Building the Total Portfolio at Ontario Teachers – Stephen McLennan

Ted Seides (0:06)

I'm Ted Seides, and this is Capital Allocators.

My guest on today's show is Stephen McLennan, the Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, where he oversees asset allocation for the $300 billion fund responsible for the retirement security of 346,000 teachers.

Stephen joined Ontario Teachers in 2003 and worked across credit, natural resources, infrastructure, and total fund management before splitting the CIO seat with Gillian Brown in 2024, a dual CIO structure that's unique among Canada's largest pension funds.

Our conversation traces that path and discusses teachers' total portfolio strategy, including the balance of top-down asset allocation with bottom-up investing, role of active management, liquidity, leverage, and internal and external management. We cover where private equity, credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, and inflation-sensitive assets earn their place in the portfolio, how AI-driven concentration risk factors into portfolio resilience, and the evolution of the Canadian model with enduring edges and eroding competitive advantages.

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Please enjoy my conversation with Stephen McLennan.

Stephen, thanks so much for joining me.

Stephen McLennan (5:51)

Thanks for having me, Ted, big fan of the podcast.

Ted Seides (5:54)

I'd love you to take me back to the early experiences that later you could look back and say influenced your investing.

Stephen McLennan (6:02)