Mark Wiseman

Mark Wiseman is a global investment manager and business executive. He is currently the chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.[1] He was a Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, Global Head of Active Equities, Chairman of its alternatives business, and Chairman of BlackRock's Global Investment Committee. He also served on BlackRock's Global Executive Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2016, Wiseman was President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CCPIB).

Mark Wiseman
Born	1970 Niagara Falls
Education	University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management (MBA) University of Toronto - Faculty of Law (LLB) Yale University (LLM)
Title	Global Investment Manager and Business Executive
Spouse(s)	Marcia Moffat

Wiseman is a frequent contributor to business media and serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations. Among his advisory roles with various organizations, Wiseman serves as a part-time Senior Advisor to Hillhouse Capital.[2]

Background

Wiseman is the Co-Founder and former Chairman of FCLTGlobal (formerly Focusing Capital on the Long Term), an organization that encourages longer-term approaches in business and investing, which was set up by BlackRock, CPPIB, Dow, McKinsey & Company and Tata in 2016. Wiseman was also a member of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth, which advised the Canadian Finance Minister on economic policies to achieve long-term, sustainable growth. Wiseman serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including Sinai Health Services in Toronto, the Capital Markets Institute and the Dean's Advisory Board at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He is also on the Board of the United Way of Greater Toronto and of Alpine Canada. Wiseman is a certified member of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. Wiseman is a regular lecturer at the Harvard Business School and an adjunct professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

Education

Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Wiseman earned a bachelor's degree from Queen's University as well as a law degree and an MBA from the University of Toronto. He also was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University, where he obtained a Master of Laws degree.

Career

Wiseman with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Wiseman serves as an advisor to various organizations, most recently joining Hillhouse Capital as a part-time Senior Advisor.[2]

From 2016 to 2019, Wiseman was a Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, Global Head of Active Equities, Chairman of its alternatives business, and Chairman of BlackRock’s Global Investment Committee. He also served on BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee. On December 5, 2019, Wiseman left his position at BlackRock following a failure to report a consensual relationship with a subordinate[3] employee under his reporting line.[4] in violation of the company’s relationship at work policy.

Larry Fink, BlackRock’s founder, chairman and chief executive, issued his own memo to all employees, in which he expressed disappointment in the lapse in the upper echelons of his firm where Wiseman was a senior managing director. “This is not who BlackRock is…. We expect every employee to uphold the highest standards of behaviour,” Fink wrote in the memo, which was also signed by BlackRock president Rob Kapito.[4]

Mark Wiseman in a statement said “I am leaving BlackRock because in recent months I engaged in a consensual relationship with one of our colleagues without reporting it as required by BlackRock’s Relationships at Work Policy.”[5]

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2016, Wiseman was President & CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Wiseman joined CPPIB in June 2005 as the organization’s Senior Vice-President, Private Investments. He was later named Executive Vice-President, Investments, responsible for managing all of the investment activities of CPPIB. He was named President & Chief Executive Officer in 2012.

Prior to joining the CPPIB, Wiseman was responsible for the private equity fund and co-investment program at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Previously, Wiseman was an officer with Harrowston Inc., a publicly traded Canadian merchant bank and a lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell, practicing in New York and Paris. He also served as a law clerk to Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Wiseman was a member of ACEG (the Advisory Council on Economic Growth) which advised the Canadian Finance Minister on economic policies to achieve long-term sustainable growth. ACEG called for a gradual increase in permanent immigration to Canada to 450,000 people a year.

He is co-founder and former Chair of the Focusing Capital on the Long Term initiative.

He is also a co-founder and Chair of the Century Initiative, an organization dedicated to growing Canada's population to 100 million by 2100.[6][7]

In June 2020, Wiseman was named the new chair of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.[1]

Philanthropy

Wiseman serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, including Alpine Canada, the United Way of Greater Toronto, Sinai Health Services, the Capital Markets Institute and the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Wiseman is a certified member of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. Previously, he chaired the United Way of Toronto’s 2015 Campaign and Youth Without Shelter and is a past Board Member of Right to Play International.

Media

Wiseman is a frequent business media contributor, often appearing on BNN discussing markets and investing. On March 16, 2020, Wiseman published an article in the Wall Street Journal outlining why markets will eventually recover from COVID-19. [8] On April 10, 2020, Wiseman published an article in Pensions & Investments titled "Integrating ESG into investment portfolios improves performance". [9]

Recognition

Mark Wiseman was ranked #2 on the Public Investor 100 of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute in 2013.[10]

Personal life

Wiseman has an interfaith relationship with a woman he met prior to 1993 on his first day at University of Toronto.[11] They eventually married[12] in 1996,[13] blending celebration of his Jewish and her Christian holidays in the raising of two sons together.[11]

References

1. Rieger, Sarah (20 June 2020). "Former head of CPP, who was ousted from BlackRock, named chair of AIMCo". CBC News.
2. "Former BlackRock director Mark Wiseman lands new adviser role with Hillhouse Capital Group". The Logic. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
3. Khan, Yusuf (9 December 2019). "A top BlackRock exec was fired for having a relationship with a subordinate". Business Insider.
4. Lim, Dawn. "BlackRock's Mark Wiseman Terminated for Failing to Disclose Personal Relationship". Wall Street Journal. A contender for the top job at BlackRock Inc. was ousted from the money-management giant for failing to disclose a relationship with an employee under his reporting line
5. Mirabella, Alan (5 December 2019). "BlackRock's Wiseman In His Own Words: 'I Regret My Mistake'". Bloomberg.com.
6. "Influential Liberal advisers want Canadian population to triple by 2100". Global News. October 23, 2016.
7. "Team - Century Initiative". Century Initiative. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
8. Wiseman, Sarah Keohane Williamson and Mark D. (2020-03-16). "Opinion | Investors, Keep Your Eye on the Long Run". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
9. "Commentary: Integrating ESG into investment portfolios improves performance". Pensions & Investments. 2020-04-10. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
10. https://web.archive.org/web/20130922232831/https://www.swfinstitute.org/public-investor-100/mark-wiseman/
11. Perkins, Tara (8 February 2018). "CPPIB's Mark Wiseman: A creature of habit with a taste for the new". Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013. Two sons. “It’s like having two wolverines at home.” His partner of more than 20 years is Marcia Moffat, who until recently was vice-president of home equity financing at Royal Bank of Canada. They met on his first day at the University of Toronto. “I am, I think, the world’s greatest Jewish Christmas tree cutter,” he says.
12. McEnergy, Thornton (5 December 2019). "BlackRock exec Mark Wiseman over affair with employee". New York Post. Wiseman’s wife, Marcia Moffat, is the head of BlackRock’s Canadian division. Indeed, some had believed that Wiseman’s chances of eventually leading BlackRock were boosted by his power couple status with Moffat, who BlackRock insiders say is well-liked by Fink. Moffat was hired by BlackRock in 2015, one year before Wiseman
13. Butcher, Sarah (6 December 2019). "BlackRock didn't sack Mark Wiseman for consensual sex". efinancialcareers.com. Wiseman's wife of 23 years, with whom he has two children, also works at BlackRock. And she was there first. Marcia Moffat is the sort of successful woman with a background in neuroscience and a career in asset management who doesn't take her husband's name. Moffat joined BlackRock in the summer of 2015 to head BlackRock's Canadian business. Her spouse joined a year later.