Alternative Investments
Making alternative investments accessible for Canadian accredited investors.
Alternative investments
Alternatives generally include assets that are either not traded publicly or a method of investing using non-traditional strategies. This broad category includes two specific areas of emphasis for BMO Global Asset Management – private markets and hedge funds.
Alternatives have long been a meaningful component of institutional, family office and ultra-high net worth investors’ portfolios. These investors allocate a significant portion of their portfolios to alternatives because they have historically improved risk-adjusted performance.
BMO Global Asset Management is focused on developing solutions that make private markets and hedge funds more accessible for Canadian accredited investors.

Alternative funds
BMO GAM offers both evergreen and closed-end funds for Canadian accredited investors through offering memorandums:

Portfolio solutions

BMO Partners Group Private Markets Fund*
(open-ended fund)
Provides access to globally diversified private markets in a single ticket for Canadian accredited investors

BMO Georgian Alignment II Access Fund LP **
(close-ended fund)
Provides access to the Georgian Alignment Fund II, a concentrated growth equity fund invested in hand-picked software companies for Canadian accredited investors
Portfolio benefits
Alternatives can play a complementary role to the stocks and bonds within a traditional portfolio. Key benefits include:

Enhanced returns
Investments like Private Equity, on average, generate higher returns than public market equivalents. These investments may also carry more risk than their public market equivalents.

Generate income
Investments like Private Credit and Real Assets can produce stable, floating rate income.

Diversify risk
Diversified Private Markets and Hedge Funds can provide outcomes with limited connection to public markets that may increase the consistency of the overall portfolio returns.
Types of alternatives
Alternatives, just like public markets, refers to a variety of individual investment types. BMO’s focus within Alternatives is private markets – including equity, credit and real assets like real estate and infrastructure – and hedge funds.
Alternatives can be further described by region, sectors and other factors. For example, private equity includes venture capital or buyout investments, to name just two. Private credit can cover performing loans or distressed loans. And just like with traditional public market investments, each Alternative asset class is responsible for delivering a specific benefit to your portfolio.

