2024 SBAI Toronto IDEAS Breakfast

Ben Samild

CIO, Future Fund

Ben Samild was appointed Chief Investment Officer of the Future Fund in August 2023, having previously served as DCIO, Portfolio Construction.

As CIO, Ben leads the Future Fund’s investment team investing A$250bn across all asset classes and geographies, with a particular focus on stewarding the Fund’s joined-up whole portfolio approach.

He joined the Future Fund in October 2013, as Director, Alternatives, following a 10 year career in the hedge fund industry, and 4 years as Head of Investment Strategy at LUCRF Super.

Ben is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.

Ben completed a 6 year undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne majoring in behavioural finance, psychology and history, and has a Masters of Applied Finance.

Michael Beaton

Head of Portfolio Construction, Polar Asset Management Partners

Michael works within the Office of the CIO and is responsible for a range of portfolio and strategy-level analysis and initiatives, ranging from the incubation of new strategies and PM development to portfolio efficiency efforts. Prior to his current role, Michael developed a systematic trend-following strategy within Polar and worked on the Fixed Income team.

Prior to joining Polar, Michael was a managing director at the Carlyle Group responsible for liquid systematic strategies. Prior to Carlyle, Michael was a partner at Breton Hill Capital, where he traded for the global macro fund. Mr. Beaton has also worked at Macquarie Bank in their commodity group and as a fund analyst at Diversified Global Asset Management.

Michael graduated from the University of Toronto in 2004 with a master’s in mathematical finance.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.