Principals/Vice-Principals (P/VP)
ONE-T Board of Trustees
The ONE-T Board of Trustees consists of nine members, who together are responsible for overseeing the operation of the Benefits Plans for both P/VPs and CAEAS-ECAB (the “Plans”) and ensuring the financial sustainability of these Plans.
Cliff Inskip
Chair
Cliff Inskip became the Chair of ONE-T in June 2021. He is President of Polar Star Advisory Services, a consulting company that provides advice on financing and procuring major infrastructure projects. Cliff is a seasoned financial executive with over 30 years’ experience in investment banking and international corporate banking. As Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure and Project Finance for CIBC World Markets, he led over $3 billion of pooled bond financing for 30 Ontario school boards. He has extensive board leadership experience and currently serves on the boards of OMERS (pension), Serenia Life Financial (life insurance), and Kerr Street Community Services (non-profit). He has a variety of designations including Chartered Director (C.Dir.), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Financial Risk Manager (FRM), Professional Engineer (P.Eng).
JOSEPH (JOE) GEISER
Joseph (Joe) Geiser was involved with the establishment of the ONE-T Trust for Principals and Vice-Principals during provincial negotiations in 2016. In his previous capacity as the Executive Director of the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario (CPCO) Joe served as the liaison between CPCO’s members, their appointees on the ONE-T Trust as well as with the representatives from CAEAS-ECAB. As a former Supervisory Officer and Principal, Joe has a background in education administration, strategic planning, policy development and employee relations which serve him well in his capacity as a Trustee of ONE-T.
ALLYSON OTTEN
Allyson was appointed to the ONE-T board by the Principal/Vice-Principal (P/VP) Associations in October 2024. Allyson brings to this role, more than 20 years of experience working together with Ontario principals, first, as legal counsel representing individual principals and vice-principals, then as General Counsel serving the Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC) and, in the final 6 years, as OPC’s Executive Director. In these various roles, Allyson was committed to merging her legal training and experience with a deep understanding of the complex role of principals and vice-principals in order to support their needs and OPC’s growth. Of particular relevance to this role, Allyson was the lead negotiator during multiple provincial negotiations including those that led to the creation of ONE-T and continued to serve as one of the P/VP Associations’ liaisons engaging directly with the ONE-T Trustees during the Trust’s first 4 years of operation.
Tracy Dottori
MSc MBA CHRL CHRA, S.O.
Ms Dottori has over 26 years in senior leadership roles within the private and public sector. She has had the privilege, opportunity and accountability to span all strategic and tactical areas of Human Resource management and Finance related to growing value and driving performance within unionized and non-unionized environments. Within her Superintendent of Business role in the education sector between 2014-2021, Tracy was an active contributor and member of the provincial negotiations committees, the lead for all local negotiations and accountable for implementation of the collective agreement within her Board. Tracy was also a key contributor on the initial development and design team of the trust and acted as a member liaison during the implementation phase. She is currently a member of two Board-level committees governing ONE-T: Audit, Finance and Investment as well as Governance.
Isabel grace
A graduate of Lakehead University, Ms. Grace earned her Chartered Accountant designation and worked for 10 years with Ernst and Young, including 5 as Audit Manager serving clients in Northwestern Ontario in a variety of industries and sectors. Her hiring as a Manager of Finance for the Lakehead Board of Education began a career of over 28 years of senior leadership within the K-12 education sector. Retired as a Superintendent of Business and Finance in 2023, Isabel was an active contributor and member of various provincial committees and sector organizations including a 4-year term as a director on the Board of the Ontario School Boards Insurance Exchange (OSBIE). In addition to the many corporate accounting and business components of her Superintendent portfolio, her background includes a number of aspects related to negotiating, designing and financing employee benefit plans.
James (Jim) Sinclair
Jim has over 30 years of experience in the securities, investment management, pension advisory, pension administrative and financial services sectors. He currently serves as General Counsel at Common Wealth, a firm that partners with associations, unions and employers to deliver value-for-money collective retirement plans that combine user-friendly technology, digital retirement planning, low-cost investments, secure lifetime income and a fiduciary duty to members. Prior to joining Common Wealth, Jim held the position of General Counsel at the Ontario Securities Commission. He also held senior management roles at the Ministry of the Attorney General and Ministry of Finance to provide specialized advice on securities, pensions, insurance and tax matters among other things.
