The China Conundrum

Jennifer joined BMO Global Asset Management in September 2015 as an equity analyst with a focus on ESG, industrials, large cap energy and materials (non-mining). Jennifer spent a decade at a Canadian Bank with experience in Investment Banking, Research and Institutional Sales. In addition she has a further 7 years’ experience as a Chartered Accountant at one of the big four accounting firms and teaching undergraduate finance at a Canadian University. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and is a CFA Charterholder, Chartered Accountant and Chartered Professional Accountant.

Ariel is responsible for equity portfolio management and research. She joined the company in 2018. Ariel began her career in the investment industry in 2005. Prior to joining BMO, she was a quantitative researcher at RBC Global Asset Management, where she designed quantitative investment strategies. Prior to that, she was an associate portfolio manager for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and an investment analyst for the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

She holds a Master of Mathematical Finance and a Global Professional Master of Laws from University of Toronto. Ariel also has a M.A. in economics from Simon Fraser University and a B.B.A. in finance from Nankai University. In addition, she is a CFA charterholder and a Certified Financial Risk Manager.

Chris joined the BMO ETF portfolio management team in 2011, and focuses on factor-based equity and derivative-overlay portfolios, including but not limited to BMO’s Low Volatility, Dividend, and Covered Call equity ETF suites. His prior investment experience includes a role as a quantitative equity research associate, and work in investment funds product and client support. Chris holds a Masters of Finance from the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management (Dean’s List), where he studied investments, including derivatives and derivative pricing. Chris also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo with studies in History and Mathematics and the CFA designation.

Lutz joined BMO Asset Management Inc.’s Canadian equity team in March 2012 as a portfolio manager primarily focused on the firm’s large cap Canadian dividend and income strategies. Prior to joining BMO AM, Lutz was a portfolio manager with BMO Harris Investment Management where he managed several Canadian equity yield and core mandates. In addition to Lutz’s over two decades of experience in both portfolio management and research, he holds a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business and is a CFA charterholder.

With more than 25 years of industry experience in banking, securities, mutual funds and financial education, Kevin provides a rare combination of both industry knowledge and educational expertise on Exchange Traded Funds. During his career he has authored several investment industry courses for the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI), including ETF focused courses and Managed Accounts chapter of the CSC. Kevin frequently interacts with portfolio managers and investors about the benefits of ETFs and how they can be used to add value to any investment portfolio. This interaction builds on his institutional background in Managed Account platforms. He is a regular contributor to investment industry publications, has also been a guest speaker and panelist at industry events, and has appeared several times on BNN. Kevin has an MBA from Dalhousie University and holds a number of industry designations including FCSI, CIM and CFP.

Sam is responsible for leading a highly talented team of wholesalers, internal wholesalers and sales associates in the development and growth BMO Mutual Funds, ETFs and Segregated Funds throughout the Canadian distribution network of Financial Advisors. Sam oversees investment dealer relations nationally, with a focus on integration of investment products and partnership through the knowledge and expertise of his distribution team. Sam has over 22 years of experience in the financial services industry, ranging from institutional pension, mutual funds, insurance segregated funds and ETFs. He is a graduate of Guelph University in Management Economics and has been with BMO Asset Management since 2009.

With over 20 years of investment industry experience, he is responsible for leading a team of talented internal wholesalers and associates to grow the mutual fund market share in the retail bank channel space. His team helps educate the sales force and find new opportunities to position BMO Mutual Funds. He is also responsible for growing the Group Investment Plans mandate at the retail bank, which includes collaborating with BMO Business Banking and BMO Private Wealth. Greg sits on BMO’s Product Review Committee to ensure proper consideration is taken when launching new solutions in the banking network. He joined BMO in 2001 and has held different positions in Wealth and roles in Personal & Business Banking. Greg has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa and holds an MBA from Dalhousie University.

Jeff joined BMO Global Asset Management in August of 2021 from BMO Capital Markets, where he served as head of Global Financial Institutions, with responsibilities that included serving Asset and Wealth managers. Previous to this, Jeff had a number of leadership roles at BMO including heading Trade Finance, Treasury & Payments Solutions and Asia Corporate Banking, in addition to serving as an advisor in Corporate Strategy. Prior to BMO, Jeff worked as a strategy consultant, as a university researcher and as an entrepreneur. He has authored a number of patents related to advanced technology interface design. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Queen’s University and an MBA from Cornell University.

