The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) has appointed Caroline Vermette as senior vice-president and chief financial officer. PSP also said Alexandre Roy has been named senior vice-president and chief risk officer.

Vermette joins PSP from National Bank of Canada, where she most recently served as senior vice-president, internal audit. She brings more than 20 years of experience in financial leadership roles, and has experience with strategic financial planning, risk management and driving efficiency.

Roy joined PSP Investments in 2007 and he has earned progressively senior roles. Most recently, Roy also assumed interim responsibilities of the chief investment officer.

PSP Investments is one of Canada’s largest pension investors with $264.9 billion of net assets under management. 

Ravelin welcomes two trustees

Ravelin Properties REIT (RPR-UN-T) has appointed Calvin Younger and Jane Rafuse as trustees.

Younger recently retired from his role as vice-chair, real estate finance Canada with CIBC. He had previously served as senior vice-president, real estate finance Canada and senior vice-president, national businesses with the bank. 

Prior to joining CIBC in 2001, he was a partner with Ernst & Young and managing partner, Ernst & Young Kenneth Leventhal Canada, the firm’s real estate advisory subsidiary. Younger also held executive positions with Deutsche Bank Canada. He is an executive-in-residence and adjunct professor at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Rafuse is the former chief financial officer of hotel owner and operator Holloway Lodging. 

Rafuse was a member of Holloway’s executive team from its inception in 2006 until 2020. She has experience in financial reporting and analysis, financing and refinancing of mortgages and other debt, purchase and sale transactions, real estate and investor relations.

She also serves on the audit committee and board of directors of Clarke Inc.

3 new committee members for VIDA

Affordable rental residence provider VIDA has added three nationally respected real estate and capital experts — Donald Clow, Paul Finkbeiner and Adam Jagelewski — to the advisory committee for its Canadian NOAH (Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing) Preservation Fund. 

The closed-end equity fund looks to raise $300 million to acquire more than 7,000 affordable housing units in Canada. 

• Clow is the independent lead trustee of H&R REIT and served as president and CEO of Crombie REIT, president of ECL Developments and president and minority owner of Southwest Properties.
• Finkbeiner is president of Fink Advisory Management Corp. He also oversaw global investments at Great-West Life and served as president and COO of GWL Realty Advisors.
• Jagelewski is managing partner at TwinRiver Capital and a co-founder of MaRS Centre for Impact Investing.

Fengate hires new managing director

Fengate Real Estate has appointed John-Bosco Agbasi to managing director, asset management.

Agbasi’s expanded role includes oversight of all aspects of Fengate’s commercial and residential real estate portfolios, which currently includes more than 200 acres of industrial development lands, and an industrial development pipeline of more than five million square feet, as well as more than 20 residential developments and a pipeline of more than 25,000 new units.

Prior to joining Fengate, Agbasi worked at Carttera as senior director, asset management. He also spent six years with GWL Realty Advisors holding progressively senior roles. 

Iannetta, Huynh named VPs with Devimco

Paolo Iannetta has been appointed vice-president, investments and asset management while Jessica Huynh was named vice president, investments and development at Groupe Devimco.

Iannetta has more than 15 years of experience in real estate investments and finance. He joined Groupe Devimco in 2021 as director, investments. 

Before joining Groupe Devimco, he worked with Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Jones Lang LaSalle and Carbonleo.

Huynh joined the company in 2020. She has previous experience with PwC Canada and was senior analyst, portfolio management capital allocation with Ivanhoé Cambridge.

She will co-manage the investments team alongside Iannetta.

Kipling Group adds Whitfield as VP of operations

Kipling Group is opening an office in Calgary to be led by Sheena Whitfield, the firm's new vice-president of operations for Western Canada. Whitfield will lead operations across Western Canada and act as broker of record for Alberta. 

Whitfield joins Kipling Group from one of the largest real estate services companies in the world JLL, where she eventually became director, property management. She also had stints at NewWest Enterprise Property Group and Colliers International.

She has more than 25 years of real estate and property management experience.

Kipling Group is an independent full-service property management company overseeing 28 million square feet of commercial and residential real estate. 

Rosefellow promotes Parent

Kristopher Parent has been named executive vice-president at Rosefellow.

Parent joined the company in 2024 as vice-president of development. Previously, he co-founded Domaine des Skieurs.

He was at the Town of Kirkland as director of urban planning for almost seven-and-a-half years. Parent also worked as partner, vice-president at BC2 and at Planex as president, founder.

Kumar joins Colliers Canada

Colliers Canada (CIGI-T) has hired Gautam Kumar as vice-president, debt advisory in Edmonton. 

Kumar brings more than 15 years of banking experience, primarily in commercial real estate financing, working at Canada’s largest financial institutions. He has held senior leadership positions with Axium Capital, BMO Financial Group, National Bank of Canada, TD and HSBC. 

Kumar has advised and financed publicly traded and private REITs, family real estate companies and other major commercial real estate builders and developers.

New president for OREA

Cathy Polan has assumed the role of president of the Ontario Real Estate Association. The Belleville-based realtor will represent Ontario’s almost 100,000 REALTORS.

Kimberly Fairley, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., was elected 2025 president-elect and will also serve as director for Northern Ontario.

The board of directors also welcomed new members: Manny Andrade, director-at-large; Alison Porter, director for Western Ontario; Mark Malinoff, director for Eastern Ontario; Tehreem Kamal, director for Central Ontario; and Don McColl, director for Northeastern Ontario.

The following members are returning or entering the second year of two-year terms: Rick Kedzior, past-president; directors at large Ryan Humble, Randy Pawlowski and Paul Etherington; Meredith Kennedy, provincial director for Central Ontario; and Dustin Davis, provincial director for Southern Ontario.