George L. Cooke is Chair of the Board of Directors of OMERS Administration Corporation. He began serving as Chair on October 1, 2013. As Chair, Mr. Cooke also serves as ex officio (non-voting) member on the Board’s Audit & Actuarial, Governance & Risk, Human Resources, Investment, and Appeals Committees. Mr. Cooke is also a member of the AC/SC Joint Council.

In 2012, Mr. Cooke retired after a tenure of more than 20 years as the CEO and a Director of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, one of Canada’s oldest and largest general insurance companies. During that time, he served as both an Executive Vice President and Director of E-L Financial Corporation (The Dominion’s parent).

Mr. Cooke has also served as a Director and Chair of The Insurance Bureau of Canada, Director of The Facility Association, and Director and Chair of the Property and Casualty Insurance Corporation. Other past positions include Director of Empire Life Insurance Company, Director of Atomic Energy Canada Limited, Director of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Director of Hydro One, Board Chair of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and Governor, Curling Canada.

Mr. Cooke enjoys a profound interest in public policy and, earlier in his career, was a Special Advisor on Policy to the Honourable Robert F. Nixon, Ontario's former Deputy Premier and Treasurer. In 2018, he and two colleagues completed a report for Ontario's Minister of Finance on financial services regulation, which led to the creation of The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).

Mr. Cooke has a MBA and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens University. He is the recipient of an Honourary Doctor of Laws Degree (LLD) from Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario. He also was awarded an HCIP (Honourary Chartered Insurance Professional) designation by the Insurance Institute of Canada.

Mr. Cooke is a former Director and President of the Empire Club of Canada. He serves as a member of the Dean of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, Queen’s University. He also has been involved with a number of not-for-profit organizations including Loran Scholars Foundation (where he continues to be a mentor) and Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCI). His work with SCI Ontario helped him earn the Ken Langford Honourary Lifetime Membership. In 2014, he was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame.

Mr. Wetlaufer has over 35 years of experience as an institutional investor. Most recently, he was responsible for leading the CPP Investment Board’s Public Market Investments department, investing over CAD$200 billion globally in publicly traded assets and related derivatives. Prior to that, he held executive roles in the investment management industry, including Group Chief Investment Officer, International at Fidelity Investments, Chief Investment Officer at Putnam Investments and Managing Director at Cadence Capital Management.

Mr. Wetlaufer provides counsel as a director, advisor, and investor to a range of large public to smaller private companies, with a focus on technology and financial sectors. He serves on the Board of Directors of the TMX Group (Toronto), Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, Niyogin Fintech (Mumbai) and Enterra Solutions (Princeton, NJ). He has also served on the Board of the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and is past president of the CFA Society, Boston.

 

Sharon Pel was appointed Chair of OPTrust’s Board of Trustees, effective November 3, 2020. Ms. Pel was first named to the Board by the Government of Ontario in February 2017 and previously served in the role of Vice-Chair. She has more than 35 years’ experience as a strategic business advisor, with extensive expertise in governance, securities regulatory and policy matters, and corporate, commercial and securities law. Previously, Ms. Pel held the role of SVP, Group Head Legal and Business Affairs at TMX Group until 2015, where she was responsible for advising the TMX board and executive management on all aspects of its governance, operations and legal and regulatory affairs. Prior to that, she was a partner at Torys LLP. Ms. Pel currently provides consulting services through her firm, Inglewood Advisory Services.

Ms. Pel is on the Board of Canadian Feed the Children (Chair from June 2016 – November 2020) and sat on the Board of IPL Plastics Inc. from June 2018 – October 2020 (member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee from 2018 – 2020 and the Independent Committee for the going-private transaction in 2020). She has a BA from the University of Toronto and an LLB from the University of Ottawa. She is an Institute Certified Director (ICD.D) from the Institute of Corporate Directors and holds a Certificate in Pension Law from Osgoode Hall Law School.

 

Ms. Johanne Brossard, MBA, ICD.D, is an accomplished senior executive and corporate director with more than 30 years in the financial services industry in Canada, Europe and Japan. Ms. Brossard is currently a Corporate Director at Currency Exchange International where she is the Chair of the Governance Committee and Peoples Group. Previously, Ms. Brossard served on the boards of Infrastructure Ontario and Equitable Bank.

