CPPIB funds & secondaries head to step down

Head of funds and secondaries at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board John Breen will step down on 30 June “to pursue another avenue in private equity”, a pension spokesperson confirmed. CPPIB senior vice president Andre Bourbonnais is leading the search for Breen’s replacement.

Breen joined CPPIB in 2006, prior to which he was a founder of private equity firm MWI & Partners and a managing director of the global private equity division of Merrill Lynch. He also was a founding managing partner of the captive private equity fund, CIBC Wood Gund Capital.

Last fall, the Institutional Limited Partners Association, a trade association for limited partners to private equity funds, named Breen as vice chairman. It is unclear whether Breen will continue to serve on the executive committee at ILPA following his departure from CPPIB.

“It would be a huge loss for me if [Breen] comes off the ILPA board,” executive director of ILPA Kathy Jeramaz-Larson told Private Equity International, “so I am hoping that his next opportunity is with a another LP member organization.”

Breen played an “instrumental” role in the creation of the ILPA Best Practices, a set of best practice guidelines that call for interest alignment, strong governance and greater transparency, according to CPPIB.