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Michael Grimaldi, a former chairman of the board of OPSEU Pension Trust, the pension plan for Ontario provincial government employees, has returned to the role after the abrupt departure of its previous chair.

Mr. Grimaldi now appears on the pension’s website as chair, with a note that his appointment was effective April 1, also the date of previous chair Tim Hannah’s departure. OPTrust spokeswoman Claire Prashaw confirmed the change but referred questions about the appointment to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

The change is another at the top of OPTrust, which has assets of $20-billion and serves 92,000 active and retired Ontario provincial government employees. President and CEO Hugh O’Reilly left in March after a four-month leave of absence for undisclosed reasons, with the pension saying he left “immediately, to pursue other interests.” Mr. O’Reilly, who was subsequently announced as a new Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, has not responded to calls and messages from The Globe.

OPSEU and the provincial government, co-sponsors of the plan, each appoint five board members and take turns picking a chair for a two-year term. OPSEU had just named Mr. Hannah to the role in mid-November before he left about four months later, two weeks after Mr. O’Reilly’s formal departure.

Efforts to reach Mr. Grimaldi and OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas after business hours on Wednesday were unsuccessful. OPTrust had previously . Mr. Hannah and Mr. Thomas have not returned previous calls and messages from The Globe and Mail.

Mr. Grimaldi retired in 2013 from the Ministry of Labour where he was a work adviser representing injured Ontario employees who were not members of a union. He also spent six years working at OPSEU, has served on its executive board and as a regional vice-president. He’s been on the OPTrust board since 2012.

OPTrust’s next CEO will be its fourth in just more than seven years. Mr. O’Reilly was OPTrust’s outside counsel and a former partner at Torys LLP when the pension chose him as its CEO in December, 2014. Chief financial officer Doug Michael, a nine-year veteran of the pension, will continue as interim president and CEO, a role he took on in late 2018 when Mr. O’Reilly went on leave. OPTrust’s board has formed a committee to conduct a search for a permanent CEO, OPTrust said.

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