Université de Sherbrooke Pension Plan

Université de Sherbrooke Pension Plan

The Université de Sherbrooke Pension Plan serves as the retirement vehicle for regular staff of the Quebec-based university, operating under a distinctive hybrid architecture that pairs a defined-contribution plan with a defined-benefit floor. The plan is governed by a pension committee, with Serge Germain serving as its General Manager and Manager of Investments since 2002. Frédéric Gauvin, a KPMG consultant, acts as President and Chief Investment Officer, bringing additional pension-governance expertise through advisory roles with the Chambre des notaires du Québec and the Sœurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie Québec investment committees. The pension plan allocates across a mix of public equities, fixed income, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure, with all mandates executed by external fund managers. Private-market exposure has deepened in recent years through commitments to vehicles such as the Toronto-based Romspen Mortgage Investment Fund, signaling a tilt toward income-generating alternative credit. The fund's real asset sleeve includes both direct real estate and infrastructure interests, with Gauvin maintaining membership in the GRI Institute's Real Estate and Infrastructure divisions. Geographic exposure centers on Canada, with select outbound allocations to global developed markets. The plan's AUM is estimated at roughly $1.4 billion, placing it among the mid-sized Canadian university pension funds. No internal investment staff manages money directly; the lean operating model relies on manager selection and monitoring by Germain and Gauvin. The plan became a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment on March 25, 2020, and has since integrated ESG criteria into manager due diligence. Germain maintains active professional ties through the Pension Investment Association of Canada and the Association of Canadian Pension Management, while the fund also holds membership in the Responsible Investment Association. The plan's structural differentiator is its fully outsourced investment model paired with a hybrid DB-floor design — a configuration uncommon among Canadian university pensions, which typically operate with larger internal teams. Governance authority sits with the pension committee, but day-to-day allocation decisions flow through Germain and Gauvin, whose external consulting roles create an unusual conduit between the pension plan and broader Quebec institutional investment networks. This lean governance model allows the plan to access niche alternative strategies without building in-house capabilities.