Portfolio manager Tony Genua, pictured in 2024, has come out of retirement after less than two years. 'Retirement for me was more of a break than anything else,' he says.Lucy Lu/The Globe and Mail
On the Move is Globe Advisor’s roundup of recent hires and departures across Canada’s financial services industry.
Tony Genua could’ve stayed retired, travelled more and stuck to being a sideline investor, but the call of the markets lured the 71-year-old award-winning portfolio manager back to Bay Street.
On Monday, Mr. Genua joined investment manager Ninepoint Partners LP as lead manager of Ninepoint Global Select Fund. He reunites with former AGF Investments Ltd. colleagues Sam Mitter and Jonathan Lo.
“Retirement for me was more of a break than anything else, because when you do what you love and love what you do, it doesn’t seem like work,” says Mr. Genua, who has managed growth-equity mandates for retail and institutional clients for more than four decades.
He left AGF in November, 2024, after two decades as a senior vice-president, portfolio manager and lead of its growth equity team. Mr. Genua managed more than $16-billion in assets at the time of his planned retirement. Before that, he worked at firms including KBSH Capital Management Inc., Bank of Nova Scotia, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and Canada Trust Inc.
In his new, full-time role at Ninepoint, Mr. Genua will continue with the same “high conviction, go-anywhere” stock-picking strategy that earned him multiple Lipper and FundGrade A+ awards over the years.
And while he says he takes advantage of the latest technology to improve odds for investing success, he’ll continue to use his more old-school “white sheet of paper approach” to stock picking. That includes handwriting notes on white, letter-sized paper that he keeps in stacks on his desk.
Mr. Genua says his mandate isn’t to turn around the Ninepoint Global Select Fund his former colleagues, Mr. Lo and Mr. Mitter, have been running since its launch last fall, but “there’s definitely going to be changes” to reflect changing market dynamics.
The veteran investor also says he has owned the fund since its launch, “and I’m going to own a whole lot more of it very soon.”
Getting back to a purpose
Mr. Genua doesn’t regret his brief retirement, which he describes as “very rejuvenating.”
He exercised and travelled more for pleasure, including taking his first-ever trip to Australia. He also read more fiction and non-fiction, such as books on longevity and spirituality, including Ikigai, the Japanese concept of having a reason to get up in the morning. It was another nudge for him to return to work.
“I wanted to get back to a purpose – which wasn’t only family and friends and spirituality and exercise – but also in terms of the purpose of giving back to society and giving back to investors by giving them a good experience,” he says.
Mr. Genua was approached by firms and headhunters after leaving AGF, but wanted some time to “get bored first and travel and enjoy myself.”
Eventually, he decided to work with Ninepoint because of what he describes as its independence, entrepreneurship and “differentiated” active management.
“I believe in this notion of autonomous collaboration,” he says, which means working as a team while also encouraging independent thinking and action.
Mr. Genua says he never really took his eye off the markets in retirement. He continued to read the seven newspapers delivered to his door every day and to monitor live market action on TV and online, which his family would sometimes tease him about.
“I was following the markets, looking at the opportunities,” he says. “The challenges were great. The opportunity was even greater, and I’m looking forward to being back in the chair and pulling the trigger.”
As for his investing outlook, Mr. Genua thinks equity markets continue to look attractive.
“The encouraging trend of corporate results is likely to continue,” he says, with some of the usual volatility. “Any resulting market weakness is a buying opportunity, as we have yet to see the full benefits of AI developments and stimulative policies of the world’s major economies.”
Other recent industry moves:
Tony Maiorino has stepped into an expanded role, assuming the position of president and CEO of RBC Wealth Management Financial Services Inc., in addition to leading RBC Family Office Services, overseeing a 200-person team that delivers tax, legal, and financial planning support to advisors and private bankers across the country. He has spent 25-plus years in the Canadian wealth management space, starting out at Royal Trust in Ottawa and working his way through nearly every part of RBC: Dominion Securities, Private Counsel, Wealth Management Insurance, and even a stint as a branch manager on the banking side.
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Brenda Bartlett has retired as president of PWL Capital Inc. after almost 20 years at the firm. She joined PWL in 2007 and brought more than 25 years of experience in financial services, “along with a level of integrity and care that shaped our culture from the inside out,” the company said in an Instagram post. “She has mentored more people than we can count, and the warmth she brought into every room will be felt around here for a long time.”
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Julie Gaudry, vice-president, creditor and travel at RBC Insurance, was recently named chair of the Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance (CAFII). She takes over from Valerie Gillis, senior vice-president, head of life, health and credit protection at TD Insurance. “Ms. Gaudry assumes the role at a pivotal time for the industry, bringing a distinctive combination of insurance leadership, client strategy and health sector expertise to the position,” the organization stated in a release.
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Michael Sherman recently joined Scotia Wealth Management as managing director, behavioural economics, global investment solutions. He was previously in a similar role at RBC for 13 years. “I’ve always believed that at the heart of every great client relationship is an advisor who genuinely cares about their client as a person. Not just their portfolio … them,” he said in a recent LinkedIn post announcing the move.
Recently switched firms? Got a big promotion? Left to start your own firm? Or retired to start that side hustle? Send the details to: bbouw@globeandmail.com and put “On the Move” in the subject line. We look forward to hearing about your next chapter.