VP, Chief Investment Officer, Ontario Power Generation
| Topics: Business & Finance |
| Interview Date: January-26-2012 |
| Extraordinary Insights: Be willing to take a risk and get outside your comfort zone. |
Audio-only version:
Colleen Sidford is VP, Chief Investment Officer, Ontario Power Generation. Colleen manages a $20 Billion pension fund and, in this interview, discusses a program for women that she created to help women working at OPG empower themselves and achieve success within the organization.
Bio:
As VP, Chief Investment Officer for Ontario Power Generation, Colleen Sidford is responsible for managing OPG’s large portfolio of investment assets. OPG’s Pension Fund, with over $9 billion in assets, serving 22,700 members and pensioners, is one of the largest single employer pension plans in Canada. In addition to the OPG Pension Fund, OPG manages approximately $12 billion of assets in the Nuclear Used Fuel Fund and the Nuclear Decommissioning Fund. Together the market value of the Funds under management is in excess of $21 billion.
Colleen joined OPG in 2003 as Assistant Treasurer and held the position of VP Corporate Treasurer since 2005. Prior to that, Colleen Sidford owned a private consulting business specializing in providing advisory services to large multinational corporations in the area of international banking and centralized financial shared services. Originally based in Toronto Canada, the business was relocated to The Netherlands to be closer to a largely European client base.
Colleen also held previous positions with The Molson Companies Limited where she was seconded in 1991 to their subsidiary Diversey Corporation in Belgium as Director European Treasury, returning to Molson’s as Assistant Treasurer at the Corporate Office in Toronto in 1994. Colleen was Vice President, Global Cash Management for Bank of America from 1989 to 1991, and held various positions in Bank of Nova Scotia from 1975 through 1989.
Colleen has been a champion for women’s advancement both within OPG and in the community. She founded a leadership development and mentoring program called emPOWERed Women at OPG to help women with their leadership, career development, networking, and mentoring skills. To date more than 345 women have participated in the program and has resulted in over 15% receiving a promotion to more senior positions within a year of completing the program. Colleen was also recently appointed President of Women in Nuclear (WIN), representing Canada in the WiN Global organization, and acting as an ambassador for the nuclear industry.