Pension Centre of Excellence

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, PhD, FSA, FCIA, serves as the Director of Financial Security Research at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), Toronto Metropolitan University, where she is also the co-lead of NIA’s Pension Centre of Excellence. She is a fellow of both the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, as well as the resident scholar at Eckler Ltd.

Her research focuses on the policies and practices necessary to address the multiple challenges and opportunities presented by Canada’s aging population. By bringing together leading industry experts and leveraging academic best practices alongside innovative ideas, Dr. MacDonald’s work is dedicated to enhancing retirement financial security for Canadians through practical insights, industry innovations, and government solutions.

She has published academic papers on a wide variety of topics related to retirement financial security. Her research contributions have received numerous awards and have been adopted by industry and government, both in Canada and around the globe. Dr. MacDonald is a prominent speaker at industry and public policy events, as well as a frequent expert voice in Canadian media.

Barbara Sanders, FSA, FCIA, is Associate Professor of actuarial science at Simon Fraser University. A pension-consultant-turned-academic, she is best known for her investigation of risk sharing in occupational pension plans—focusing on design, management and regulation. She has published numerous articles and is frequently invited to speak on these topics. Combining quantitative research and community engagement, Barbara’s work aspires to produce actionable insights to improve public policy and professional practice. She is a member of the C. D. Howe Institute’s Pension Policy Council and past chair of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ Task Force on Target Benefit Plans. She holds a BSc in Mathematics, an MSc in Actuarial Science, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Alyssa Hodder is a Senior Researcher with the NIA, responsible for accelerating the public release and early growth of the Cost of Ageing (COA) calculator, while strengthening Pension Centre of Excellence (PCE)-related research capacity and funding opportunities and supporting the growth and enhancing the visibility of the work from the NIA’s Financial Security Department. With more than 20 years of industry experience, her prior roles have included Director of Education and Outreach—Canada with the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans; Senior Communications Consultant with Eckler Ltd., providing communications support to public sector, corporate, not-for-profit, trusteed and multi-employer plans; and Director of the Knowledge Resource Centre at Buck Consultants. She also spent many years as Editor/Managing Editor of Benefits Canada magazine, with overall responsibility for its print and online editorial operations. Alyssa earned her Master and Bachelor of Arts degrees (hons) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario as well as her Group Benefits Associate (GBA) designation from the International Foundation. She has also successfully completed the Canadian Securities Course.

Doug Chandler is an independent research actuary based in Calgary. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Since 2016, he has served as the Canadian Retirement Research Actuary at the Society of Actuaries, where he is responsible for developing and completing objective research on Canadian retirement systems to inform public policy development and public understanding. Previously, he worked for 25 years as a consultant on retirement plans. In addition to providing retirement plan advice to clients, his responsibilities included professional practice leadership, thought leadership and writing for internal and external publications. Doug has been an active volunteer in Canadian Institute of Actuaries task forces on topics such as pension commuted values.

He Chen, FRM, is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute on Ageing, where he focuses on enhancing the financial well-being of older adults. He also serves as a consultant at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). With over a decade of experience spanning the hedge fund, banking, consulting, and pension plan industries, he brings deep expertise in capital markets and retirement systems.

He holds a Master of Mathematics in Actuarial Science and a Bachelor of Mathematics in Actuarial Science & Statistics from the University of Waterloo. He has co-authored multiple publications and reports on retirement financial security and education.

In addition to his research and consulting work, He mentors new graduates and young financial professionals, helping them develop the skills needed to thrive in the industry.

Audrey Forbes is an accomplished senior business leader in the financial services sector with over thirty-five (35) years experience in the broader public service in Ontario. She served at three of Ontario’s large defined benefit pension plans, namely Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), Ontario Pension Board (OPB) and OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust), from which she recently retired. Her array of experiences and skills include pension administration, financial literacy and empowerment, operational policy, communications, change management, and people development.

Audrey has served as a member of the board of the Toronto Chapter of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists, Governing Council chair of Quantitative Service Measurements (QSM), a national benchmarking study, and currently supports the United Church of Canada’s pension plan on their Pension Plan Advisory Committee. She is also chair of the Board of Achieve Potential Inc. and a member of the board of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario.

Audrey is an inquisitive lifelong learner and feels most fulfilled when she is writing, teaching, or immersed in policy discourse. Shortly after retiring in 2023, she published a historical fiction children’s book called, The Day the Masks Went On, which she co-authored with her daughter, Kerron.

