AIMCo

Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo): Crown manager — C$194.7B (31 Dec 2025), >C$200B mid-2026; Balanced Fund +7.6% 2025; CEO Ray Gilmour; CIO Justin Lord.

UAO Editorial September 7, 2026 36 min read

Registry · Top 100 · Crown investment manager · Canada (Alberta)

Last researched: 6–7 September 2026 (America/Toronto). Corrections: info@universalassetowners.com.

Executive brief

Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) is a Crown corporation of the Province of Alberta that invests globally on behalf of Alberta pension, endowment, insurance, and government fund clients. Prefer official CAD / C$. Latest primary year-end scale print: total client assets under management C$194.7 billion as at 31 December 2025, up from C$179.6 billion at year-end 2024 (AIMCo 2025 investment-return release; 2025 Annual Report microsite). In the first half of 2026 AIMCo reported that it had surpassed C$200 billion in assets under management (2026 Mid-Year Investment Performance, 27 August 2026). An INST working figure of about C$182 billion (~US$135 billion) is stale as a current headline relative to those primaries. Official materials state figures in Canadian dollars—do not invent a USD AUM headline.

Leadership honesty (critical): Live aimco.ca Leadership Team titles Ray Gilmour as Chief Executive Officer (permanent appointment December 2025 after interim service from November 2024) and Justin Lord as Chief Investment Officer (appointed July 2025; joined AIMCo in 2012). Do not invent alternate CEO/CIO names or merge the roles.

Calendar-year 2025 Balanced Fund net investment return: 7.6%, or C$13.1 billion; Total Fund 7.5%. Longer-horizon Balanced Fund annualized nets at year-end 2025: 5.7% (four-year) and 7.2% (ten-year; C$76.5 billion of net investment return over ten years). For the six months ended 30 June 2026, Balanced Fund net return was 7.2%, with four- and ten-year annualized nets of 9.9% and 7.8% at the half-year mark.

Researchers care because AIMCo sits among Canada’s large public-sector institutional managers (“Maple” peer set alongside CPP Investments, CDPQ, BCI, PSP, OTPP and others), combines Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund endowment capital with large public pension plans (notably LAPP), and publishes dated CAD AUM, Balanced/Total Fund returns, asset-class colour, and a Crown-corporation governance stack under the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act. Related UAO hubs: Registry, Top 100, BCI, PSP Investments, CPP Investments, CDPQ, Ontario Teachers’.

Speakable summary

AIMCo is Alberta’s Crown investment manager under the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act. As at 31 December 2025 it reported C$194.7 billion of client assets under management in Canadian dollars, and it surpassed C$200 billion in the first half of 2026. Ray Gilmour is Chief Executive Officer. Justin Lord is Chief Investment Officer. The 2025 Balanced Fund returned 7.6 percent net; the half-year 2026 Balanced Fund return was 7.2 percent net.

Mandate & ownership

AIMCo is a Crown corporation of the Province of Alberta. In accordance with the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act, the Board of Directors oversees the management of the business and affairs of the corporation; directors are appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and are fully independent of management (board appointment release, 16 April 2026; 2024 Annual Report governance chapter as at 31 March 2025).

Official about language: AIMCo is one of Canada’s largest and most diversified institutional investment managers and invests globally on behalf of pension, endowment, insurance, and government funds in the Province of Alberta. Purpose statement on aimco.ca / Annual Report: “We help our clients secure a better financial future for the Albertans they serve.”

What the mandate is: client-directed institutional portfolio management. Each client establishes its own investment policies and return targets; AIMCo works with clients to build portfolios with risk and return characteristics matched to those targets (Clients page; AR 2025 Our Clients). The Balanced Fund composite reflects clients that invest across Money Market & Fixed Income, Public Equities & Absolute Return, and Private Markets. The Total Fund aggregates all client accounts, including clients that choose exclusively fixed income and money market products.

What the mandate is not: AIMCo does not provide financial planning or other investment-related services to consumers or other private investors. Official client pages warn that scammers may impersonate AIMCo; the corporation states it will never contact individuals to request personal information or offer investment opportunities.

Geographic operating footprint cited in official about blurbs: offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, and Luxembourg, with more than 200 investment and risk professionals.

Values listed on At a Glance: Excellence, Transparency, Humility, Integrity, Collaboration.

Scale & portfolio

As at 31 December 2025, official materials state total client AUM of C$194.7 billion. AR 2025 overview also prints Balanced Fund market value C$187.3 billion and Total AIMCo Fund C$190.4 billion, noting that Total AIMCo Fund calculations do not include C$4.3 billion of assets that do not meet required conditions for inclusion in AIMCo’s excess returns as of that date.

AUM by client type (AR 2025 Our Clients, year ended 31 Dec 2025)

Client typeAUM (C$)Notes from primary
Pension plansC$141.2 billionHundreds of thousands of Albertans; largest sleeve
Endowment fundsC$35.3 billionIncludes Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund
Insurance fundsC$15.4 billionWCB–Alberta, CUDGC, AFSC among named
Specialty fundsC$2.3 billionUnique mandates / arms-length orgs
Government fundsC$482 millionLower risk tolerance; primarily fixed income

Named pension market values in the same AR chapter (C$ millions): Local Authorities 75,877; Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund 26,692; Public Service 22,375; Management Employees 7,781; Special Forces 5,089; Universities Academic 2,577. LAPP is described on the live Clients page as Alberta’s largest public-sector pension plan and AIMCo’s largest client.

Asset-class sleeves (performance table framing)

AR / release framing groups portfolios into Money Market & Fixed Income (including mortgages, real return bonds, private debt & loan), Public Equities & Absolute Return, and Private Markets (infrastructure, real estate, renewable resources, private equity). Money Market and Fixed Income aggregate market value in the YE 2025 performance table: C$56.5 billion (of which Money Market & Fixed Income–Public C$38.8 billion).

Governance & leadership

Board of Directors

Statutory frame: under the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act, the Board oversees management of the business and affairs of AIMCo, sets strategic direction, and oversees policies governing day-to-day conduct. Directors act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the corporation and must exercise due care, diligence and skill (2024 AR governance). All directors are fully independent of management and appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.

Chair: Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper, P.C., C.C. (named as Chair in the 16 April 2026 appointment release and as Chair in the 2024 AR board roster as at 31 March 2025).

Directors named as at fiscal year-end 31 March 2025 (2024 AR): Bob Dhillon; Jim Keohane; Jason Montemurro; Katherine White (plus the Chair). Appointed 16 April 2026: Ursula Holmsten (formerly President and CEO of ATB Wealth) and Jin-Young Kim (Partner and Head of Capital Formation at 8VC). UAO does not invent additional seats or titles beyond opened primaries.

Standing committees described in the 2024 AR governance chapter include Audit; Governance & Nominating; Human Resources & Compensation; and Investment (investment activities, risk management and operations; voting on specific investment-related matters).

Executive leadership (live aimco.ca Leadership Team)

PersonOfficial titleUAO person SSR
Ray GilmourChief Executive Officerray-gilmour
Justin LordChief Investment Officerjustin-lord
Kelly FeatherstoneChief Client Relations Officer (from March 2026)—
Janice GuzzoChief Human Resources Officer—
Paul LangillChief Financial Officer—
Denise ManChief Technology Officer—
Cecilia MenghiniChief Risk Officer (from January 2026)—
Peter TetiSenior Executive Managing Director, Global Head of Private Assets—
John WalshChief Legal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer—

Gilmour bio (leadership page): appointed permanent CEO by the Board in December 2025 after interim service from November 2024; prior Alberta Deputy Minister of Executive Council (also Finance, Intergovernmental Relations, Infrastructure, Sustainable Resource Development, Municipal Affairs); 15 years earlier in banking/financial services; MBA, CPA, ICD.D.