Lee Watchorn
After a lengthy career at Sun Life, which included eight years responsible for all of Sun Life’s businesses in Canada, Lee established the Watchorn Advisory Group to provide advice to senior business leaders. He currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Council of Sionna Investment Managers and is a Trustee of ONE-T, a life and health Trust providing benefits to non-unionized employees in the Ontario educational sector. Lee is a past Director of Equitable Life of Canada, BF&M Ltd, a Bermuda-based public insurance company, and several major BF&M Caribbean subsidiaries. Lee also taught a course in insurance in the MBA program at York University and is a past Chair of Prostate Cancer Canada and a past President of St. John Ambulance Ontario Council.
Mary Anne Wiley
Mary Anne Wiley has over 25 years of experience in the financial services, pension, and capital markets industries. During her lengthy career with BlackRock, she held various leadership roles including Managing Director, Head of iShares Canada where she led the strategic direction and operations of BlackRock’s Exchange Traded Fund business. Prior to that, she gained extensive experience in all areas of investment management while working with some of Canada’s largest pension funds. Currently, she is an independent business consultant and oversees the management and investment policies of the general investment and pension funds for The Salvation Army of Canada. Mary Anne has extensive governance and Board experience, and she currently serves as Chair of the Board of NASDAQ CXC Limited (NASDAQ Canada) and is a member of two institutional investment advisory committees. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst Designation (CFA), and she is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.
Who Appoints the Trustees?
The nine ONE-T trustees are appointed as follows:
• Five trustees are appointed by the employee representatives, at least two of whom must be independent, including:
o One trustee who shall be Chair of the Board jointly appointed by P/VP Associations (OPC, CPCO, ADFO) and CAEAS-ECAB;
o Two Trustees appointed by the P/VP Associations; and
o Two Trustees appointed by CAEAS-ECAB.
• Four trustees are appointed by OCSTA, ACEPO, AFOCSC and OPSBA or the Crown as they determine among themselves, at least two of
whom must be independent.
At least one Trustee must speak French as their first language.
What is the role of ONE-T’s Trustees?
The principal role of Trustees is to carry out the terms of the Trust Agreement. The ONE-T Trust Agreement outlines the roles and responsibilities of ONE-T’s Trustees.
Among their responsibilities, the Trustees:
• Provide for the delivery of benefits for both Plans on a sustainable, efficient and cost-effective basis,
• Review the Plan designs for both P/VP’s and CAEAS-ECAB on a regular periodic basis and at least once a year, and
• Review and/or revise contribution rates or premium requirements for both Plans at least once a year.
The Trustees provide for the design, adoption and implementation of a Funding Policy and an Investment Policy with respect to each of the Plans. The Funding Policy outlines the framework for the prudent long-term financial management of the Trust so that the assets and expected contributions of the Plans are sufficient to meet the Trust’s obligations as they come due. The Trustees are not involved in determining the funding made available to the Plans.
The Trustees are fiduciaries, which is a special role and comes with special duties.
What does it mean to be a fiduciary?
Being a fiduciary requires the Trustees to put the interests of ONE-T’s Plan Members and Dependents ahead of their own and those of any other party.
This means that, among their various duties, the Trustees have:
• A duty of good faith and loyalty – meaning that the Trustees must always act in the best interests of the Trust and its Plan Members
and must exercise reasonable care, skill and caution in administering the Trust;
• A duty of reasonable skill and diligence – in other words the Trustees must act reasonably and competently in all matters of
Trust administration;
• A duty to give personal attention to the affairs of the Trust; and
• A duty to account for the transactions entered into by the Trust, the manner in which they have dealt with the Trust property and to
prepare and provide an annual report as set out in the Trust Agreement.
How do the Trustees carry out their fiduciary obligations?
The Trustees must manage the Trust responsibly, make unbiased decisions and, above all, consider the requirements of the Trust Agreement and the interests of the Plan Members and to do their best to ensure the sustainability of the Trust. The Trustees must make decisions on an informed basis, after conducting appropriate due diligence on the issue in question. While Trustees must apply the knowledge and skills that they possess, they may also retain advisors to provide specialized advice relevant to the decisions they must make.
In making their decisions, the Trustees must consider the interests of both current Plan Members as well as those of future Plan Members. Present and future Plan Members should be treated as fairly as possible – this better ensures sustainability.
While those who have appointed the Trustees have an interest in the administration of the Trust, the duty of the Trustees is first and foremost to the Trust’s Plan Members, including those who may become members of one of the Plans in the future.
In order to ensure they comply with their fiduciary obligations, the Trustees have adopted policies, processes and procedures that help them make reasoned and well-informed decisions for the Trust’s Plan Members.
© 2024 Ontario Non-union Education Trust