The founder of the investment management company Fiera Capital, Jean-Guy Desjardins, takes over. Jean-Philippe Lemay becomes Global President and CEO of Fiera Capital. These appointments came into effect on 1er January 2022.
Jean-Guy Desjardins becomes executive chairman of the board of the investment management firm which has assets under management of more than 180 billion, 850 employees and offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.
His successor, Jean-Philippe Lemay, has over 20 years of experience as a manager and in the investment industry. He joined Fiera Capital in 2012, where he held various executive positions, including President and Global COO since March 2020. He was previously responsible for the Canadian division of Fiera Capital since 2017. He was previously responsible for the Canadian division of Fiera Capital. is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA) and holds the CAIA certification (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst).
Press spoke to Mr. Desjardins on Wednesday.
How does a day feel like today?
Today I feel very good. The last few weeks have been more difficult. It’s normal, I’ve been president and CEO of a company for 50 years. I am very comfortable with the choice of my successor. Jean-Philippe is an associate that I identified eight or nine years ago to whom I provided a multitude of opportunities along the way to prove that he deserved to be the President and CEO of Fiera Capital.
At the end of 2019, I agreed with the board that I would remain as CEO for three years and that I would coach Jean-Philippe. It’s been two years, and I felt the time had come. It is clear that now, the responsibility and the direction of the company are in the hands of Jean-Philippe and no longer in those of Jean-Guy.
You built TAL Global Asset Management which you sold in 2001. Today, Fiera is three times the size of TAL at the time. What’s different with Fiera?
Fiera is a global company with a presence in the United States, Asia and Europe; TAL was largely Canadian. Fiera is also much more diverse in terms of management capacity. Everything we have in the private markets: alternative credit, real estate, infrastructure, private capital, agriculture. All things we didn’t have at TAL. We are a leader in this segment of the private markets among Canadian public managers. The movement of capital from institutional and private portfolios to alternative investment vehicles is a movement that is just getting started.
Fiera’s growth has been exceptional, its share price growth much less. How do you explain this gap?
If you look at the growth of the company in the past three years and the share price (FSZ, in Toronto) in the market, the correlation between the two is not there. The real answer, I don’t have it. One theory that is circulating is our absence from the TSX index. Our stock therefore does not benefit from the flow of capital which is invested in the indices. Our market capitalization and daily trading volume are not high enough to be included in the index.
What are Fiera’s next challenges?
We must maximize the opportunities that exist in the markets where we are present. We have invested a lot in our management skills and in our investment management capabilities. Today, this is by far our greatest comparative advantage, namely the quality of our returns and the variety of choice of our investment strategies that we offer. We must now invest in our branding, in marketing and distribution.
We see that the decision-making positions within the Laurentian Bank are moving to Toronto. How do you see the future of Montreal as a financial center?
The challenge is to keep the place we have today. We will not take Toronto’s place. But if we can keep the relative importance that we have today, that would be a success in itself, not to be marginalized along the way. How to get there ? That the Quebec infrastructure, I am thinking of the Caisse de dépôt and Investissement Québec, support and encourage entrepreneurial initiatives in the finance sector. I perceive a greater interest from them than in the past.
Do you have any regrets?
I’m going to be sorry if Fiera isn’t where I see her in ten years. Our ambition at Fiera is to be seen as an efficient capital allocator. Historically, the role of a portfolio manager has been to achieve good returns. I like to think that our role is larger than that. Wider, in the sense of diversity, inclusion, governance and the environment. Our ambition is to ensure that by 2030, Fiera is clearly identified as an efficient capital allocator in a broad sense.
Portrait of a financial builder
Son of the Rosemont district born in 1944, Jean-Guy Desjardins had a turbulent childhood, being expelled from four educational establishments before finding his way: the business world. From his first job as a packer at the local Steinberg supermarket, he went on to work at the age of 16 in accounts receivable collection. He graduated from HEC Montreal in 1971. He joined Sun Life and then NA Timmins, manager of the family of the same name. Mr. Desjardins became a shareholder in 1976 of what is now called Timmins et Associés Limitée, which will take the name TAL Global Asset Management in 1987. CIBC acquires a minority stake in 1994 before buying all of TAL in 2001. which then has assets under management of 65 billion. Mr. Desjardins started again from zero by creating Fiera Capital in 2003, at the age of 58. The company is now three times the size of TAL at the time. Mr. Desjardins is the recipient of the Award of Excellence from the CFA Institute and received the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada
Source: lessons learned from Jacqueline Cardinal’s book, Jean-Guy Desjardins, the phoenix of finance, published in 2017.