The Canadian Leadership Congress

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.

James C. Davis is Chief Investment Officer of OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest pension funds with assets of $18.4 billion.

Mr. Davis leads OPTrust’s investment strategy and oversees its diversified portfolio spanning the globe with public market, private market, infrastructure, and real estate assets.

Mr. Davis has over 25 years of strategic investment planning and leadership experience, including proven results in liability driven investing and portfolio design. Most recently, he held the role of Vice President, Strategy & Asset Mix and Chief Economist at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’).

Before Teachers’, Mr. Davis was Vice President & Head, Global Fixed Income & Currencies at a large Canadian asset manager.

Don Ezra (now happily retired, but still intellectually active) is the former co-chair of
global consulting for Russell Investments, responsible for institutional relationships
around the world. After retirement he served on the Investment Committee of the
Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, and is today a director of Lifeworks Investment
Management Ltd and a member of the Advisory Board of the World Pension Summit.

In addition to speaking at conferences around the world and serving on many editorial
advisory boards, Don is a widely published author in the investment industry. His best-
known book is Pension Fund Excellence (1998). Among many awards, he received the
Award from the Employee Benefit Research Institute in 2004 for “extraordinary lifetime
contributions to Americans’ benefit security”.

His focus these days is on individuals rather than institutional investment, and his book Life Two and his website donezra.com are devoted to helping people create their happiest years after they graduate from full-time work.

Jim Keohane was President and CEO of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension plan from 2011 until his recent retirement in March 2020. He joined HOOPP in 1999, bringing more than 25 years of institutional investing experience with several national firms.

Jim was the architect of HOOPP’s Liability Driven Investment strategy and is considered a global expert in this area. He is a strong advocate for collective pension schemes and has championed several studies on the topic.

After completing his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Ottawa, Jim obtained his MBA at Queen's University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has completed the Directors Education Program (Rotman School of Business) at the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Jim is on the Board of Queen’s University and is the Chairman of the Investment Committee and Chairman of the Pension Committee. Most recently, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) added Jim as a member of their board of directors.

He is a former member of the Board of the Canadian Coalition on Good Governance, and previously served on the Board of Home Capital. He was selected as a member of the Ontario Technical Advisory Panel on Retirement Income Security.