How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions (Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St Martin’s Publishing Group: August 11, 2020).

Eisenhower has provided analysis for CNN International, MSNBC, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, FOX News, CBS Sunday Morning in an interview with Rita Braver, the BBC, and all three major network morning programs. On the lighter side, she has appeared on the Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher, in addition to many other well-remembered programs such as the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Hardball with Chris Mathews, Nightline with Ted Koppel, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, This Week with David Brinkley, and CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.

Beyond the well-known range of current affairs and news programs, Eisenhower has been seen as a “talking head” on documentaries, such as Oliver North’s War Stories, Sony Pictures Why We Fight and David Hoffman’s Sputnik Mania. Most recently she has been interviewed for several documentaries on D-Day.

In 1986, Susan Eisenhower founded The Eisenhower Group, Inc., a Washington, DC, based consulting company. For more than thirty years, the company has provided strategic counsel on business development, public affairs, and communications projects. Through the Eisenhower Group, Inc., Ms. Eisenhower does extensive work in executive training on strategic leadership, a lecture topic she presents to many corporate and organizational venues.

In addition to her work through EGI, Susan Eisenhower has also had a distinguished career as a policy analyst. She is Chairman Emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute where she served as president twice. Currently she holds a year-long seminar on strategy for competitively selected students through the Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College. She has also been a Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics as well as a Distinguished Fellow at the Nixon Center, now called the Center for National Interest.

During different administrations, she served as a member of three blue ribbon commissions for the Department of Energy: The Baker-Cutler Commission on U.S. Funded Non-Proliferation Programs in Russia; The Sununu-Meserve Commission on Nuclear Energy; and the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which released its findings on a comprehensive program for the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. She is currently a member of MIT’s Energy Initiative Advisory Board and former co-chairman of NEAC, the Secretary of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Board.

In 1998 Susan Eisenhower was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences Standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control, where she served for eight years. After as many years on the NASA Advisory Council, she became a member of the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force.

Today, Ms. Eisenhower serves on a number of charitable and corporate advisory boards.

As a director of climate research on the Sustainable Investment Team, Chris spearheads a collaborative initiative between Wellington Management and Woodwell Climate Research Center (WCRC) to integrate climate science and asset management. This alliance, launched in 2018, is focused on creating investor tools and insights to better understand how and where climate change may impact global capital markets. He is also the portfolio manager for Wellington’s Climate Resilience strategy.

Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2014, Chris was head of portfolio management – Americas within the Investment Solutions Group at State Street Global Advisors. Before joining State Street, he held a number of different investment roles at Fidelity Investments and Pyramis Global Advisors beginning in. Previously, he was a CPA with Kaplan, Moran, Digennaro in the public accounting field.

Chris earned both his BA with a concentration in accounting and his MBA with a concentration in finance from Bryant University. Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Alternatives Investment Analyst designations, and he is a CPA. He is also a professor of finance at Bryant University.

David Hedalen is Head of Private Markets Research at Aviva Investors. He leads a team tasked with delivering both thematic and fundamental research to the various investment desks across Private Markets which has circa $55bn AUM. As part of the senior team, he provides challenge and corroboration, offering insights into strategy formation and portfolio construction. David and his team also develop and maintain proprietary models that underpin investment decisions and market outlooks.

Before joining Aviva Investors, David was Head of UK & European Real Estate Investment Strategy at Standard Life/abrdn, covering both research and strategy functions across the real estate business. Prior to that, he worked in London and Stockholm for IPD (now part of MSCI Real Assets), managing accounts and analysis for several large asset management houses in Europe.

David has been a member of numerous industry bodies, including serving as Chair of both the INREV Performance Measurement Committee and the INREV Asset Level Index. He has also been a member of the IPF Research Steering Committee and part of PDIG, the Property Derivatives Interest Group.

He holds a degree in Geography from the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada, an MSc in Spatial Planning and the Built Environment from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as an MBA (with distinction) from Alliance Manchester Business School, UK.

Marie-Lucie Morin was Executive Director at the World Bank from 2010 to 2013. Previously Ms. Morin pursued a 30-year career in the Federal Public Service. She was appointed National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister and Associate Secretary to the Cabinet in 2008, having served as Deputy Minister for International Trade and Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Earlier in her career with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ms. Morin completed assignments in San Francisco, Jakarta, London, and Moscow. In 1997 she was appointed Ambassador to Norway with accreditation to Iceland.

Ms. Morin was named Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2012 and became a member of the Order of Canada in 2016.

Ms. Morin serves on Corporate and not-for-profit Boards. She is a member of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA).

In February 2020, Dr. Christopher Sands accepted a federal appointment as the third director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, the largest research program on Canadian political and economic affairs outside Canada. The Wilson Center is a congressionally chartered, scholarship driven, and rigorously bipartisan research center within the Smithsonian Institution. In 2023, Dr. Sands marks 30 years at leading U.S. think tanks, having previously directed Canadian research at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Hudson Institute.

He is an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and directs the Hopkins Center for Canadian Studies founded in 1960 by the late Canadian Nobel Laureate in Economics Robert Mundell. He previously taught in the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA and the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC and earned a PhD in International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. Although frequently mistaken for a Canadian, he was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.

Heechung Sung is the Head of Natural Capital at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Heech is leading the organisation’s investment strategy across agriculture, forestry and broader nature-based solutions to accelerate and contribute to the decarbonisation pathway for Australia. Heech has more than 25 years’ experience in financial and professional services covering sectors including infrastructure, transport, real-estate and agriculture. Heech has previously worked at Macquarie Group, HMC Capital, Boeing Australia and Qantas Airways. Heech holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from University of Technology Sydney.

David Tiley is Managing Director, Public Equities, and Head of Fundamental Equities at AIMCo.  He leads a team of portfolio managers and research analysts focused on identifying high conviction valuation discrepancies across the globe.  Prior to joining AIMCo in 2013, David was Head of International Investments for a global value investment team at one of Canada’s largest institutional asset managers.  He is currently a board member of FutEra Power Corp., and Chair, Granting Committee of the AIMCo Foundation for Financial Education.

David holds a BA (Honours) and MA in Political Economy from Carleton University, a BA in Asian & International Studies from Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia, and an M.Sc. in Accounting from Western International University.  He also holds the Accredited Director (Acc.Dir.) and Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) designations. He has been a member of the Business Council of Alberta’s Energy & Environment Committee since March 2021.