The agency responsible for investing money on behalf of government pension plans is home to almost a third of the 100 highest-paid public employees in B.C. and seven of the top 10.
The B.C. Investment Management Corp. had 30 of the 100 highest earners in the 2014 calendar year and the 2014/15 fiscal year. Its now-former CEO, Doug Pearce, whose total remuneration of $1.59 million places him in the top spot, has topped The Sun’s annual public-sector salary ranking every year since 2010. Pearce stepped down mid-2014 and was replaced by Gordon Fyfe.
The list of the top 10 — seven from B.C. Investment Management Corp. and three from Powerex, the trading arm of BC Hydro — is identical to the previous year.
The seven managers from B.C. Investment Management Corp. all made $600,000 or more, and four saw their pay increase by more than $100,000 over the previous year. 2014 also saw a second employee from the agency — Lincoln Webb, then the senior vice-president for private placements — crack the million-dollar mark, making him the second-highest-paid public employee in the province that year.
B.C. IMC also accounted for 30 of the top 100 public sector salaries in 2014, making it the top employer of the top 100, despite the fact that it had just 157 employees making $75,000 or more that year. By contrast, the Provincial Health Services Authority, which had the second-highest number of employees in the top 100, had more than 4,100 employees earning $75,000 or more that year. The University of B.C., at number three, had more than 4,400.
The previous year, UBC had the most employees in the top 100, followed by B.C. IMC and PHSA.
In a written response to emailed questions, the B.C. IMC’s board chair, Rick Mahler, said the agency manages more than $122 billion worth of assets on behalf of 34 institutional clients, of which 11 are pension plans.
“The investment industry is knowledge-based and we compete with world-class investment managers … for this expertise and talent,” the statement said. “As a result, B.C. IMC must offer a compensation package that is competitive within the industry. Our pay structure is aligned with the industry. Salaries are driven by the market — it’s basic economics of supply and demand.”
In order to recruit talent to Victoria from financial centres such as London and Toronto, the agency needs to offer salaries that are “comparable and competitive within the marketplace,” Mahler added.
The other three top 10 earners are energy traders at Powerex, the wholly owned subsidiary of BC Hydro responsible for marketing surplus electricity. All three were also in the top 10 the previous year and saw slight salary increases.
This is the eighth edition of The Sun’s public-sector salary database, which contains information on 79,658 individuals.
