The city of Edmonton skyline.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Alberta Investment Management Corp. has added former chief investment officer Sandra Lau to its board of directors, as the government-owned pension fund manager rebuilds its leadership team after a mass purge late last year.
Ms. Lau was AIMCo’s CIO for less than a year, starting in 2022. She retired in 2023 after 24 years at the Crown corporation, including a stint leading AIMCo’s fixed-income investments.
She was succeeded by Marlene Puffer, who left the institution last September. AIMCo has been without a full-time CIO since then.
Ms. Lau is the sixth member of a revamped AIMCo board led by chair Stephen Harper, the former prime minister.
“Sandra Lau brings both exceptional skills and a unique perspective, and I am pleased to welcome her back to AIMCo as a member of the board,” Mr. Harper said in a statement announcing her appointment.
In November, the Alberta government abruptly dismissed AIMCo’s entire board of directors, its chief executive officer and three other senior executives after a clash over how the $180-billion fund manager should be run. Finance Minister Nate Horner said the government felt AIMCo needed “a major reset,” including a sharper focus on controlling costs.
When Mr. Harper was chosen as board chair, three of the directors who had been dismissed were reappointed: former private-equity executive Jason Montemurro, real estate investor Bob Dhillon and former Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan CEO Jim Keohane.
The province also gave the deputy minister of finance – currently Katherine White – a permanent seat on AIMCo’s board.
On Wednesday, the government published a mandate letter that Mr. Horner sent to Mr. Harper, dated Jan. 22.
The letter outlines the pillars of a “renewed mandate” for AIMCo, largely affirming core aspects of the legislation that governs the pension fund manager and emphasizing that it should be “a cost-efficient provider of investment management services.”
The government’s heavy-handed intervention last fall, when it installed senior civil servants as the interim CEO and board members, raised questions about the pension fund’s purported arm’s-length status.
“AIMCo will operate independently and at arm’s length from the Government of Alberta,” the mandate letter says. “Investment decisions will be made without any government influence, strictly adhering to AIMCo’s legal obligation to act in the best interest of its clients.”
The letter also says that “while AIMCo is accountable to the Government as its sole shareholder, its primary accountability is to its clients.”
Mr. Harper said in an e-mailed statement that the letter “clearly outlines that AIMCo’s mandate will remain intact.”
“AIMCo will continue to operate independently from government and remain focused on acting in the best interest of clients in providing investment management services,” he said. “Our priority is, and always will be, to uphold the highest standards of governance.”