U of T's co-chief investment officer leaving post

EDUCATION REPORTER

John Lyon, the man in charge of investments at University of Toronto Asset Management, is leaving his post following a year in which the funds he managed lost close to 30 per cent of their value.

The move, announced by Mr. Lyon in a message sent this week to colleagues, comes amid a university review of how the school manages its pension and endowment funds, which lost $1.5-billion last year.

"After five challenging and rewarding years, I recently made the difficult decision to leave UTAM for an alternate career opportunity," Mr. Lyons said in an e-mail, announcing his final day would be Monday.

"When I joined UTAM in 2004, the organization and the investment strategies were just entering a period of significant change. ... Since then, we have made very significant progress in building UTAM's organizational capability and the investment strategies," his message said.

Mr. Lyon, UTAM's managing director of private markets and co-chief investment officer, was responsible for the asset mix and investment strategy, which includes a higher-than-average weighting in alternative investments. That weighting, along with a decision to 100 per cent hedge U.S. dollar investments, contributed to last year's losses.

Mr. Lyon was the highest-paid university employee in Ontario last year, earning $557,474 in salary and benefits.