Public and private assets helped the pension fund swing from a loss one year earlier to raise its asset value to $471.5 billion.
But allocators point to opportunities they find when investing with smaller, newer firms.
Despite seven fewer transactions than one year earlier, total deal value rose 158%.
Priti Singh, the fund’s capital markets factor investing head, has been promoted to CRO, while Heather Tobin succeeds her.
Transactions in Q1 totaled just under $1.3 billion, a fraction of the $15.3 billion worth of deals during the year-ago quarter.
A research paper profiles value-enhancing deals by the likes of CDPQ and PSP.
The pension giant also sold a buyout fund portfolio for C$2 billion and German wind assets for C$374 million.
Jhooty will lead the team responsible for implementing the C$575 billion pension fund’s investment framework.
Despite the investment loss, net transfers helped raise the Canadian pension giant’s asset value to C$575 billion.
It’s trickier for some, like the Norwegian program, which is funded by North Sea oil.