Daniel Fournier

Daniel Fournier is a Canadian businessman from Montreal, Quebec. A successful real estate investor and developer, he has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoé Cambridge, a real estate subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the manager of public pension funds for the province of Québec, since June 2010. He has also run once for the Canadian House of Commons and written on Canadian federalism.

Fournier was born in Pierrefonds, a suburban community of the City of Montreal. He studied History at Princeton University and Jurisprudence at Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. While at Oxford, he took a term off to play professionally for the Ottawa Rough Riders one of the Canadian Football League's teams. He returned to Canada after graduating and became a successful figure in Montreal's real estate investment and development industry.

During the 1980s, Fournier was part of a prominent group of young French Canadian entrepreneurs who were influential in changing the real estate landscape in Montreal. He began his career in real estate at leading development firm Canderel, where he became vice-president.^[2] He subsequently launched his own investment firm, which owned and redeveloped numerous properties in Quebec, including two very well-known downtown Montreal landamarks, the Ogilvy store and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.^[3]

Prior to joining Ivanhoé Cambridge, he was the Chairman of the Board 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, Fournier was named Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of SITQ, which was then the office real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt de placements du Québec (CDPQ).^[4] He left one year later and, in June 2010, joined the CDPQ as Executive Vice-President and President of its global real estate group,^[5] including all office, retail, multiresidential and commercial mortgage lending businesses.

Immediately after taking office, Daniel Fournier began working on a company-wide strategic plan. The first major decision was to merge all of the Caisse’s real estate subsidiaries and assets except commercial mortgage lending (Otéra Capital) into Ivanhoé Cambridge in 2011.^[6] The total assets of the merged entity then reached Cdn$31 billion and provided the critical mass necessary for future growth.

The Company’s plan involved focusing primarily on the three product lines for which it had developed a proven, in-depth expertise: retail, office and residential.^[7] Recognizing a worldwide increase in urbanization, the heart of the plan is geared towards investing with critical mass in 15 attractive cities around the world.

Daniel Fournier is also responsible for another Caisse subsidiary, Otéra Capital, which was repositioned by a leading team and has become a Canadian leader in commercial real estate mortgages with more than $11 billion in assets.

Successive years of positive returns

Five years into Daniel Fournier’s mandate as CEO of Ivanhoé Cambridge, the Company has delivered an average annual return of 12.5% to its shareholders and has repositioned no less than two thirds of its assets in more profitable investment classes. The company’s total assets reached Cdn$55 billion as at December 31, 2015.

Daniel Fournier has repeatedly expressed caution on how to perceive the successive double-digit annual returns of Ivanhoé Cambridge, reminding the market that the real estate industry is cyclical and very competitive and that high annual returns are not sustainable in the long term.

Ivanhoé Cambridge's plan for downtown Montreal

One of the key pillars of Daniel Fournier’s investment approach focuses on Ivanhoé Cambridge’s leadership role in its home city of Montreal. In 2013, Ivanhoé Cambridge acquired the remaining 50% interest in flagship office complex Place Ville Marie it did not previously own, a transaction valued at over CDN$400 M.^[9] This was the first of several investments in the city’s downtown core that would constitute Ivanhoé Cambridge’s CDN$1-billion plan for downtown Montreal

Another component of Ivanhoé Cambridge’s plan for downtown Montreal was the launch of construction of the 900 de Maisonneuve Ouest Cdn$240-million, 27-storey office project, after an agreement with Manuvie to build ”Maison Manuvie”, the financial institution’s new Montreal head office following its own acquisition of Standard Life.^[10] As part of the plan, Ivanhoé Cambridge also announced a Cdn$140-million renovation and upgrade project for the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal.

As the overall strategic plan for Ivanhoé Cambridge was implemented, the Company sold the vast majority of its hotels around the world. The company chose to maintain full ownership of three hotels in Quebec: the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal and the W Montreal, adjacent to the Company’s Montreal head office, and also decided to keep smaller interests in two Fairmont hotels in Seattle and in Toronto.

Philanthropic activities

Mr. Fournier is very dedicated to several charity and social causes and has been involved in many fundraising activities. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the McCord Museum Foundation, both located in Montréal. He also acts as Co-Chair of the $30-million fundraising "Leading the Way" campaign of Bishop’s University, near Sherbrooke, Québec.

Daniel Fournier has always been interested in public service. Initially a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, he later joined the Conservative Party, arguing like many other Canadians, that although he is a social liberal, he believes that solid economic growth achieved through sound and fiscally conservative policies was the best way to create wealth and offer the best protections and services to the largest number of Canadians.^[11]

Before running for office in 2006, Fournier discussed his party's direction and future prospects with several prominent Conservatives across Canada, including Peter Lougheed, John Tory, Preston Manning, Tony Clement, Pat Binns, and Jim Dinning.^[12] He was defeated but received close to 15% of the votes in a race involving 11 candidates.^[13]

In 2007, Fournier contributed a chapter to Reconquérir le Canada: Un nouveau projet pour la nation québécoise, a book defending Canadian federalism within Quebec.^[14]

Source: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.