Audrey holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from York University and a master’s degree in public policy from Queen’s University. She is a defender of the common good and volunteers within her local community.

Sally Shen is Manager, Insights Institute (Public Affairs & Communications) at CPP Investments, one of the world’s largest pension investment organizations responsible for managing the Canada Pension Plan’s global portfolio. In this role, she supports the development and dissemination of high-impact research, analytics and thought leadership that help inform long-term investment decision-making and contribute to the broader understanding of pension sustainability and capital markets.

Prior to her current role, she was Research Manager at OMERS, where she led the creation of innovative and impactful research, enriching and extending the ongoing efforts concerning pension plans and social value. Before joining OMERS, Sally served as a Research Associate at Global Risk Institute, collaborating with top academics and the pension industry for research, and played a crucial role in establishing the National Pension Hub. Sally’s journey in academia included being an Assistant Professor at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China, before she moved to Canada in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in Finance in 2015 from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and has also worked as a researcher with APG. Sally has served as an international research fellow at Netspar since the year 2009. Sally’s research interests focus on social value of pension, longevity risk, pension communication, sustainable finance and climate risk, pension risk management, asset and liability management, pension technology, strategic asset allocation, liability valuation, and pension system design.

Gareth Gibbins is the founder and principal of The Pension Forge, and Lead of the PCE Lab at the National Institute on Ageing’s (NIA) Pension Centre of Excellence. He is also the creator of The Social Yield, a project exploring the secondary social benefits generated by institutions and services whose primary purpose lies elsewhere.

He spent over two decades in senior roles at one of Canada’s largest pension plans and in the Pensions & Benefits group at one of Canada’s leading law firms, building experience across plan governance, member outcomes, plan design, legal, policy, research and advocacy. He now works with pension plans, industry bodies, policymakers, and international organizations to turn knowledge into action.

Gareth holds an Associate Fellow designation at the NIA and serves on the advisory board of the World Pension Summit. He co-led the ICPM Social Infrastructure Working Group, co-authored the ICPM Social Infrastructure Blueprint, and speaks at pension, policy and innovation events in Canada and internationally.

He holds three Queen’s University degrees, teaches pension administration at Humber College, and has chaired committees across different industry organizations, including Ontario’s pension regulator and the Ontario Bar Association. He is also a member of the Queen’s University Alumni Association Board of Directors.

With two boys on the autism spectrum, Gareth is a passionate advocate for neurodiversity in the workplace and has led grassroots programs to advance inclusion in professional environments.

After his family, and perhaps the San Antonio Spurs, Gareth enjoys nothing more than connecting with people who believe pensions can be better, for the people who need them and the communities in which they live.

Rob Brown PhD, FCIA, FSA, ACAS, retired from the University of Waterloo program in Actuarial Science in 2010 after 39 years of teaching and research.

In that time, Rob wrote seven books (most in multiple editions) and over sixty refereed papers. His research focus is the design of financial security programs in times of rapidly shifting demographics.

Rob was President of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries in 1990/91, President of the Society of Actuaries in 2000/01 and President of the International Actuarial Association in 2014.

Rob was also Research Chair for the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions in 2007-08. Further, Rob has served on three CPP Actuarial Valuation Review Panels (in 2005, 2011 and 2014) serving as Panel Chair in the last two iterations.

Rob has two married children and four grandchildren who all live in Ontario.

Rob now resides in Toronto.

Throughout his career, Danny has been involved in several mandates of investment policy work, investment management structure implementation, performance monitoring, selection of investment managers, asset liability studies and development of integrated risk management strategies for pension funds. Furthermore, he has particular expertise in the design, implementation and optimization of defined contribution plans and other capital accumulation plans.

As a senior actuary, he has extensive experience in the design, funding and accounting of pension plans, working with pension funds and committees both in the municipal and private sector.

Prior to joining Eckler, Danny was National Vice-President, Business Development, Group Retirement Savings at Desjardins Insurance. He was responsible for the development of their DC and DB investment platforms, service offering and investment manager monitoring tools. He also worked closely with plan sponsors to develop optimal solutions which enabled employees to achieve their retirement objectives, both in terms of plan design and employee communication, as well as in the creation of customized lifecycle solutions.

Previously, Danny worked for 11 years for another actuarial consulting firm as a pension and investment consultant. Among his responsibilities was the monitoring of investment platforms offered by Canadian service providers. He has worked in the industry since 2000.