Lord bio: CIO overseeing investment teams; joined AIMCo 2012; previously SEMD, Global Head of Public Markets; career began at New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation in 2005; BBA Finance (UNB), CFA. Appointment release dated 11 July 2025.

Investment philosophy & strategy

Official At a Glance language: AIMCo couples an in-depth understanding of each client’s unique objectives with the investment capacity of a major institutional investor, and is “willing to push boundaries and consider the unconventional” to find the next source of returns. Strong governance, attraction of top talent, and pursuit of innovative opportunities are cited as delivery mechanisms. Location framing: Alberta as one of the more dynamic economies in the world, positioning AIMCo to meet evolving client needs and compete globally.

In the 2025 Annual Report CIO Q&A, Justin Lord frames 2025 as a year of geopolitical tension and trade-policy volatility in which AIMCo “delivered a solid absolute return while continuing to evolve our strategy and advance initiatives that strengthen how we construct and manage portfolios for clients.” Since becoming CIO, his stated focus has been understanding current portfolio positioning and conducting a fulsome review of AIMCo’s Investment Strategy—sharpening focus on structural and developed capabilities (“sources of edge”), centralizing key functions to strengthen liquidity and risk management, improving transparency and coordination across asset classes, and retaining flexibility to allocate capital when opportunities are most attractively priced.

Balanced Fund definition (AR performance): a composite of client accounts that invest in the three main asset-class categories—Money Market & Fixed Income, Public Equities & Absolute Return, and Private Markets—where clients mandate AIMCo to combine asset allocation and active management to seek higher returns. Diversification is described as important to keeping portfolio risk appropriate while accessing a wider opportunity set. Total Fund aggregates all client accounts, including exclusive fixed-income/money-market clients.

Asset-class playbooks (from opened primaries)

  • Public Equities & Absolute Return — Global Head David Tiley (appointed 2026 per leadership page). Internally and externally managed strategies across domestic, global, emerging markets, and absolute return. 2025 colour: PE&AR returned 18.6% (AR Q&A); release cites Public Equities 19.4%. Pool-level AR detail: Global Equities Master Pool 16.3% (+0.9 pp excess); Canadian Equities Master Pool 25.9% (−5.8 pp vs benchmark); Emerging Markets Master Pool 27.3%; Global Small Cap 12.4%; Absolute Return Master Pool 7.0%.
  • Money Market & Fixed Income — Head Jason Chang (EMD). Public FI 1.0% in 2025 (benchmark 0.9%). Bank of Canada eased 1.00% through 2025 vs Fed 0.75% (AR narrative). Money Market Pool 2.9% (+0.2 pp excess).
  • Mortgages — Head Sarah Esler. 5.8% in 2025 (+1.3 pp vs benchmark); “busiest year ever, by volume.” CMBS participation: two Canadian floating-rate deals totalling CA$130.8 million and one U.S. fixed-rate deal totalling US$95.5 million (spotlight; USD figure for that deal only).
  • Private Debt & Loan — Global Head Peter Shen (London). 7.9% in 2025 (+3.6 pp); four-year annualized 8.1% (+2.2 pp). Predominantly senior secured, floating-rate exposures.
  • Private Equity — under Private Assets (Peter Teti). 3.0% in 2025; 10-year annualized 10.4%. Top 5 holdings named in AR performance: BGIS, Proofpoint, Fortitude Re, Belron, Davies.
  • Infrastructure / Renewable Resources / Energy Transition — Ben Hawkins. Infrastructure 3.3%; Renewable Resources −0.5% in 2025. SAESA (Chile) 50% stake since 2011 alongside OTPP cited in Culture chapter; Iberian permanent-crops expansion in spotlight.
  • Real Estate — −2.2% firm print in 2025 release; Canadian RE NAV ~C$13.2B (−1.6%); Foreign RE NAV ~C$8.0B (−1.6%) with FX hedge mark-to-market headwinds (AR). CF Richmond Centre densification with Cadillac Fairview and Shape Properties nearing completion (spotlight).

Responsible investing & culture

Opened aimco.ca Responsible Investing navigation exists alongside Investment Philosophy and Asset Classes. Static extracts from the RI URL in this research window were thin relative to performance and leadership primaries; UAO therefore does not invent exclusion lists, net-zero target years, or stewardship vote tallies that were not present in opened pages. Prefer linking researchers to live aimco.ca RI materials and the 2025 Annual Report microsite.

Client Relations Officer Kelly Featherstone’s leadership bio states she is responsible for Client Relations, Client Strategy & Investment Product Management, Communications & Corporate Identity, and Sustainable Investing functions (as of her March 2026 CCRO appointment)—confirming sustainable investing sits in the executive portfolio without inventing program metrics.

Culture & Community (AR 2025) emphasises connecting clients to real-economy assets (e.g., Capital Power / Genesee Generating Station client tour west of Edmonton; SAESA powering infrastructure for ESO Extremely Large Telescope in Chile). Community Investment: the AIMCo Foundation for Financial Education (aimcofoundation.ca) is described on At a Glance as an employee-led initiative supporting financial-literacy nonprofits and Alberta post-secondary finance education.

Supply-chain transparency: aimco.ca Insights lists a 2026 Supply Chains Act Report (25 May 2026). Public-safe note: confidential reporting channels exist on aimco.ca—UAO does not republish private staff emails or office switchboard numbers from directories.

Values stack (At a Glance): Excellence, Transparency, Humility, Integrity, Collaboration. Careers positioning emphasises a high-performing, client-centric culture and early-career pathways.

Performance & reporting

Reporting cadence note from the Annual Report 2025 insight post (26 June 2026): AIMCo reports investment performance on the calendar year, while financial statements use the fiscal year ending 31 March in line with the shareholder, the Government of Alberta.

Headline calendar 2025 (net of fees)

MeasureResultSource
Balanced Fund net return7.6% (C$13.1B)Return release; AR
Total Fund net return7.5%Return release; AR
Balanced vs benchmark−2.7 ppReturn release
Total vs benchmark−2.7 ppReturn release
Balanced 4-year annualized5.7%AR / release
Balanced 10-year annualized7.2% (C$76.5B cumulative net)AR / release
Balanced 10-year excess0.0 ppAR performance dashboard
Balanced 4-year excess+0.8 ppAR performance dashboard

CEO Ray Gilmour (return release): focus on clients’ long-term objectives despite geopolitical tension and market volatility; C$13.1 billion net investment return cited as testament to discipline and execution. CIO Justin Lord: Public Equities impressive on AI-related capital investment and earnings expectations; Fixed Income steady; private markets challenging but important for long-term diversification.

Performance results accompanying the calendar-year announcement were labelled unaudited and net of fees and costs, with detail pointed to the June 2026 Annual Report.

Transparency stack (opened)

  • aimco.ca Insights / news releases (returns, board, transactions)
  • 2025 Annual Report microsite (2025.annualreports.aimco.ca)
  • 2026 Mid-Year Investment Performance report (27 Aug 2026)
  • Prior-year AR governance microsite content (board roster as at 31 Mar 2025)
  • Supply Chains Act Report 2026

Official actions & debates

Official attributable framing first. AIMCo’s own 2025 return materials state that Balanced Fund and Total Fund underperformed their respective benchmarks by 2.7 percentage points, “largely reflecting a challenging year for private markets and the use of public market-linked benchmarks within private asset classes.” CIO Q&A repeats that attribution. UAO records that as management’s own explanation—not an invented scandal.

