Concordia University Pension Plan

Concordia University Pension Plan

The Pension Plan for the Employees of Concordia University provides defined-benefit retirement security for faculty and staff of one of Montreal's two English-language universities. The plan is overseen by an investment sub-committee chaired by Patricia Saputo, also CFO of Placements Italcan Inc. The committee directs strategy through the Concordia University Inter-generational Fund, a vehicle that pools pension and endowment assets under a single investment policy. Asset allocation spans private real estate, farmland and timberland, absolute return strategies, private debt, and private infrastructure. The inter-generational structure permits heavier weighting to illiquid assets than a standalone pension fund might typically carry. Direct real estate holdings include commercial properties, while the farmland and timberland portfolio provides inflation-sensitive exposure uncommon among Canadian university plans. The plan also commits to absolute return and private credit strategies, though specific manager relationships remain undisclosed. The plan operates from the university's main campus in Montreal. Patricia Saputo brings external governance perspective through prior involvement with Tiger 21, the peer advisory network for high-net-worth investors. Marc Gauthier, Concordia's Treasurer and CIO, handles day-to-day investment oversight. Sam Reda serves as Vice Chairman of the plan. The Concordia University Foundation operates as the affiliated philanthropic entity, structurally separate from the pension plan. The combined pension-endowment vehicle is the plan's defining operational feature. Pooling the two pools creates scale efficiencies and allows the pension plan to access long-duration assets — farmland, timberland, infrastructure — that match its liability profile, while the endowment side benefits from professionalized management that a standalone university foundation might struggle to support.