Stephen Harper’s name in mix as potential head of AIMCo, sources say

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Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper is among those being considered to chair Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), the $160-billion pension and endowment manager whose board of directors and chief executive were purged last week by the Alberta government.

Two sources familiar with events at the investment manager say Harper’s name has been in the mix for at least 10 months, which coincides with when Mark Wiseman, a seasoned pension executive and former CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, vacated the chair role at the end of last year.

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The speculation has grown “louder,” however, since the government jettisoned all 10 directors and a handful of key executives including chief executive Evan Siddall, according to one source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of AIMCo governance.

Alberta Treasury Board President and Finance Minister Nate Horner blamed rising staff numbers and costs — including salaries and third-party management fees — for the shakeup, declaring a “reset” at the arms-length investment manager. But sources familiar with events at the Crown corporation, which manages funds including pensions, endowments, and the provincial government’s Heritage Savings Trust Fund, say there had been tensions between the organization and the government for months over other issues. These included AIMCo’s international expansion through new offices in New York and Singapore, and the government’s focus on driving investments in Alberta.

The shakeup at AIMCo came as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith prepares to unveil her government’s plan to boost the size of the AIMCo-managed Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which, according to its website, “produces income to support government programs essential to Albertans.”

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As an interim step after the AIMCo shakeup, Horner was installed as board chair while Alberta’s deputy minister of executive council, Ray Gilmour, the province’s top bureaucrat, will serve as the interim CEO.

Harper certainly has bona fides in Alberta. He became associated with Western Canada after moving from Toronto to Calgary, where he earned a master’s degree in economics, and after leaving politics he worked out of the Calgary office of international law firm Denton’s, where he advised clients on market access and managing global geopolitical and economic risk.

Following his government’s defeat in 2015, Harper established a private consultancy called Harper & Associates in partnership with his former chief of staff Ray Novak.

It isn’t known how interested Harper is in taking a role with AIMCo, a possibility first reported by Bloomberg earlier Tuesday, and he could not be reached for comment. Some close observers wonder if he would want to wade into the current drama surrounding the investment management organization or pull himself away from his post-political ventures in the private sector.

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“I wonder if Harper would take the job, given all the negative publicity associated with the (Alberta government’s) slash-and-burn approach?” said Keith Ambachtscheer, director emeritus of the International Centre for Pension Management.

Harper has, however, shown an inclination toward the investment management world. In late 2023, he teamed up with former Carl Icahn protégé Courtney Mather to launch Vision One Management Partners, an activist fund that took on U.S. department store operator Kohl’s earlier this year, according to Reuters report in February.

According to his website, Harper is also a director of Colliers International Group Inc., Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and Recover Inc.

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