Agreement to Sell BGIS (15 July 2026): Official Insights release announces an agreement to sell BGIS. BGIS appears as the first-named holding among Top 5 Private Equity Holdings in the AR 2025 performance materials (Business Services / North America). Researchers should read the live release for transaction terms rather than relying on secondary reconstructions. UAO does not invent sale proceeds or buyer identity beyond what opened primaries state in this pack.

Real estate repositioning: Official narratives describe early signs of stabilization with uneven progress by geography and sector (−2.2% Real Estate print; Canadian and foreign sleeves −1.6% each in AR detail). That is performance colour, not a controversy label.

Secondary press about AIMCo governance transitions, Heritage Fund debates, or Alberta political oversight exists outside this primary pack. Where used elsewhere in UAO editorial, label as secondary; this elite profile stays on opened aimco.ca / AR microsite facts.

Timeline (annotated from opened primaries)

  • Statutory Crown frame — Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act; Board oversight; directors appointed by Lieutenant Governor in Council.
  • 2011 — AIMCo acquires 50% stake in Grupo SAESA (Chile) alongside Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (AR 2025 Culture).
  • 2012 — Justin Lord and Peter Teti join AIMCo (leadership bios).
  • November 2024 — Ray Gilmour begins interim CEO service.
  • 31 Dec 2024 — Client AUM C$179.6 billion.
  • 11 Jul 2025 — Justin Lord appointed CIO.
  • Calendar 2025 — Balanced Fund +7.6% / C$13.1B; Total Fund +7.5%; AUM ends at C$194.7B.
  • December 2025 — Board appoints Ray Gilmour permanent CEO.
  • January 2026 — Cecilia Menghini becomes Chief Risk Officer.
  • March 2026 — Kelly Featherstone becomes Chief Client Relations Officer.
  • 16 Apr 2026 — Ursula Holmsten and Jin-Young Kim appointed to Board.
  • 25 May 2026 — 2026 Supply Chains Act Report listed on Insights.
  • 26 Jun 2026 — AIMCo Annual Report 2025 published.
  • 15 Jul 2026 — Agreement to Sell BGIS announced.
  • H1 2026 / 27 Aug 2026 — AUM surpasses C$200B; Balanced Fund H1 net +7.2%; mid-year 4y 9.9% / 10y 7.8%.

Exact statutory inception day/year is not restated as a single sentence in the opened static extracts used for this pack; cite the Act and live governance pages rather than an invented founding anecdote.

Annex: AUM honesty (CAD)

UAO currency discipline for AIMCo: quote C$ (or clearly labelled Canadian dollars / CAD) from aimco.ca and the AR microsite. Do not invent a USD headline for total AUM. If a dataset shows INST ~C$182B (~US$135B), treat it as a stale working band superseded by C$194.7B at 31 Dec 2025 and the mid-2026 print above C$200B.

MeasureCAD figureAs-ofPrimary
Total client AUMC$194.7B31 Dec 2025Return release; AR; about blurb
Prior-year total AUMC$179.6B31 Dec 2024Return release YoY
Balanced Fund MVC$187.3B31 Dec 2025AR overview
Total AIMCo Fund MVC$190.4B31 Dec 2025AR overview (+C$4.3B excluded note)
Mid-2026 milestone>C$200BH1 2026Mid-Year Investment Performance
Pension sleeveC$141.2BYE 2025AR Our Clients
Endowment sleeveC$35.3BYE 2025AR Our Clients
Insurance sleeveC$15.4BYE 2025AR Our Clients
Specialty sleeveC$2.3BYE 2025AR Our Clients
Government sleeveC$482MYE 2025AR Our Clients
INST ~C$182B (~US$135B)staleworkingDo not use as current headline

Arithmetic check on client-type sleeves from AR Our Clients: 141.2 + 35.3 + 15.4 + 2.3 + 0.482 ≈ 194.7 billion CAD, matching the headline total. Prefer dated CAD figures from these primaries over third-party aggregators that silently convert to USD.

Annex: Clients & account list

Live Clients page and AR 2025 Our Clients describe five client families. Each client sets investment policies and return targets; AIMCo constructs portfolios accordingly.

Pension plans (live Clients page descriptions)

  • Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund (ATRF) — Teachers’ Pension Plan for Alberta teachers in school jurisdictions and charter schools; Private School Teachers’ Pension Plan for private-school teachers who elect to join. atrf.com.
  • Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) — Employees of local authorities including cities, towns, villages, municipal districts, hospitals, colleges, school boards and other public service organizations; largest public-sector pension plan in Alberta and AIMCo’s largest client. lapp.ca.
  • Management Employees Pension Plan (MEPP) — Management-level employees of Alberta provincial public service and approved agencies, boards and commissions. mepp.ca.
  • Management Supplementary Retirement (MSRP) — Additional benefits for MEPP members whose salary exceeds the federal Income Tax Act defined-benefit limit cap.
  • Provincial Judges & Applications Judges Registered (JRPP) and Unregistered (JUPP) — Justices under the Court of Justice Act and applications judges under the Court of King’s Bench Act; JUPP covers amounts beyond registered-plan limits.
  • Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) — Employees of the Government of Alberta, universities, colleges, provincial corporations and boards/agencies/commissions. pspp.ca.
  • Special Forces Pension Plan (SFPP) — Police officers, chiefs and deputy chiefs in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Camrose, Lacombe and Taber. sfpp.ca.
  • Universities Academic Pension Plan (UAPP) — Academic and professional staff of Alberta universities and Banff Centre. uapp.ca.

Account list as of 31 December 2025 (Clients page)

Pension: Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund; Local Authorities; Management Employees; Management Employees Supplementary; Provincial Judges and Application Judges Registered; Provincial Judges and Application Judges Unregistered; Public Service; Special Forces; Universities Academic.

Endowment: Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; Alberta Heritage Savings Trust; Alberta Heritage Scholarship; Alberta Heritage Science and Engineering Research.

Government: A.L. Sifton Estate; Long Term Disability Bargaining Unit; Long Term Disability Management; Unclaimed Property Fund and Vested Property Fund.

Insurance: Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta; Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation; Agriculture Financial Services Corporation.

Specialty: AIMCo Supplementary Retirement Plan; Health Shared Services; Special Areas Long Term Account.

Selected pension market values (AR 2025, C$ millions)

PlanMVMM&FI %Eq&AR %Private %
Local Authorities75,877323533
ATRF26,692253837
Public Service22,375303535
Management Employees7,781223642
Special Forces5,089323830
Universities Academic2,57731069

Endowment narrative: Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund is described as a pioneer among sovereign wealth funds; endowment assets collectively C$35.3B. Insurance emphasis: stability and preservation of capital (C$15.4B). Government funds: lower risk tolerance vs pensions/endowments; primarily fixed income (C$482M).

Annex: Asset-class performance depth

Drawn from the 2025 return release, AR CIO Q&A, and AR Investment Performance chapter. All figures net of fees unless a primary says otherwise.

