People

Sema Kirdar is a Managing Director and the Head of Enterprise Counterparty Risk Management at Wells Fargo. In her role, Sema is responsible for providing independent risk management and comprehensive oversight of counterparty risk activities across all lines of businesses at Wells Fargo, both domestic and international. Sema and her team oversee the front-line execution of its risk management responsibilities in accordance with the company’s risk management framework for managing counterparty risk, opines on the strategy and performance of all counterparty activities, and provides an enterprise-wide view of counterparty risk measurement and management to senior management and the Board of Directors. Sema joined Wells Fargo in 2016 and has over 20 years of experience in capital markets risk management in financial services organizations in the US and Canada. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Sema was at UBS for 11 years, responsible for Front-Line risk management of FCM cleared derivatives business globally and Co-Head of Prime Brokerage Risk Management in the Americas region. She held various positions in market risk, structured credit risk and model validation across her time at UBS in New York and Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto. Sema also worked at a global investment bank in Istanbul, Turkey, covering private equity investments and initial public offerings in the region and she started her career as a securities trading pit operator at Montreal Exchange. Sema holds an undergraduate degree with a major in finance from Concordia University in Montreal, and a graduate degree in quantitative finance from UBC. She resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family. 

Bryan is co-head and a senior portfolio manager on the PH&N Fixed Income Team. He co-manages the investment grade credit research effort. As part of this role, he manages dedicated corporate bond portfolios and is responsible for performing credit analysis on investment grade issuers. He also assists with the strategy and trade execution of corporate bonds held in broader short, universe, and long fixed income mandates. Bryan has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from UBC and is a Leslie Wong Fellow as a graduate of the UBC Portfolio Management Foundation. He joined PH&N in 2002. Bryan has been a CFA charter holder since 2005.

Sarah is a corporate director serving on a number of boards including: Canadian Western Bank, ENMAX Corporation, Grant Thornton LLP and Grant Thornton Consulting. She is past Chair of Port Metro Vancouver and chaired the committee responsible for overseeing the merger of the three ports in the Lower Mainland, including Canada’s largest port. Sarah has a background in financial services and was past Executive Vice President, Personal Financial Services and Wealth Management for HSBC Bank Canada and President and CEO of HSBC Trust Company (Canada).

An active volunteer, Sarah’s charitable involvement spans organizations focusing on health, education and the economy. She has a deep connection with the University of British Columbia having served as Chancellor, a member of the Board of Governors and Campaign Cabinet, a member of the Alumni Association Board from 2008 – 2014 and joined the PH&N Research Centre Advisory Board in 2015. She is the past Chair of BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre Foundation and has served on the boards of the C.D. Howe Institute, and Family Services of the North Shore. She currently serves on the board of the Vancouver Foundation and continues as a member of the Campaign Cabinet for BC Women’s Foundation.

Vasant Naik is a Managing Director and Head of the Systematic Strategies Group (SSG) of the Capital Markets and Factor Investing (CMF) Department at CPP Investments. He is a member of the global leadership team of CPP Investments. Vasant and his team are responsible for designing and managing a portfolio of systematic investment strategies within CMF. His team invests in a variety of global markets, spanning equities, fixed income securities, currencies, commodities, and volatility-based instruments. Prior to joining CPPIB, Vasant was global head of asset allocation and empirical research in the Analytics and Quantitative Research Group at PIMCO. He led a team responsible for quantitative research to provide asset allocation and portfolio construction advice to PIMCO’s investment managers. His group was also responsible for developing systematic investment strategies for various risk factors and asset classes. Prior to this, Vasant was a managing director at Nomura International and Lehman Brothers, where he led a team of quantitative strategists to research and advise clients on systematic investing in fixed income markets. Before joining the financial industry, Vasant taught finance as a tenured faculty member at UBC. His academic work is published in Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Vasant holds a PhD in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

David has over 30 years of experience in financial markets and wealth management as an executive and wealth professional. He worked with Canadian Western Bank (CWB) to develop and implement their wealth strategy in the role of President & CEO of CWB Wealth Management for five years until 2020, bringing together three businesses and adding more people and capabilities for retail, high net worth and institutional clients. Previously, David spent fifteen years at Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel, starting as the Vice President of Fixed Income before taking on the role of the President & CEO for eight years during a period of rapid growth. After graduating with honours with a UBC BCom in Finance, David spent three years with the Bank of Canada in various roles. He returned to the west coast to take on the position of Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income at the Province of BC’s Investment Branch (now BCI), holding progressively senior roles in fixed income trading and portfolio management.