Her most recent role was President and CEO of Bank West, a subsidiary of Desjardins, from 2013 to 2014 and as Desjardins’ Senior Vice-President of National Online Banking Development where she was instrumental in setting and implementing the turnaround plan for Bank West and relaunched as Zag Bank. Prior to that, she served three years as President and Chief Executive Officer of ResMor Trust/Ally Canada Company, a federally regulated trust company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc. USA.

In 1996 Ms. Brossard joined ING Direct where she served in various senior level positions over a 14-year period in Amsterdam, Japan and France, and where she held the position of President and CEO of ING Bank of Canada (ING Direct Canada and its subsidiaries) from 2003 to 2008. At ING, she played a key role in the in establishing the global ING Direct digital banking model, setting a new strategic direction for retail banks in Canada, launching ING Direct France and leading the transformational plan at ING Direct Japan. Ms. Brossard received her Master of Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and has a General Management Certificate from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

 

Bill Hatanaka is the Board Chair of Ontario Health. He is the former President and CEO of the OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust), a defined benefit pension plan, jointly sponsored by the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Prior to this, Mr. Hatanaka was the Group Head of Wealth Management, TD Bank Group, with responsibility for building TD’s Global Wealth and Asset Management business. He also served as the inaugural Chair of the Bank’s Diversity Leadership Council. Preceding his time at TD, Mr. Hatanaka was the Chief Operating Officer, Wealth Management, Royal Bank of Canada.

He is a former Chair of the Investment Industry Association of Canada. Mr. Hatanaka has also served on several public boards including the Toronto Montreal Exchange (TMX) and TD Ameritrade.

Originally from Bathurst, New Brunswick, he holds an MA in Global Diplomacy from the University of London, England. He has also completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, and has received the Institute of Corporate Directors, ICD.D designation.

Mr. Hatanaka currently serves on the boards of ICE NGX Canada Ltd. and Invesco Canada. He is an Honorary Governor at York University, and an Advisor to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.

Prior to entering the financial and public sectors, he played professional football in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

 

Lynne is a seasoned senior executive with wide-ranging experience spanning 25+ years in Canadian financial services. She has a broad range of both strategic and operational experience and is also an experienced Board Director on both for-profit and not-for-profit boards.

Lynne started her career as a journalist, writing for both the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of Canada. She joined BMO in 1993 in the Communications group and took on increasingly senior roles in marketing and communications, gaining her first executive post in 1999.

She left the bank in 2000 to run a Toronto-based brand strategy and design agency but was invited to return to BMO in 2004. She became SVP Retail Banking in 2005 and led sales force effectiveness, retail banking strategy, branch network planning, ATM channel strategy, client experience, digital banking, marketing and data. She was recruited to join CIBC in early 2013 as SVP Retail Banking Strategy and Planning.

In her time with CIBC, Lynne created new sales models, transformed the bank’s branch network, created a blueprint for digital banking investment and innovation, led the turnaround of client satisfaction and loyalty and crafted an updated brand strategy. She was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2017 and took on leadership of the bank’s credit card and payments business. Lynne retired from CIBC in the spring of 2020.

Lynne served as a Director on the boards of First Caribbean International Bank, OBSI (Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments) and the Canadian Marketing Association.

 

Clio Straram currently serves as the Head of Indigenous Banking at BMO Financial Group (BMO). Prior to joining BMO, Ms. Straram held roles at another financial institution, including in Indigenous Banking, where she was responsible for the regions of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. She brings an established track record that includes managing on-reserve financing of infrastructure projects and First Nations-owned economic development corporations. Previously, she worked at BMO in several progressive roles, including as Manager, Business Development in the Indigenous Banking Unit.

Ms. Straram is a member of Fond du Lac First Nation in Saskatchewan, with an MBA from Simon Fraser University, and a master’s in finance from London Business School. She is active in the community and currently serves on the Boards of Directors at Metrolinx and Anishnawbe Health Toronto.

As an advisory board member to Massey Henry, Clio is keen to help facilitate key connections and drive the inclusion of Indigenous leaders in executive roles.