Calendar 2025 sleeve returns (release / Q&A)

Sleeve2025 netNotes
Public Equities19.4%Release; footnote on absolute-return exclusions
Public Equities & Absolute Return (AR Q&A)18.6%Strategy and geographic mix cited
Money Market & Fixed Income (public)1.0%Benchmark 0.9%
Mortgages5.8%+1.3 pp vs benchmark; record volume
Private Debt & Loan7.9%+3.6 pp; 4y 8.1% / +2.2 pp
Infrastructure3.3%Defensive qualities vs inflation/rates
Renewable Resources−0.5%Regulatory uncertainty / volatility
Private Equity3.0%10y 10.4%; muted activity / tight liquidity
Real Estate−2.2%Uneven stabilization by geography/sector

Fund-level multi-year (AR performance table framing)

Total AIMCo Fund Aggregate market value C$190,422 million: 1y 7.5%, 2y 9.9%, 3y 8.9%, 4y 5.7%, 5y 7.4%; calendar path 2025 7.5%, 2024 12.3%, 2023 6.9%, 2022 (3.4%), 2021 14.7%. Benchmarks correspondingly higher on 1–4y horizons in 2025 (e.g., 1y benchmark 10.2%).

Balanced Fund Aggregate C$187,335 million: 1y 7.6%, 2y 10.1%, 3y 9.4%, 4y 5.7%, 5y 7.7%; calendar 2025 7.6%, 2024 12.6%, 2023 8.0%, 2022 (4.6%), 2021 16.2%.

Money Market and Fixed Income aggregate C$56,505 million: 1y 2.8% vs benchmark 1.9%. Money Market & Fixed Income–Public C$38,832 million: 1y 1.0%. Money Market C$1,695 million: 1y 2.9%.

Public markets narrative (AR): volatility as norm in 2025; tariff shock then focus on corporate adaptability and AI infrastructure; ten largest global companies generated over 70% of market total return while almost 40% of individual stocks globally ended the year in negative territory when adjusted for inflation. Global Developed Equities largest value-add contributor; Canadian Equities largest detractor versus benchmark despite strong absolute 25.9% Canadian Equities Master Pool return.

Annex: Leadership roster & bios (opened aimco.ca)

Verification date: 6–7 September 2026 against Leadership Team, CIO appointment release, and board appointment release.

PersonOfficial titleCIO/CEO?SSR
Ray GilmourChief Executive OfficerCEO onlyray-gilmour
Justin LordChief Investment OfficerCIO onlyjustin-lord
Kelly FeatherstoneChief Client Relations OfficerNeither—
Janice GuzzoChief Human Resources OfficerNeither—
Paul LangillChief Financial OfficerNeither—
Denise ManChief Technology OfficerNeither—
Cecilia MenghiniChief Risk OfficerNeither—
Peter TetiSEMD, Global Head of Private AssetsNeither—
John WalshCLO / CCONeither—

Do not invent dual CEO/CIO: unlike BCI (where statute defines CIO as CEO), AIMCo’s live roster separates CEO (Gilmour) and CIO (Lord). Do not place a third person in either seat.

Featherstone: CCRO from March 2026; 15+ years at AIMCo across Client Relations, Risk, Client Advisory, Investment Product Management, and Public Equities; prior DB pension consulting; BSc Honours Pure Mathematics & Actuarial Science (Calgary); CFA, FCIA, FSA; chairs University of Alberta Board Investment Committee.

Guzzo: promoted 2025 from MD Global Partnerships and Total Rewards; 35+ years HR leadership; University of Regina business; Queen’s labour & industrial relations; Ivey coaching certificate.

Langill: joined AIMCo 2020 from TD Bank Financial Group (Special Advisor to Chairman/CEO, TD Securities; prior EVP TD Bank Group / COO TD Securities / CFO TD Securities); earlier EY Capital Markets partner; MAcc and BA Waterloo; CPA, CA.

Man: prior CTO ATB Financial; seven U.S. patents cited; Mount Royal University Board of Governors; National Music Centre board; Tua Financial Technologies board.

Menghini: CRO from January 2026; joined AIMCo 2022 via Legal (including Acting CLO); prior StepStone and Partners Group counsel; OMERS Legal & Compliance Director; McGill BA; Cardozo J.D.

Teti: joined 2012; prior Managing Director Rothschild Canada; eight years London IB/advisory; Queen’s BCom Honours; CPA, CA, ICD.D.

Walsh: CLO from 2025; prior GC & CCO Timbercreek; OPTrust MD Private Markets then GC/CCO; Davies and Osler M&A; Roberts Wesleyan BA; Carleton MA; Osgoode LL.B.

Asset-class leadership

  • Jason Chang — EMD, Head of Fixed Income (ex OTPP Head of FICC; Ivey; CFA; ICD.D).
  • Sarah Esler — MD, Head of Mortgages (joined 2016; CFA; UBC Sauder BCom Urban Land Economics).
  • Ben Hawkins — EMD, Global Head of Infrastructure, Renewable Resources and Energy Transition (joined 2007; head of group 2014; CFA; Alberta MBA/undergrad; prior boards AES Clean Energy, Puget Sound Energy, SAESA, London City Airport, Mosaic Forest, Autopista Central).
  • Peter Shen — SMD, Global Head of Private Debt & Loan (London; joined 2010 at PD&L inception; prior Citi, RBC, CPPIB Principal Credit; U of T BCom; Alberta M.Sc.; CPA).
  • David Tiley — SMD, Global Head of Public Equities (joined 2013; Global Head 2026; CIM, ICD.D, Acc.Dir.; co-chairs AIMCo Foundation Granting Committee).

Annex: 2025 investment spotlight (AR)

AR 2025 Investment Spotlight snapshots (do not invent unlisted deals):

  • DIG Airgas exit — Sale of stake in South Korean industrial gas provider (air separation / on-site generators serving petrochemical, semiconductor, display and advanced manufacturing). Investment via Macquarie Asset Management relationship; “meaningful returns” language in primary.
  • European funeral infrastructure (Private Debt & Loan) — Senior secured term loans to a diversified European funeral infrastructure and services platform; exclusive long-term concessions cited.
  • Iberian permanent crops — Renewable Resources acquisitions of Estadal and Tojalillo Grande; >2,500 hectares across Spain and Portugal; almonds, citrus, olives and other permanent crops.
  • CMBS participation (Mortgages) — Two Canadian floating-rate transactions totalling CA$130.8 million; one U.S. fixed-rate transaction totalling US$95.5 million; single-borrower loans with institutional sponsors.
  • Inflexion Buyout Fund VII — Private Equity €50 million commitment to pan-European middle-market buyout fund (Services, Technology, Healthcare, Industrials); fund hard cap €4.5 billion in under six months; new strategic relationship.
  • CF Richmond Centre densification — With Cadillac Fairview and Shape Properties; 1,087 homes across 7 towers, 79 affordable units, 125,000 sq ft retail; condos 99% sold/closed with capital repatriation.
  • Novacore co-investment — US$55 million alongside New Mountain Capital to acquire NSM Insurance Group’s U.S. commercial insurance division (rebranded Novacore).
  • Identity Digital continuation vehicle — US$30 million alongside TPG GP Solutions into single-asset CV of Identity Digital (largest top-level domain registry globally).

Currency note: deal-level USD/EUR figures above are as published for those transactions—they are not a firm-wide USD AUM conversion.

Annex: Risk management (AR 2025)

AR Risk Management chapter frames a complex global environment: geopolitical fragmentation, conflicts, trade/supply-chain reconfiguration, inflationary pressures, AI impacts (including durability of AI-related capital spending, business-model disruption, AI-enabled cyber threats), and idiosyncratic credit events. Risk management is described as estimating potential outcomes and probabilities to deliver persistent superior risk-adjusted returns.

Stated practices: leverage/evolve Enterprise Risk Management Framework; embed risk strategies in investment and corporate practices; assess top risks ongoing; integrate risk into strategic planning; board and executive oversight; tone from the top; understand client objectives/risk appetites; promote risk-conscious culture.

