New appointments to the Ivanhoé Cambridge Board of Directors

Ivanhoé Cambridge and CDPQ are pleased to announce a series of appointments to the Board of Directors of Ivanhoé Cambridge, following approval from CDPQ’s Board of Directors.

In response to the departure of Macky Tall, Michel Lalande, Executive Vice-President, Legal Affairs and Secretariat at CDPQ, has been appointed Chairman of the Board.

In addition to the appointment of Mr. Lalande, three independent directors, a director representing CDPQ and a director representing the Desjardins Group Pension Plan were appointed, namely Bertrand Julien-Laferrière, Estelle Métayer, Pierre-André Themens, Annie Houle and Mylène Villeneuve, respectively.

These appointments follow the departure of three independent directors who reached the maximum term of office. David Peterson departed the Board at the end of 2020 – with Line Rivard and Pierre Seccareccia agreeing to stay on for a transition period to facilitate integration of the new Board members. Kim Thomassin, Executive Vice-President and Head of Investments in Québec and Stewardship Investing at CDPQ, has been replaced due to her new responsibilities and Sylvain Gareau, Executive Vice-President of the Desjardins Group Pension Plan, has also stepped down after more than 12 years on the Board.

With their arrival and at the end of the current transition, Ivanhoé Cambridge’s Board of Directors will be composed of 13 members, including six women.

“As Ivanhoé Cambridge undergoes a strategic transformation, I am pleased to be able to count on the new board members’ expertise to support me in my mandate. We are better positioned than ever to implement the next steps in our plan. I would also like to thank the outgoing directors who have accompanied us over the past decade in our mission to shape cities and communities in a sustainable manner,” said Nathalie Palladitcheff, Ivanhoé Cambridge’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“I am very pleased to welcome these new directors who add further depth and diversity of experience, both in Canada and internationally, and who will enable us to take advantage of a rapidly changing industry that is currently facing unprecedented challenges,” concluded Charles Emond, CDPQ’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Profiles of the New Directors

Michel Lalande has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer and executive. Before joining CDPQ earlier this year, he was Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada. He was also previously Legal Affairs Director at Teleglobe, where he worked on several international transactions, partnerships and financing. He began his legal career in corporate mergers and acquisitions and securities at Fasken Martineau.

Bertrand Julien-Laferrière has extensive and varied experience in real estate, in investment and development, as well as in management, operations and as CEO. He currently leads the real estate division of asset management company Alma Capital, after having headed the same department at Ardian, and he sits on the committees of Digeiz, ImmoFinRE IV and Alliances Développement Immobilier in addition to being involved with Maison des Centraliens (CentraleSupélec Alumni) and the Friends of the Centre Pompidou.

Estelle Métayer brings a wealth of international experience and expertise in development, risk management and governance to companies in Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK. She founded and manages her own consulting firm, Competia, after having worked at McKinsey & Company and CAE. She sits on the Boards of Directors of Agropur, Audemars Piguet SA and BRP.

Pierre-André Themens is a corporate director with extensive experience as a legal counsel in the real estate and financing sectors for major companies in Canada and internationally. He was Managing Partner of the Montréal office of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg from 2000 to 2017 and serves as a director for Evoca Group, Esmalglass-Itaca Group, Blue Metropolis Foundation, Jeanne Sauvé Foundation, Claridge Foundation and Phyllis Lambert Foundation, and is the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Board, Trustee and Secretary of the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Annie Houle joined the CDPQ team in 2017 as Senior Director, Investments, after leading the Corporate Finance Department (companies with over $1 billion in capitalization) at HSBC. She has experience in corporate banking with public and private corporations, multinational subsidiaries and institutional clients. A Former lecturer for the Ordre des CGA du Québec, she is a member or observer on many Boards of CDPQ holding companies and sits on the Board of the Montreal Canadian Club and Finance Montréal.

Mylène Villeneuve is Portfolio Manager, Real Estate and Private Equity at the Desjardins Group Pension Plan. She has over 20 years of experience in developing investment strategies and action plans, selecting investments and managers, monitoring portfolio performance and analyzing investments She also sits on the Board of Otéra Capital, a CDPQ subsidiary.