Maxime Ménard takes the reins of Fiera Capital

The Montreal asset manager Fiera Capital will have a new CEO, his third in three years. Maxime Ménard will succeed Jean-Guy Desjardins this summer who founded the company 22 years ago.

Posted at 4:53 p.m.

Maxime Ménard’s objective is clear by accepting the CEO of the firm of 162 billion assets under management.

“I have the ambition to bring the organization to 250 billion assets under management in the next five years,” he said in an interview.

“It will come with a lot of work, a favorable market, and an outstanding execution,” he said.

Jean-Guy Desjardins will remain executive president of the Council and will assume the role of head of the global asset allowance.

The 80-year-old financial entrepreneur had taken over the management of Fiera Capital two years ago in Jean-Philippe Lemay who will have held the CEO position only one year.

Maxime Ménard, who will be 50 years old in August, was perceived as the favorite to succeed Jean-Guy Desjardins since his arrival at Fiera Capital at the beginning of last year. He had left the management of Jarislowsky Fraser – a subsidiary of SCOTIA Bank – to come and lead the Canadian activities and those of Private Management of FIERA.

With 115 of the 162 billion assets under FIERA management belonging to Canadian customers, growth will go through international expansion.

“Our proximity means that there is an ease of turning to the United States. Fiera already has offices in Ohio, New York, and Boston, “says Maxime Ménard.

“We already have great solutions at the level of American, global and emerging actions, and a private platform in agriculture and real estate. We also have offices in Abu Dabi and Switzerland where we have the opportunity to work with insurers and family office. »»

Growth at Fiera has been hampered by an asset leak from the start four years ago of the star portfolio manager Nadim Rizk. He had left Fiera to embark on his account in the management of assets by creating the Pinestone firm.

Maxime Ménard judges that the transfer of assets to Pinestone is rather well managed.

“We have good relations with Nadim and Pinestone. We remain one of their biggest customers in terms of sub-management. We must remember that we remain a client of Pinestone and most of the customers that we have in common in this relationship are customers who use large solutions at Fiera in large part, ”he says.

“Our approach is to remain near our customers, to maintain a good business relationship with Pinestone, and to continue to diversify our portfolio management activities. »»

About the recent departure of Jean Michel, who was head of investments, public procurement, and member of the executive committee, Maxime Ménard maintains that it is part of a proximity perspective and a concern to simplify the organization in order to have portfolio managers directly relating to him and to Jean-Guy Desjardins.

The portfolio manager, Marc Lecavalier, who managed a strategy to place small capitalizations, notably Quebeckers, also left this spring. Marc Lecavalier is now the use of Montrusco Bolton, which has just caused the transfer of management mandates of the National Bank and Fondaction for the benefit of Montrusco.

Maxime Ménard simply explains that the strategy managed by Marc Lecavalier was a “niche product” and that Fiera wishes as much as possible to have managers turned towards American, international strategies, large Canadian capitalizations, and fixed income.

Two members of the senior management also expand their mandate at Fiera. Gabriel Castiglio becomes head of the farm, responsible for operations and organizational alignment. He was previously responsible for the Directorate of Legal Affairs and Secretary General.

Lucas Pontillo adds the business strategy to his current office of finance chief, with an extended mandate on planning and strategic execution.

The current management team of Fiera Capital holds almost 20 % of the firm’s shares. The title of FIERA Capital has a decline of around 40 % for six months and the yield of the dividend exceeds 13 %.

FIERA CAPITAL will present its financial performance at the start of the financial year on Friday.