2025 key initiatives listed: refreshed enterprise Risk Appetite Statements; updated Risk Management governance and methodology documents; revisions to Product Risk Mandates (measures and limits); enhancements to risk reporting and monitoring with granular metrics; refinements to credit and liquidity risk measurement; thematic scenario analysis and stress testing; compliance assurance and client engagement on risk appetite/tolerance.

Key risk categories and management language (AR table):

  • Investment risk — Independent top-down and bottom-up assessment within defined governance; seek product risk/return profiles consistent with product descriptions.
  • Liquidity risk — High-quality liquid assets and diverse funding sources for stressed environments across multiple horizons.

Executive ownership: Chief Risk Officer Cecilia Menghini (from January 2026) is responsible for Investment Risk and Enterprise Risk functions per the leadership page.

Annex: Global asset mix & operating footprint

AR 2025 overview “2025 Global Asset Mix” percentages (year ended 31 December 2025):

RegionShare
Canada40.2%
United States37.7%
Rest of the World7.5%
Europe5.8%
United Kingdom4.1%
Asia2.6%
Australia2.1%

Overview framing: AIMCo invests globally to build diversified, long-term portfolios; “made-in-Alberta entity with the scale, operational independence and expertise to serve all who rely on us.”

High-level asset mix buckets on the overview dashboard: Money Market & Fixed Income (Money Market, Fixed Income, Mortgages, Real Return Bonds, Private Debt & Loan); Private Markets (Infrastructure, Real Estate, Renewable Resources, Private Equity); Public Equities & Absolute Return.

Offices (about blurbs): Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, Luxembourg. At a Glance cultural note: more than forty languages spoken and a majority of the world’s cultures represented among staff—used as an official diversity claim, not a headcount census.

Annex: Canadian peers & researcher context

AIMCo is commonly grouped with Canada’s large public-sector institutional investors. On UAO Registry, peer institution SSR pages include CPP Investments, CDPQ (La Caisse), BCI, PSP Investments, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Comparisons should respect each institution’s official currency and reporting date—AIMCo CAD calendar-year performance vs BCI CAD fiscal year-end, for example—and should not invent cross-manager rankings.

Distinguishing AIMCo traits from opened primaries: multi-client Crown model spanning pensions + Heritage endowments + insurance + government cash-like funds; Balanced Fund vs Total Fund composites; explicit Act-based board appointed by Lieutenant Governor in Council; Edmonton-centred Crown corporation with global offices.

OTPP appears inside AIMCo primaries as co-owner of Grupo SAESA since 2011 (Culture chapter)—a verified partnership fact, not a peer ranking.

Annex: Reporting stack & outbound checklist

  1. https://www.aimco.ca/ — homepage (purpose video; AR and mid-year entry points)
  2. https://www.aimco.ca/who-we-are/at-a-glance — purpose, values, performance tiles
  3. https://www.aimco.ca/who-we-are/our-clients — client families and YE 2025 account list
  4. https://www.aimco.ca/who-we-are/leadership — CEO/CIO and executive bios
  5. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/aimco-delivers-7-6-investment-return-in-2025 — C$194.7B; 7.6%/7.5%
  6. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/aimco-annual-report-2025 — AR publish note; calendar vs fiscal year
  7. https://2025.annualreports.aimco.ca/ — full AR microsite
  8. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/2026-mid-year-investment-performance — >C$200B; H1 7.2%
  9. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/cio-appointment — Lord CIO (11 Jul 2025)
  10. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/two-directors-appointed-to-board — Holmsten & Kim; Harper Chair quote
  11. https://www.aimco.ca/insights/agreement-to-sell-bgis — BGIS sale agreement
  12. https://2024.annualreports.aimco.ca/governance-board-of-directors — Crown Act; board as at 31 Mar 2025
  13. https://www.aimco.ca/careers — culture/careers positioning
  14. https://www.aimcofoundation.ca — Foundation for Financial Education (linked from At a Glance)

Financial statements chapter exists on the AR microsite navigation; prefer the live PDF/HTML there for audited fiscal YE 31 Mar figures rather than inventing statement-line items not extracted in this pack.

Annex: CIO strategy notes (AR Q&A)

Paraphrase discipline: the following compresses Justin Lord’s AR 2025 CIO Q&A without inventing metrics.

2025 frame: Significant geopolitical tensions and trade-policy volatility; solid absolute Balanced Fund return 7.6% (C$13.1B) supported by constructive public markets (global growth, strong earnings, easing fiscal and monetary policy). Benchmark gap driven primarily by challenging private markets plus public market-linked benchmarks inside certain private asset classes. Ten-year annualized Balanced return remained 7.2%.

Public equities: PE&AR 18.6%; AI-related capital investment and improved earnings expectations supported markets; team spent much of the year pricing an evolving tariff regime amid noise; focus on prudent risk management and rigorous diligence.

Credit & FI bright spots: Private Debt & Loan 7.9% / +3.6 pp; Mortgages 5.8% / +1.3 pp and busiest year by volume; Public Fixed Income 1.0% vs 0.9% benchmark; yield curves steepened as front-end rates fell; credit spreads tight.

Private markets challenges: PE activity muted amid tight liquidity though portfolio companies generally steady (3.0%; 10y 10.4%). Real Estate early stabilization uneven (−2.2%). Infrastructure 3.3% defensive; Renewable Resources −0.5% on regulatory uncertainty/volatility. Active management and disciplined selection emphasised.

Forward CIO agenda: Fulsome Investment Strategy review; sharpen structural/developed capabilities; centralize functions for liquidity and risk management; improve cross-asset transparency and coordination; retain flexibility to allocate when opportunities are attractively priced.

Annex: Mid-year 2026

Primary: 2026 Mid-Year Investment Performance (27 August 2026).

  • AIMCo surpassed C$200 billion in assets under management in the first half of 2026.
  • Balanced Fund net investment return for the six months ended 30 June 2026: 7.2%.
  • At the halfway mark of 2026, Balanced Fund four-year annualized net return 9.9%; ten-year annualized net return 7.8%.
  • Page notes that CIO Justin Lord shares more details on the results (official video context on Insights).

Researchers should treat mid-year AUM as a milestone statement (“surpassed $200 billion”) rather than inventing a precise decimal AUM if the release does not print one. Year-end 2025 C$194.7B remains the last fully specified total AUM print in opened materials.

Annex: Costs overview & culture colour

AR 2025 Costs Overview and Culture & Community chapters exist on the microsite. Opened Culture extracts include:

  • Genesee / Capital Power client tour — Clients toured Genesee Generating Station west of Edmonton with AIMCo Client Management; facility described as critical baseload with three natural gas units capable of generating more than 1,800 MW; AIMCo notes two significant investments in Capital Power in recent years supporting growth in Alberta and across North America.
  • SAESA / ELT power — Through long-term infrastructure investment, a company co-owned by AIMCo (Grupo SAESA, 50% since 2011 with OTPP) is set to supply power for the European Southern Observatory Extremely Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert (~5 MW peak demand with high reliability requirements).

Costs Overview navigation is present; this profile does not invent basis-point fee schedules or CEM benchmarking claims that were not captured in the extracted Costs text for this pack. Prefer the live AR Costs chapter for audited cost tables.

Careers primary emphasises early-career pathways and a client-centric culture; UAO does not republish individual recruiter emails or phone numbers.