Our approach
BMO Global Asset Management uses two approaches to provide access to alternatives for Canadians accredited investors.
Create proprietary products
Where we have expertise and a demonstrated track record, we develop in-house solutions.
Find the best managers
Where we don’t have proprietary products, we take a research-first approach to identify strong global managers, and partner with them to fit the needs of Canadian accredited investors.
Meet Your Team
Marc Khouzami has responsibility for co-managing the Impact Investment Fund. The C$350 million Impact Investment Fund is aimed at driving more sustainable outcomes around the world by backing technologies that will help BMO and its clients proactively address sustainability and create positive impact for their stakeholders. Prior to joining BMO, Marc spent over 11 years in Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management group, serving as a generalist private equity investor focused on sustainability covering a variety of sectors. Additionally, Marc developed and executed financial products to help corporate clients achieve their sustainability goals. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2009, Marc was at Citi Alternative Investments, where he was responsible for making growth equity investments as part of the Sustainable Development Investments group. Before joining Citi Alternative Investments, Marc held various roles in investment banking and corporate finance at Paragon Capital Partners, Oxygen Media and Lehman Brothers. Marc spent 12 years on the board of directors of Change Machine, a non-profit organization that uses its platform technology to assist the working poor in the United States achieve financial security, most recently as the chair. Marc currently serves on the board of NYCEEC, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to financing hard to finance energy efficiency projects in the built environment. Marc holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Vanderbilt University and a MBA from Columbia Business School.
Ben Abadi has responsibility for co-managing the Impact Investment Fund. The C$350 million Impact Investment Fund is aimed at driving more sustainable outcomes around the world by backing technologies that will help BMO and its clients proactively address sustainability and create positive impact for their stakeholders. Prior to joining BMO, Ben was in deal lead roles at Emerald Technology Ventures and at Energy Innovation Capital, and previously spent a decade as a late-stage private equity investor. Ben’s investment experience spans more than two dozen private companies, 20 boards as a director or observer, 60 closed transactions and $20 billion of completed transaction value. Ben holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a M.S. and B.A. from Stanford University.
Jayme’s career has focused on commercial real estate investments across the capital stack in both public and private markets. Prior to joining BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM), Jayme launched a real estate private equity investment vehicle focused on specialized equity and debt solutions along with select real estate development projects. Jayme’s career in the public markets has focused on the REIT sector, most recently VP, Investments at Crombie REIT, responsible for strategy, capital markets, and transactions across the organization.
Jim has over 35 years of Canadian commercial real estate experience spanning both lending and asset management, credit structuring, commercial mortgage underwriting and evaluating the properties and markets underlying CRE loans. He has navigated several commercial real estate cycles with direct involvement in over $20 billion of mortgage originations and $4 billion of property transactions. Prior to joining BMO in 2006, Jim held multiple positions in both commercial real estate credit and equity at Merrill Lynch Mortgages, MetLife Real Estate Investment, GE Capital Real Estate and Knowlton Realty Ltd. He holds an Honours Business Administration (HBA) from Ivey Business School in London, Ontario.
Mark serves as lead for Private Credit investments. Mark brings over 15 years' experience in originating, structuring and advising across credit assets. He has worked with a large Canadian pension fund focused on leveraged loans, as well as a boutique structured credit shop. He holds a B.A (Hons) in Economics and Commerce and a postgraduate degree in Quantitative Finance (Wilmott/NYU).
Guillaume is a senior executive with global experience in alternative investments, capital markets and investment banking with some of the world’s leading financial institutions (CIBC Capital Markets, UBS, JPMorgan…). He brings hands-on experience building, structuring, and selling innovative products and solutions from the ground up to secure additional revenue channels, build strategic partnerships and increase client acquisition and retention. Guillaume has deep experience in Structured Products, Derivatives, Private Markets, Hedge Funds, M&A, and Credit. He was involved and passionate about the entrepreneur and charitable communities, Guillaume received a B.A. in Resource Management from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1997 and a Law degree from Cardiff Law School, United Kingdom in 2000. He has lived and worked in nine countries and is a dual citizen of Canada and France.
Iain Munro serves as Head of Private Equity, North America at BMO Global Asset Management (“BMO GAM”). Iain has more than 25 years of experience delivering advice and solutions to private equity groups and middle market companies throughout Canada and the U.S. as a principal investor and investment banker. Iain’s disciplined approach to investing has been developed through his experience operating within leading Canadian financial institutions with strong risk management cultures and stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. Iain joined BMO GAM’s Private Equity team in 2018 to expand its platform to North America. Prior to joining BMO, Iain held various senior leadership roles at two Canadian financial institutions, including Managing Director & Head of North American Private Equity Coverage. In this position, Iain led high performing teams based in Chicago, Charlotte and Toronto providing junior capital solutions to Canadian and U.S. private equity groups, primary fund investments and equity co-investments. Iain is active in the community. He is a member of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, a past-member of the Association for Corporate Growth and is a current and past member of the Board of Directors and Advisory Committees of several private companies. Iain earned an MBA from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario.
Graham Partner is a financial services professional with a broad background across asset management, capital markets and treasury environments for global financial institutions. Currently, he has responsibility over strategic initiatives for alternative investment products at BMO Global Asset Management
Lillian joined BMO Global Asset Management having spent the last 15 years in wealth management at various firms in sales, sales management and National Accounts. Her most recent experience was with a Canadian alternatives manager to help educate and foster a passion for alternatives investing. Lillian has deep experience and demonstrated success in the Canadian alternatives space and is a member of the AIMA Canada Executive Committee.
Alex is in a leadership role focused on alternatives partnerships and merchant banking activities across BMO Wealth and BMO Global Asset Management. Alex’s career has spanned alternatives and impact investing, including many years building and scaling independent alternatives asset managers and merchant banks including Acasta and West Face Capital. He was also an investment banker, and began his career as a banking/bankruptcy and securities/M&A lawyer at BLG LLP. He holds a BComm from McGill University, and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree 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.
Natalie is responsible for growing BMO Global Asset Management’s Institutional presence in Western Canada, levering multi-channel expertise, a keen focus on relationship management and a deep understanding of industry dynamics. Drawing on over two decades of financial services experience, Natalie is focused on aligning capabilities with investor needs, to effectively help clients reach their unique objectives. Prior to joining BMO Global Asset Management in 2015, Natalie worked for major investment management firms in progressively senior roles, specializing in investment product marketing, business development, and sales and relationship management. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba, and holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designation.