Jean-Guy Desjardins, who launched Montreal-based Fiera in 2003, has moved into a new role as executive chairman of the board.
Fiera Capital Corp. FSZ-T is shaking up its senior leadership as its founder and chief executive officer takes a step back after 19 years at the helm of one of Canada’s largest independent investment managers.
Jean-Guy Desjardins launched Montreal-based Fiera in 2003 and has built it through acquisitions to become an international investment player with about $180-billion in assets under management. He has moved into a new role as executive chairman of the board as of Jan. 1, Fiera said in a statement released Wednesday. Jean-Philippe Lemay, Fiera’s global president and chief operating officer, takes over as CEO.
“He’s stepped up to the plate all along,” Mr. Desjardins said of the increasingly senior positions Mr. Lemay has taken on over the years. “Hopefully he will step up to the plate this time around again and then I’ll be able to eventually retire in peace.”
The leadership handover marks a major changing of the guard at one of Quebec’s largest financial institutions. It was telegraphed as Mr. Desjardins told The Globe and Mail in May, 2019, that he was preparing to cede the CEO reins to an internal candidate when the time was right, likely within one year time.
In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Desjardins said he informed Fiera’s human-resources board committee around late 2019 that Mr. Lemay was his choice as successor, but that Mr. Lemay “wasn’t quite ready” and that he would be willing to carry on as CEO for three more years while coaching his protégé and broadening his responsibilities.
Two years into that period, Mr. Desjardins concluded the time has now come. He said he has no doubts Mr. Lemay will run the business successfully from an operational point of view. Where the new CEO will have to prove himself is as the public face of the company, “the recognized, established leader of the organization, with a vision, with a dream, and [to] be able to communicate it,” he said.
“A new CEO is never 100-per-cent ready, including me when I started my first CEO position 50 years ago,” said Mr. Desjardins, 77. “If I wasn’t around, if I was retiring completely, I think that we would look at this as being a higher-risk proposition.”
Mr. Desjardins said he will retain final authority over strategic direction and major capital allocation decisions as executive chairman. He also plans to remain involved in asset management for high net-worth clients.
“The board is very pleased to be able to continue to benefit from Jean-Guy’s leadership and has full confidence in Jean-Philippe, a widely-respected leader with a proven capacity to deliver ambitious results,” David Shaw, Fiera’s lead director, said in a statement.
Mr. Lemay, 43, joined Fiera in 2012 after stints as a quantitative research and risk management specialist at Standard Life Investments and index portfolio manager at pension fund giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. He has a master’s degree in financial mathematics from California’s Stanford University.
As chief operating officer, the new CEO led Fiera’s shift from a regional operational structure to a global operating model. The latest quarterly results show the company has increased its assets under management over the past year, in part by winning new mandates from clients. Net profit through the first nine months of 2021 was $40-million.
Mr. Desjardins said Mr. Lemay brings a leadership style that is “much more analytical, less intuitive,” than his own. “He brings this ability and willingness to think until it hurts,” Mr. Desjardins said. “I give up faster than he does.”
Fiera Capital is publicly traded. Mr. Desjardins and the financial co-operative Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec have effective control over two-thirds of board seats through a special class of shares. Through a common ownership structure, they own, together with other employees, approximately 23.57 per cent of Fiera’s total equity, according to filings. French bank Natixis holds 10.3 per cent.
Canada’s banks have shown a tremendous appetite to buy money managers in recent years, but Mr. Desjardins has insisted Fiera would make a tricky takeover target. He said Wednesday that the CEO change has no impact on how he’s thinking about his ownership stake.
As the uncertainty and turmoil triggered by the COVID-19 crisis drags on, Mr. Desjardins said he is optimistic the economy can continue to expand. But he warns of pain ahead for equity investors, many of whom have not yet adjusted their expectations to reflect the potential for inflationary and wage pressures on corporate profits, as well as the transition by central banks and governments away from stimulative and expansionary monetary and fiscal policies.
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Nicolas Van Praet