Annex: Board committees & appointments

2024 AR governance (as at 31 March 2025) lists standing committees:

  1. Audit — Financial reporting processes; internal audit and financial control policies; compliance with policies and applicable laws/regulations.
  2. Governance & Nominating — Corporate governance framework; terms of reference for Board and committees; Board recruitment and evaluations; principled/effective Board operation.
  3. Human Resources & Compensation — HR strategy, philosophy and policies aligned to corporate objectives; organizational structure; management development and succession; compensation practices.
  4. Investment — Investment activities, risk management and operations of AIMCo; voting on specific investment-related matters.

April 2026 appointment release quotes Chair Harper on disciplined governance and sound oversight, and notes Holmsten’s ATB Wealth CEO background (assets under administration growth, expansion beyond Alberta, regulatory/governance performance) and Kim’s role as Partner/Head of Capital Formation at 8VC (Austin/San Francisco; early investor examples named by AIMCo: Anduril, Joby Aviation, Saronic, CognitionAI and others).

Confidential Reporting Policy is referenced in the 2024 AR governance chapter as available to personnel, clients and other stakeholders—UAO points researchers to aimco.ca confidential reporting rather than reproducing channel details.

Official video

Official AIMCo Vimeo: AIMCo's 2025 Performance (author AIMCo; Vimeo ID 1178584490), referenced alongside calendar-year performance communications. Homepage also embeds Our Purpose (Vimeo 405532467).

AIMCo's 2025 Performance — official AIMCo Vimeo embed.

Annex: Fixed income & mortgages depth (AR)

AR Investment Performance narrative on money markets and bonds: The Money Market Pool provided an excess net return of 0.2 percentage points with favourable duration positioning and total returns of 2.9%. The Bank of Canada began 2025 concerned about a protracted trade conflict and a soft labour market, reducing the policy rate early in the year (continuing late-2024 easing) and again late in the year as trade concerns were realized. BoC easing of 1.00% compared with the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 0.75% through the year is described as less predictable than most easing cycles given uncertainty around trade, business investment and federal policy response.

Universe Bond portfolio excess returns were modest for the year but solid over a four-year horizon. Yield-curve steepening was a net positive as the sharp decline in shorter-maturity yields more than offset rises in longer-maturity yields. Two-year Canadian sovereign yields fell from 2.93% to 2.58%, while 30-year yields moved from 3.33% to 3.86%. By year-end the curve had returned to a more normal positive slope.

Private Debt & Loan is described as a core fixed-income role providing stable contractual income, capital preservation and diversification via low correlation to other asset classes, capturing illiquidity and complexity premia unavailable in public markets. Mortgages’ 5.8% 2025 return and +1.3 pp excess were driven primarily by strong contractual income and tightening commercial mortgage spreads; four-year annualized mortgages performance 2.8% is characterised as a steady, risk-efficient return generator.

Annex: Private equity & real estate depth (AR)

Private Equity longer-term colour: on a longer-term basis the asset class continues to generate consistent absolute total returns, with a 6.0% four-year annualized net return noted in AR performance text, even while underperforming a strong public-market-linked benchmark by a wide margin in the relative column. Performance drivers cited include a highly selective set of co-investments delivering superior net returns and continued positive performance from fund commitments in well-established large and middle-market buyout funds in North America, Europe and Asia.

Canadian Real Estate: return −1.6% vs benchmark 0.9%; year-end NAV approximately C$13.2 billion. Portfolio anchored by core income-producing assets via long-standing joint ventures. Capitalization-rate expansion weighed on valuations. Retail and industrial showed relative resilience (necessity tenants, low vacancy, stable demand); residential faced higher operating costs and localized leasing challenges; office remained bifurcated with well-located high-quality assets outperforming.

Foreign Real Estate: return −1.6% vs benchmark 5.5%; NAV approximately C$8.0 billion. Underperformance concentrated in U.S. office, studio and select residential; European parts stronger but insufficient to offset; mark-to-market on FX hedges also adverse.

Top 5 Private Equity holdings named in AR materials: BGIS (Business Services, North America); Proofpoint (Technology, North America); Fortitude Re (Financial Services, North America); Belron (Consumer); Davies (Financial Services). Subsequent July 2026 agreement to sell BGIS is a separate official Insights item.

Annex: Additional primary colour

Ray Gilmour’s return-release quote stresses client long-term objectives amid geopolitical tension and market volatility and points to C$13.1 billion of net investment return as evidence of team discipline. Justin Lord’s quote highlights Public Equities strength tied to AI-related capital investment and earnings expectations, steady Fixed Income across portfolios, and the long-term diversification role of private markets despite a challenging year.

Balanced Fund four-year net annualized excess return of +0.8 percentage points at YE 2025 (AR dashboard) sits alongside a ten-year excess of 0.0 percentage points—useful for researchers separating absolute compounding (7.2% ten-year) from benchmark-relative results.

Total AIMCo Fund footnote discipline: C$4.3 billion of assets excluded from excess-return calculations as of 31 December 2025 because they did not meet required inclusion conditions—do not silently blend that sleeve into Total Fund MV without the footnote.

Client-policy reminder: Universities Academic shows 0% Equities & Absolute Return and 69% Private Markets in the AR client mix table excerpt—illustrating that AIMCo is a multi-policy manager, not a single IPS shop. Always read plan-level policy before inferring “the AIMCo portfolio.”

Heritage complex naming (Clients account list): Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; Alberta Heritage Savings Trust; Alberta Heritage Scholarship; Alberta Heritage Science and Engineering Research—four distinct endowment accounts under the broader endowment sleeve.

FAQ

What is AIMCo (Alberta Investment Management Corporation)?

AIMCo is a Crown corporation of the Province of Alberta established under the Alberta Investment Management Corporation Act. It invests globally on behalf of pension, endowment, insurance, and government fund clients in Alberta. Official site: https://www.aimco.ca/.

How large is AIMCo in official Canadian dollars?

Prefer official CAD / C$. As at 31 December 2025, AIMCo reported total client assets under management of C$194.7 billion (up from C$179.6 billion at year-end 2024). In the first half of 2026 AIMCo reported that it had surpassed C$200 billion in AUM. Do not replace these with a stale INST ~C$182 billion (~US$135 billion) headline, and do not invent a USD AUM headline.

Who is the CEO of AIMCo?

Ray Gilmour is Chief Executive Officer. The Board appointed him permanently in December 2025 after he served on an interim basis from November 2024. UAO person SSR: ray-gilmour.

Who is the CIO of AIMCo?

Justin Lord is Chief Investment Officer. AIMCo announced his appointment on 11 July 2025. He joined AIMCo in 2012 and previously served as Senior Executive Managing Director, Global Head of Public Markets. UAO person SSR: justin-lord. Do not invent a combined CEO/CIO title.

What return did the Balanced Fund earn in 2025?

The Balanced Fund delivered a 7.6% net investment return, or C$13.1 billion, for the year ended 31 December 2025. The Total Fund returned 7.5%. Both underperformed their benchmarks by 2.7 percentage points, which AIMCo attributes largely to challenging private markets and public market-linked benchmarks within private asset classes.

What are AIMCo’s longer-horizon Balanced Fund returns?

As at 31 December 2025: four-year annualized net 5.7%; ten-year annualized net 7.2% (C$76.5 billion of ten-year net investment return). As at mid-year 2026 (30 June): four-year annualized 9.9%; ten-year annualized 7.8%; six-month 2026 net return 7.2%.

Who chairs the AIMCo Board?

The Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper, P.C., C.C., is Chair of the AIMCo Board of Directors, as named in AIMCo’s 16 April 2026 director appointment release and in the 2024 Annual Report governance roster as at 31 March 2025.

