CPPIB Names Jon Webster COO | Chief Investment Officer

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has named Jon Webster senior managing director and chief operating officer, it announced on Tuesday. Webster will oversee the C$536 billion (US$396 billion) pension fund’s technology, data, investment operations, security and corporate services functions.

Webster will join CPP Investments from Boston Consulting Group, where he was a managing director and partner, as well as a member of its financial institutions and technology advantage practices. Webster specializes in digital and technology-enabled transformations and advises senior executives in retail banking, commercial banking and insurance.

Prior to BCG, Webster was chief information officer for digital and transformation at Lloyds Banking Group in the U.K., as well as chief operating officer for the bank’s digital division. Before joining Lloyds, Webster worked at KPMG for more than seven years, starting as a director before being promoted to partner. He earned a B.S. in industrial mathematics and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Loughborough University in the U.K.

The pension fund also promoted Maximilian Biagosch to senior managing director and global head of real assets. He will remain head of Europe and a member of the CPPIB’s senior management team. Biagosch joined CPP Investments in 2015 as managing director and global head of portfolio value creation, and he was promoted in 2021 to managing director and global head of direct private equity.

Before joining CPPIB, Biagosch was head of the financing group at Permira Advisers in London for more than seven years, and prior to that he was a director at BNP Paribas. Before BNP, Biagosch was a vice president at Deutsche Bank Securities.

“These appointments position us well to continue building long-term value for the CPP fund,” CPPIB President and CEO John Graham said in a release. “Jon’s successful track record in operations and technology-enabled transformation with financial organizations makes him ideally suited to both take on the role of COO and contribute important insights to the organization.”

Graham added that “we have valued Max’s experience, strong leadership and demonstrated performance on CPP Investments’ senior management team—all attributes that position him well to lead our global real assets program.”

During its fiscal third quarter of 2023, its most recently reported quarter, CPPIB reported several major investments within its real assets portfolio, including a $200 million investment in Redaptive, a U.S.-based energy-as-a-service provider, and it acquired an approximately 9.5% state in Brazilian fiber-to-the-home network provider V.Tal for C$639 million. It also agreed with Royal Schiphol Group to acquire a stake of 1.59% in international airport operator Aéroports de Paris.