Eva is the Director and HR Business Partner for BMO Global Asset Management and leads a team that also oversees BMO InvestorLine, BMO Insurance and BMO Wealth Headquarters. Eva is an HR Leader that has over 16 years of experience in the Financial Services industry with a deep focus in the Asset Management space. Over her career she has led critical transformative initiatives and had spent time at SunLife as a SunLife Advisor. Eva has both an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto and an HR Management post graduate degree from Seneca College. She is a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) and is active in the community supporting the United Way, Second Harvest Toronto Taste and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Peter leads Product and Business Enablement for BMO GAM. He joined the company in 2020. Prior to working with BMO, Peter spent 20 years with Invesco. During that time he held a number of roles, most recently serving as the Head of Wealth Management intermediaries for the Americas and President & Chief Operating Officer for Canada. Peter is a recognized leader within the asset management industry, pioneering an entirely new way of transacting in mutual funds with the launch of Platform Traded Funds™, advancing digital onboarding tools for advisors and independent distributors, and implementing advanced analytic capabilities. He holds an M.B.A. from the Rotman School of Management and a BASc in engineering from the University of Toronto.

Ross is accountable for the development and implementation of a multi-year distribution strategy for BMO Global Asset Management’s suite of Canadian retail and institutional investment products, with retail brands including BMO Mutual Funds and BMO Exchange Traded Funds. Ross has over 30 years of investment industry experience and is a Director of BMO Investments Inc., BMO Corporate Class Funds and BMO Asset Management Inc. In his previous roles, Ross was Co-President of BMO Investments Inc. and President, Guardian Group of Funds Ltd. Ross was also Board Chair of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) from 2017 to 2019, and now serves as a Director and member of the IFIC Executive Committee. Ross is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from the University of Western Ontario.

Bill Bamber joined BMO Wealth Management in April 2022 as Head of Synthetic Asset Management and is currently the CEO of BMO Global Asset Management. Bill has more than 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry, including extensive experience in International Capital Markets, most notably in exotic derivatives spanning all asset classes as well as global structuring and structured products.

Prior to joining BMO, Bill oversaw Structured Products and Quantitative Investment Strategy businesses globally and led many ground-breaking initiatives and innovative indices. He has held senior positions at International and North American financial institutions including a focus on equity derivative structuring in the Americas.

Bill is well-known as an innovator in the investment industry with an outstanding track record for product firsts around the world. This includes pioneering the world’s first Emerging Market ETF (STX40 SJ Equity) and creating the first MLP-linked security both inside (AMJ US Equity) and outside of the U.S. He was also the first to create a listed trading platform for zero-coupon South African gilts.

Bill is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds both a Master of Management Analytics and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University.

Sara Petrcich has over 20 years of Capital Markets experience as well as one and a half years in the Bank doing a secondment for the CFO and Treasurer at one of Canada’s largest banks. Her experience has been predominantly as a derivatives trader in structured and exotic products including commodities, equities, rates and credit. She has an exceptionally strong risk management background as a result. At BMO Global Markets she was head of Risk Strategy, reporting into the head of Global Markets as their exclusive and trusted risk advisor. She oversaw the entire portfolio of trading book risk across the Capital Markets businesses as well as the associated risk metrics governing the businesses. She was responsible for implementing macro hedges to manage tail risk and optimize Capital Market’s risk taking capabilities vis a vis customer activities as well as managing regulatory metrics impacting the businesses’ balance sheet. She was appointed as Managing Director and Head of Synthetic Asset Management in August 2022 where she led the build out and creation of synthetic funds and products within BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM). Sara leads the ETF & Structured Solutions team, which subsequently came from the combination of the ETF and Synthetic Asset management businesses. Sara is also responsible for building out a macro hedging framework for the CEO of BMO GAM and Head of Wealth. She is currently on the PineBridge Risk Committee and the Executive BMO GAM sponsor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I).