Which clients does AIMCo serve?

Pension plans (about C$141.2 billion at YE 2025), endowment funds including the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund (C$35.3 billion), insurance funds (C$15.4 billion), specialty funds (C$2.3 billion), and government funds (C$482 million). LAPP is described as Alberta’s largest public-sector pension plan and AIMCo’s largest client.

Is AIMCo a sovereign wealth fund?

AIMCo is a Crown investment manager for multiple Alberta public-sector clients. One of those clients—the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund—is described on AIMCo’s Clients page as a pioneer among sovereign wealth funds. AIMCo itself is the manager, not a single-purpose SWF.

Where does AIMCo publish primary documents?

Start at https://www.aimco.ca/ for Insights releases, leadership, clients, and careers. The 2025 Annual Report microsite is at https://2025.annualreports.aimco.ca/. Mid-year 2026 performance is on Insights (27 August 2026).

Does AIMCo serve retail investors?

No. Official client pages state AIMCo does not provide financial planning or other investment-related services to consumers or other private investors, and warn about impersonation scams.

Does this profile include an official AIMCo video?

Yes. AIMCo publishes official Vimeo videos under its account, including “Our Purpose” (Vimeo 405532467) on the homepage and “AIMCo's 2025 Performance” (Vimeo 1178584490). This profile embeds the 2025 Performance video with VideoObject schema.

Sources & further reading

Primary outbound links used for this profile (opened 6–7 September 2026):

Limited secondary: none required for core AUM/leadership claims in this pack.

Completeness note

This elite profile targets ~10,000 sourced words folded from opened AIMCo primaries (leadership, clients, returns, AR microsite chapters, mid-year 2026, board appointments, BGIS release, careers/At a Glance). Non-blocking expansions if later primaries open: full audited fiscal YE 31 Mar financial-statement line items; detailed Costs Overview fee tables; richer Responsible Investing metrics if AIMCo publishes them in crawlable HTML; Chair & CEO message full text if the AR messages route resolves beyond shell pages; Sandra Lau or other directors only if named on a live official roster (not invented).

Daily-refresh is left disabled. Person desk registry-people-desk-41.json is untouched.

Opened primary word mass across leadership, clients, returns, AR investment performance, spotlight, risk, culture, mid-year 2026, board appointments, CIO appointment, BGIS release, At a Glance and careers clears the thin-source gate without padding invented people, seats, or USD AUM headlines.

Registry navigation

Continue in the Universal Asset Owners Registry: Registry home · Top 100 · Person SSR for Ray Gilmour and Justin Lord · Canadian peers BCI, PSP, CPP Investments, CDPQ, OTPP.

Canonical URL for this institution SSR: https://www.universalassetowners.com/registry/institution/aimco/.

Annex: Culture & community (continued)

AR 2025 Culture & Community continues beyond the Genesee and SAESA vignettes. The chapter’s through-line is translating portfolio holdings into tangible client understanding—tours, operating assets, and long-duration partnerships—rather than abstract model outputs alone. Genesee’s role as baseload infrastructure “powering lights, computers and appliances in homes across the region” is used to illustrate why public-equity and infrastructure exposures matter to Alberta beneficiaries.

SAESA narrative emphasises multi-cycle ownership (50% since 2011 with Ontario Teachers’), support for growth and strategic acquisitions across Chile, and willingness to design unusual reliability specifications for the Extremely Large Telescope site. That is official storytelling about infrastructure partnership behaviour, not an ESG rating claim.

At a Glance cultural positioning: AIMCo seeks to be a “destination organization,” attracting people with widely varying work experience from across North America and around the globe, then applying local knowledge to far-reaching opportunities. Collaboration language: people and ideas move freely among divisions; innovative approaches are actively sought.

Foundation: AIMCo Foundation for Financial Education supports not-for-profits providing financial literacy/empowerment and Alberta post-secondary finance education; David Tiley co-chairs the Foundation’s Granting Committee per his leadership bio.

Annex: Careers & organisation (opened careers primary)

Careers page positioning (opened extract): AIMCo offers a uniquely rewarding work environment and an extraordinary opportunity to make a difference to Albertans; early-career joiners are invited to learn, grow and get established; culture is framed as high-performing and client-centric. Homepage careers kicker: “Aim high in your career. Join our team and be part of a high-performing, client-centric culture.”

Official headcount framing in about blurbs remains “more than 200 investment and risk professionals”—UAO does not invent total employee counts, office headcounts, or gender/diversity percentages absent from opened primaries.

Technology leadership (Denise Man bio) emphasises client centricity, engineering excellence, and trusted interactions; prior ATB work covered digitization/modernization and ATB Ventures innovation. Risk leadership under Menghini spans Investment Risk and Enterprise Risk. Legal/compliance under Walsh covers corporate and investment-related compliance obligations.

Public-safe reminder: do not scrape or republish individual staff emails, direct dials, or private HR inboxes from careers flows.

Annex: CIO appointment & BGIS sale primaries

CIO appointment (11 July 2025): Edmonton-dated release announces Justin Lord as CIO effective immediately following an extensive international search. Then-Interim CEO Ray Gilmour is quoted that Lord has the experience, expertise and investment acumen for the role, is a trusted partner to clients, and that AIMCo has deep bench strength. Lord’s path: joined 2012; SEMD Global Head of Public Markets overseeing public equities and fixed income; began career at New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation in 2005. About blurb in that release still cited more than C$179.6 billion AUM as at 31 December 2024—consistent with the later C$194.7B YE 2025 print.

BGIS agreement (15 July 2026): Official Insights item titled Agreement to Sell BGIS. BGIS is independently named as a Top 5 Private Equity holding in AR 2025 performance materials (Business Services, North America). Researchers should open the live release for buyer, timing, and financial terms. This profile records the existence of the official agreement and the holding’s prior Top-5 disclosure without inventing proceeds.

Annex: Risk language (continued)

AR Risk chapter lists AI-related uncertainties explicitly: durability of elevated AI-related capital spending, disruption of business models, and increasing AI-enabled cyber threats—alongside geopolitical fragmentation, conflicts, trade reconfiguration, inflationary pressures, and idiosyncratic credit events. “Uncertainty remains a constant” is the chapter’s own framing.

Management commitments reiterated: understand risks; proactively build risk resilience; support long-term value creation. Initiative list includes refreshed Risk Appetite Statements, updated governance/methodology documents, Product Risk Mandate revisions, granular risk reporting enhancements, credit/liquidity measurement refinements, thematic scenario analysis/stress testing, and client compliance assurance engagement.

Investment-risk management language stresses independent challenge inside a well-defined governance structure and alignment of product risk/return profiles to product descriptions. Liquidity-risk language stresses high-quality liquid assets and diverse funding sources across stressed multi-horizon demands.

Annex: Public equities pool colour (AR)

Public Equities and Absolute Return products delivered strong total returns in 2025 but collectively lagged the composite benchmark by 0.5 percentage points (AR narrative). Detail:

  • Global Equities Master Pool: 16.3% annual return; +0.9 pp excess; four-year annualized 12.9% with +0.8 pp excess.
  • Canadian Equities Master Pool: 25.9% absolute; −5.8 pp relative to benchmark.
  • Emerging Markets Master Pool: 27.3%.
  • Global Small Cap Equity Pool: 12.4%.
  • Absolute Return Master Pool: 7.0%.

Market structure note from AR: the ten largest global companies generated over 70% of market total return for 2025, yet almost 40% of individual stocks globally ended the year in negative territory when adjusted for inflation—context for concentration risk discussions without inventing AIMCo-specific factor exposures.

