The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board accepted the resignation of Chief Executive Mark Machin a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that he had traveled to the United Arab Emirates and received a Covid-19 vaccination there.
The CPPIB, Canada’s largest pension fund and one of the world’s largest institutional investors, said John Graham would replace Mr. Machin as CEO effective immediately. Mr. Graham, a senior managing director, has been with the fund for ten years and previously served as global head of credit investment.
Mr. Machin, an investment banker with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for 20 years, made the trip despite advice from the Canadian government not to travel during the pandemic and in the midst of one of the slowest vaccinations in the West.
CPPIB is a crown corporation, meaning it is run independently of the federal government, but is the steward of pension liabilities mandated by the government. Board members are selected by the Ministry of Finance. Katherine Cuplinskas, a spokeswoman for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, said the minister spoke with the CPPIB board on Thursday evening about Mr Machin’s journey to “ make it clear that Canadians place their trust in the CPPIB and expect it to meet a higher standard is maintained. . ”
“We are very disappointed by this worrying situation and we support the rapid action of the Board of Directors,” said Ms Cuplinskas.
Mr. Machin did not comment when he was reached by phone by the Journal on Friday. A CPPIB spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Machin’s trip came as a surprise to many within the pension fund, and his dismissal left a feeling of shock, said a person familiar with the matter. The global nature of the fund’s workforce created a knock-on effect from phone calls and emails. The pension fund had more than 1,800 employees in nine offices by mid-2020, from Toronto to New York to London and Mumbai. Many of those employees still work from home.
On Thursday, the Journal reported that Mr Machin, aged 54, was given a Covid-19 vaccine in the UAE before millions of Canadians were waiting for a vaccine at home.
There is no evidence that Mr Machin, a British citizen, violated any laws to secure his dose. The Canadian government has urged residents to avoid traveling abroad, but has not banned it. The UAE, meanwhile, has said it distributes vaccines to residents, a designation that foreigners can get through activities such as investing, buying real estate or starting a local business. There is no evidence that Mr. Machin is a resident.
The UAE has made exceptions to its residency requirements. In January, the UAE-sponsored cycling team that won the Tour de France 2020 – a group of about 60 mostly non-resident cyclists and staff – received doses of a Chinese-made vaccine in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE, a federation of seven emirates that encompasses the commercial center of Dubai, has overtaken almost every country in the world with an ambitious vaccination campaign.
As head of the CPPIB, Mr. Machin was responsible for overseeing the money set aside for the retirement of about 20 million Canadians who contribute to the country’s public retirement plan.
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The Canadian fund had stakes in several UAE companies in March 2020, including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC and Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. PJSC, according to the fund’s annual foreign equity disclosures. Last year, the fund invested in the $ 5.4 billion equity debut of Kuaishou Technology
a Chinese video streaming startup, alongside the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a major sovereign investment fund in the UAE.
The vaccination of Mr. Machin has been furore in other parts of the world over cases where wealthy or well-connected people have been able to jump the line for a vaccine. Most of the world is carefully dividing doses to prioritize the most vulnerable, or those on the front lines fighting the pandemic.
In Peru, dozens of government advisers, lobbyists, cabinet ministers and people associated with them, and the former president and his family, received vaccines in secret last year – sparking a scandal there now called Vaccine Gate. Last month, Florida limited vaccines to those who could show proof of residency. Officials there offered the shot to anyone over the age of 65, but worried that the state was becoming a draw for vaccine tourism. Many Canadians, in particular, have been looking to charter jet fighters for quick tours to Florida for vaccines.
Vaccines are very scarce in Canada. According to a tracker from the University of Oxford, about 4% of the Canadian population has received at least one dose, compared to 20% in the US.
Mr. Machin has been the top executive of the Toronto pension fund since June 2016. He previously oversaw international activities. Before his financial career, he qualified as a doctor in the UK after graduating from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
As highly transmissible coronavirus variants fly around the world, scientists are rushing to understand why these new versions of the virus are spreading faster and what this could mean for vaccination efforts. New research says the key may be the spike protein, which gives the coronavirus its unmistakable shape. Illustration: Nick Collingwood / WSJ
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