Paul Haggis, Former Chairman of the Alberta Enterprise Corporation
Paul Haggis recently retired as Chairman of the Alberta Enterprise Corporation, a venture capital initiative operating as a Crown Corporation of the Alberta Government. Â
Podcast
Overview
Today on The Brand Called You, we have with us Paul Haggis, a senior corporate professional from Canada. He is a former Chairman of Alberta Enterprise Corporation. Paul has been a part of several corporate government engagements in Canada. He is a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces and retired as an honorary Kernel. Paul is also the former member and CEO of Homers. And is a member of the YPO.Â
Paul begins by talking about the three key milestones of his life. He engages in a very interesting conversation with Ashutosh with respect to the changes that have taken place in the banking sector over the past few decades. He speaks about the digital transformation and revolution of the finance industry and how it has affected the ways in which it functions.Â
Paul talks about the private equity sectors and gives some key suggestions with respect to making investments. With abundant experience in corporate governance and banking, Paul speaks in detail about the role of technology in banking. And how it has made the expense ratio cheaper.
Paul believes in leading an honest life with integrity and tenacity!
Profile
Paul Haggis recently retired as Chairman of the Alberta Enterprise Corporation, a venture capital initiative operating as a Crown Corporation of the Alberta Government. Alberta Enterprise is investing in a fund of fund program and expects to have 300 million dollars for first stage venture aimed primarily at western Canadian tech and bio start-up firms. He is also Chair of the Audit Committee of Advantage Energy of Calgary, Chair of the Audit Committee of Home Capital Group, Director of the Bank of Canada, Director of Sunshine Village Corporation, and advisory board member and limited partner in CAI Firehorn Fund and Balfour Pacific. He retired after an extended-term from the board of the University of British Columbia’s Investment Management Trust which governs the investment program for its $3 billion endowment and pension programs. In addition, Paul has overseen and is actively engaged in the investment program at ICBC as an advisor to the Investment Committee after completing a four and a half year term as its Investment Committee Chair.  ICBC enjoyed outstanding investment results on its 13 billion dollar portfolio from 2008 to 2012. Paul was Chair of CABancorp which was sold to CDJ Capital for a 300% gain in share value and was Chair of the Audit Committee of Prime Restaurants which was sold to Fairfax for a gain of 80% in share value in 18 months. , and Governance Chair and Special Committee member of Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust which was sold to Black Rock valued at a 4.8% cap rate. Paul also concluded a restructuring Chairmanship of the Canadian Pacific Railway after coming to the board through a proxy battle initiated by Pershing Square Asset Management.  Canadian Pacific has had outstanding success since retaining Hunter Harrison as its new CEO and Keith Creel as COO now CEO.
Prior to his corporate governance engagements, Paul was President and CEO of OMERS, concluding with record results on May 31, 2007. Paul restructured the organization and implemented dramatic operating and cultural change to lead OMERS to its best year ever in 2006. Under his leadership, assets grew by $15.8 billion to $48 billion with value-added of $2.6 billion. Just prior to the OMERS appointment, he was interim CEO of The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), serving also as a director from April 2000 to August 2003. Just prior to that, Paul was Executive Vice President, Business Development and Chief Credit Officer at Manulife Financial and also served as CEO of Princeton Developments Ltd. Paul began his financial career in the banking sector. Following nine years in corporate banking, Paul joined Metropolitan Life in 1988 as Vice President and Treasurer and held various executive/CEO positions in the U.S. and Canada, finishing as Chief Operating Officer of Canadian operations in September 1996. He led MetLife’s Canadian real estate recovery initiative and restructured a number of operating entities in what was then a dramatic real estate focused recession. He then was named President and Chief Executive Officer for Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB). During his five and a half years in this role, he again initiated dramatic changes, and led ATB to record profitability and market share growth.  ATB’s financial measures at the end of his tenure as CEO were some of the best in North America. Paul was also a member of the Canadian Forces. Commissioned into the Air Force Reserve in February of 1971, he served in various capacities before retiring as Honorary Colonel of 435 Transport Squadron in 1997. Paul was born in Belleville, Ontario and is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. Paul is also certified as a Chartered Director (C. Dir) through the Directors College at McMaster University.