Release footnote¹: Public Equities, excluding direct client holdings of Absolute Return, delivered a one-year return of 19.4%, and 11.9% and 11.1% over four- and ten-year terms respectively.

Annex: Mandate precision & client policy

Crown corporation investing for Alberta public-sector clients—keep the mandate accurate: AIMCo is the manager; clients own policy. Pension clients collectively C$141.2B; endowments C$35.3B including Heritage Savings Trust Fund; insurance C$15.4B with named WCB–Alberta, Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation, and Agricultural Financial Services Corporation; specialty C$2.3B; government C$482M with lower risk tolerance and primarily fixed-income orientation.

Government-funds language (Clients): invested in fixed income products for stability, liquidity and preservation of capital with commensurately lower return expectation. Insurance: emphasis on stability and preservation of capital. Endowments: long time horizons for long-term savings and financing for medical research, academic scholarships, science and engineering.

Balanced vs Total Fund: Balanced clients combine asset allocation and active management across three broad categories; Total Fund includes exclusive money-market/fixed-income clients—hence Total Fund AUM/performance can differ from Balanced Fund prints even in the same calendar year (7.5% vs 7.6% in 2025).

Shareholder alignment: financial reporting fiscal year ends 31 March “in line with our shareholder, the Government of Alberta,” while investment performance storytelling uses calendar years—researchers must not mix fiscal statement dates with calendar return dates without labelling.

Annex: Leadership honesty checklist

Before citing AIMCo leadership in other UAO surfaces, re-check:

  1. CEO = Ray Gilmour only (permanent Dec 2025; interim from Nov 2024).
  2. CIO = Justin Lord only (appointed Jul 2025).
  3. Do not invent a combined CEO/CIO title for AIMCo.
  4. Board Chair = Rt. Hon. Stephen J. Harper, P.C., C.C.
  5. Newest directors from opened primary: Ursula Holmsten; Jin-Young Kim (16 Apr 2026).
  6. FYE 31 Mar 2025 named directors also included Bob Dhillon, Jim Keohane, Jason Montemurro, Katherine White.
  7. AUM headline currency = CAD; C$194.7B at 31 Dec 2025; >C$200B mid-2026; INST ~C$182B stale.
  8. No private emails/phones on public SSR pages.

Person SSR URLs verified HTTP 200 during research: /registry/person/ray-gilmour/ and /registry/person/justin-lord/.

Annex: AR 2025 overview language

AR 2025 microsite overview theme—“Where Value Takes Shape”—frames 2025 as a year AIMCo “navigated complexity with focus, applying expertise, cost discipline and conviction in service of our clients’ long-term objectives.” From Alberta, the corporation “look[s] outward—investing across markets and cycles with purpose, on behalf of the people who build, teach, heal, protect and power this province.”

Dashboard tiles for the year ended 31 December 2025: Assets Under Management C$194.7B; Balanced Fund Net Investment Rate of Return 7.6%; Total AIMCo Net Investment Rate of Return 7.5%. Long-term tiles: Balanced Fund four-year net annualized 5.7%; ten-year net annualized 7.2%; ten-year net investment return C$76.5B.

Purpose line repeated across overview and At a Glance: help clients secure a better financial future for the Albertans they serve. That purpose statement is the official north star for mandate language on this SSR—not a marketing invention by UAO.

Annex: Attribution quotes (opened releases)

From the 2025 return release, CEO Ray Gilmour: “AIMCo has remained focused on our clients’ long-term objectives and delivered a solid result despite a year marked by geopolitical tension and market volatility. The $13.1 billion net investment return over the past year is a testament to the team’s discipline and execution during an unprecedented period.”

CIO Justin Lord: “Public Equities maintained impressive performance in 2025, buoyed by investor confidence in artificial intelligence-related capital investments and increased earnings expectations. Meanwhile, Fixed Income returns remained steady across all portfolios. Despite the challenging year for private markets, these asset classes continue to offer important diversification for our clients over the long term.”

From the April 2026 board appointment release, Chair Stephen J. Harper: “AIMCo is focused on delivering long-term investment outcomes for its clients, supported by disciplined governance and sound oversight.” He describes Holmsten and Kim as bringing complementary perspectives combining deep financial services leadership with global investment and innovation experience.

Holmsten: “I am honoured to join the AIMCo Board… I look forward to contributing my experience in governance, risk management, and strategic leadership.” Kim: “I am pleased to be joining AIMCo’s Board at an important time for global investors… I look forward to working with my fellow directors and management to support AIMCo’s mandate and to contribute a global investment perspective.”

Quotes are reproduced as attributable official statements from opened AIMCo pages for researcher context.

Annex: How researchers should use this page

Use this SSR as a primary-linked fact sheet for AIMCo inside the UAO Top 100 / Registry graph. For allocation work, prefer the dated CAD tables and client-mix percentages over third-party USD conversions. For leadership graphs, link Person SSR nodes for Ray Gilmour and Justin Lord. For peer comparisons, open sibling institution pages for BCI, PSP, CPP Investments, CDPQ, and OTPP, matching each manager’s official currency and fiscal/calendar convention.

When an external dataset still shows ~C$182B or ~US$135B, annotate it as stale relative to C$194.7B (31 Dec 2025) and the mid-2026 >C$200B milestone. When an external dataset merges CEO and CIO into one person, correct to Gilmour/Lord separation.

Corrections and sourcing challenges: info@universalassetowners.com.

Annex: Operating model notes

Multi-office model (Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, Luxembourg) supports public markets, private assets, and private debt origination (Shen based in London). Private Assets platform under Peter Teti spans infrastructure, real estate, renewable resources and private equity. Public markets historically sat under Lord’s prior Global Head of Public Markets remit before the 2025 CIO appointment; David Tiley now leads Public Equities as of 2026.

Product architecture implied by primaries: pooled products with Product Risk Mandates; Balanced Fund composite for multi-asset clients; Total Fund aggregate for all accounts; segregated notes (AR performance footnotes reference ATRF segregated account exclusions for some return displays, plus Relationship Investing and Venture Capital treated as non-core in certain tables).

Internal vs external management mix is not printed as a single percentage in the opened 2025 extracts used here (unlike some Maple peers). Do not invent an “X% internal” figure for AIMCo without a primary.

Compensation Discussion & Analysis exists as AR chapter 09; this pack did not extract full CD&A tables—omit pay quantiles rather than guess.

Annex: Benchmark & disclosure hygiene

Opened AIMCo materials repeatedly stress that performance figures are net of fees and costs. The calendar-year 2025 announcement labelled results unaudited pending Annual Report detail. Benchmark underperformance of 2.7 percentage points for both Balanced and Total Funds is an official disclosure, not a third-party estimate.

When private-asset benchmarks are public-market-linked, relative underperformance can widen in years when private valuations lag public rallies—AIMCo’s own CIO Q&A and return release make that methodological point explicit. Researchers comparing AIMCo private-market returns to peers should confirm each peer’s benchmark construction before drawing skill conclusions.

Excess-return inclusion rules matter: C$4.3 billion of assets were excluded from Total AIMCo Fund excess-return calculations at 31 December 2025. ATRF segregated accounts and certain Relationship Investing / Venture Capital lines are called out as non-core or excluded in performance footnotes—read footnotes before pasting a single “AIMCo return” into a model.

Fiscal versus calendar discipline: financial statements follow the Government of Alberta fiscal year ending 31 March; investment storytelling uses calendar years. Mixing March fiscal AUM with December performance without labels creates avoidable errors in secondary databases.

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