CPPIB’s Riva joins Whitehorse – exclusive

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board‘s Giorgio Riva, a key member of its secondaries team, has joined preferred equity specialist Whitehorse Liquidity Partners.

Toronto-based Riva, who spent seven years at Canada’s largest public pension, has joined the firm as a partner, according to a statement from the firm obtained exclusively by Secondaries Investor. Riva was most recently a principal in CPPIB’s secondaries and co-investment group.

“We believe we will benefit from [Riva’s] strong base of relationships, execution experience and perspectives in the market,” said Yann Robard, managing partner at Whitehorse. “Firm culture is very important to us, and having worked closely with Giorgio during our time at CPPIB I know that he will fit right in.”

Riva, who was ranked number one in Secondaries Investor‘s Young Guns of Secondaries list of the top 20 most influential young professionals in the industry last year, helped build CPPIB’s secondaries team to 22 professionals across two offices and played a key role in trebling its secondaries portfolio to C$7 billion ($5.7 billion; €4.8 billion).

In 2015 Riva led execution on a C$1.8 billion secondaries deal, one of the largest CPPIB has ever completed. He has worked on LP secondaries, fund restructurings, team spin-outs and direct co-investments, according to the statement.

Riva joins 10 other professionals at Whitehorse including at least three fellow CPPIB alumni: Robard, chief financial officer Sean Connor and controller Marilia Bothamley.

Whitehorse was launched in 2015 by Robard, the pension’s former secondaries and co-investments head, who spent 15 years there.