Daniel Fournier is a Canadian businessman in the province of Quebec. He was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoé Cambridge, a real estate subsidiary of ''

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. CDPQ was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly, under the go ...

'', from June 2010 to October 2019. He has also run for the Canadian House of Commons and written on Canadian federalism. In 2023 it was announced that OMERS appointed Fournier as Executive Chairman of the pension plans real estate arm,

Oxford Properties Group Oxford Properties is a Canadian multinational corporation, with operations in real estate investment, development and property management. Its portfolio includes office, retail, industrial, multi-residential, life sciences and hotel assets. Esta ...

Early life and education

Fournier was raised in Pierrefonds, a suburban community of the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...

. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, where he studied as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

. While studying at Oxford, he took a term off to play for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team. He returned to Canada after graduating and became a successful figure in Montreal's real estate sector.

Private career

During the 1980s, Fournier was prominent among a group of young

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

entrepreneurs who were very influential in changing the real estate landscape in Montreal. He started his career at leading developer Canderel where he became vice-president. He subsequently launched his own real estate investment firm which redeveloped numerous properties in Quebec, including downtown Montreal's Windsor Hotel, the Ogilvy store and the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. Prior to joining CDPQ, he was Chairman of engineering consulting firm Genivar, now WSP Global, and a member of the Board of Directors of national retailer Canadian Tire. He was also a Director of the Summit Industrial Income REIT. In July 2008, he was named Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer of SITQ, which was then the office real estate subsidiary of the ''Caisse''. In June 2010, he was appointed Executive Vice-President and President of the Caisse's global real estate group. In 2011, Fournier merged all of the Caisse's real estate subsidiaries and assets into Ivanhoé Cambridge. During his tenure, Ivanhoé Cambridge completed C$100 billion in transactions and delivered an average annual return of 11.8% as at Dec. 31, 2019. Ivanhoé Cambridge grew into one of the world’s largest and most respected institutional investors with a globally diversified portfolio, doubling the company’s total assets from 31 to 65 Billion C$. He retired from CDPQ in November 2019, following the successful implementation of his succession plan. Fournier then joined several boards and advisory committees of Quebec-based companies, including Claridge, Simons, Groupe Maurice and BTB REIT. In 2023, it was announced Fournier would come out of retirement to assumed the role of Executive Chairman for OMERS real estate arm,

Philanthropic career

In recent years, he chaired the fundraising campaigns for La Maison du Père, the Lighthouse Children and Families and the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). He also co-chaired the $40 million ''Leading the Way'' fundraising campaign for Bishop's University and until February 2020, he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of McCord Museum Foundation in Montreal. In August 2020, he was appointed Bishop's University's 20th Chancellor.

Political career

In 2006, Fournier ran for office in the Quebec riding of Outremont as a member of the Conservative Party. He finished fourth and gathered about 15% of the vote in an 11-candidate contest. In 2007, Fournier contributed a chapter to ''Reconquérir le Canada: Un nouveau projet pour la nation québécoise'', a book defending Canadian federalism within Quebec.Lysiane Gagnon, "Selling federalism in Quebec," ''Globe and Mail'', 19 November 2007, A19.

References

External links

Caisse biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fournier, Daniel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Ottawa Rough Riders players Alumni of the University of Oxford Canadian Rhodes Scholars Canadian real estate businesspeople Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Quebec candidates for Member of Parliament People from Pierrefonds-Roxboro Princeton University alumni