CPP board keeping close eye on disrupters: CEO Machin
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is looking to use its long investment horizon and global reach to take advantage of economically disruptive forces, from advancing technology to aging populations, chief executive Mark Machin told a business audience at the Canadian Club in Toronto on Tuesday. “CPPIB looks through a very large telescope to discover the large structural changes and shifts happening in the world that will fundamentally change how we all work and live,” Machin said, citing an acceleration of technological change encompassing machine learning, automation and big data. Other disrupters CPPIB is keeping a close eye on — both for the potential to profit and to mitigate risks — are climate change, aging populations and economic power shifts in North America, Europe and Asia. “Because we are placing enormous bets, sometimes in the billions of dollars, we need to be expert at what I call the implications business: predicting the future so we can benefit from its growth and profit from it for the benefit of Canada’s millions of pensioners,” Machin said, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. CPPIB has already invested in Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company headquartered in California that aims to have a fleet of robo taxis available by 2020. In the financial services space, the fund management organization has an investment in Square Capital, a subsidiary of payment processing company Square Inc. Square uses machine learning and vast amounts of data to determine what loans to extend to small businesses.
Machin concluded his speech by saying CPPIB will use its size and scale to be a “disrupter” in five business and social arenas: climate change, water conservation, human rights, executive compensation and board effectiveness.