Alternative Investments
Efficient solutions for all institutional investors
Over the past decade, there has been an ever growing adoption of alternative investments within institutional portfolios. BMO Global Asset Management’s Alternative Investments Team is making access easier, offering evergreen and closed-end solutions across multiple alternative asset classes, whether by leveraging our internal capabilities or by entering into partnerships with leading alternative asset managers worldwide.
Explore BMO Partners Group Private Markets Funds
Benefits
Real assets provide contracted cash flows while aiming to offer upside potential and inflation protection.
Hedge funds reduces correlation and offers diversification to traditional asset classes.
Investment philosophy
Enter partnerships with well-established alternatives investment managers who bring global capabilities to the domestic market following a deep due diligence process.
Meet the team
Marc Khouzami, MBA
Marc Khouzami has responsibility for co-managing the Impact Investment Fund. The C$350 million Impact Investment Fund is aimed at driving more sustainable outcomes around the world by backing technologies that will help BMO and its clients proactively address sustainability and create positive impact for their stakeholders. Prior to joining BMO, Marc spent over 11 years in Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management group, serving as a generalist private equity investor focused on sustainability covering a variety of sectors. Additionally, Marc developed and executed financial products to help corporate clients achieve their sustainability goals. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank in 2009, Marc was at Citi Alternative Investments, where he was responsible for making growth equity investments as part of the Sustainable Development Investments group. Before joining Citi Alternative Investments, Marc held various roles in investment banking and corporate finance at Paragon Capital Partners, Oxygen Media and Lehman Brothers. Marc spent 12 years on the board of directors of Change Machine, a non-profit organization that uses its platform technology to assist the working poor in the United States achieve financial security, most recently as the chair. Marc currently serves on the board of NYCEEC, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to financing hard to finance energy efficiency projects in the built environment. Marc holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from Vanderbilt University and a MBA from Columbia Business School.
Bonnie Li
Bonnie Li is an investment professional with more than four years of experience in investment banking and corporate M&As. She joined BMO GAM in March 2023 as an associate in the Alternative Investments team, where she assists the team in selecting and executing private market investment products designed for accredited and small institution investors. Prior to BMO, she was a corporate development senior analyst at Intact Financial Corporation, where she assisted the acquisition and integration of RSA Insurance Group Plc. Bonnie holds a BBA Honours degree from Simon Fraser University with a joint major in Finance and Economics.
Ben Abadi, MBA, M.S
Ben Abadi has responsibility for co-managing the Impact Investment Fund. The C$350 million Impact Investment Fund is aimed at driving more sustainable outcomes around the world by backing technologies that will help BMO and its clients proactively address sustainability and create positive impact for their stakeholders. Prior to joining BMO, Ben was in deal lead roles at Emerald Technology Ventures and at Energy Innovation Capital, and previously spent a decade as a late-stage private equity investor. Ben’s investment experience spans more than two dozen private companies, 20 boards as a director or observer, 60 closed transactions and $20 billion of completed transaction value. Ben holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a M.S. and B.A. from Stanford University.
Jayme Kruger
Jayme’s career has focused on commercial real estate investments across the capital stack in both public and private markets. Prior to joining BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM), Jayme launched a real estate private equity investment vehicle focused on specialized equity and debt solutions along with select real estate development projects. Jayme’s career in the public markets has focused on the REIT sector, most recently VP, Investments at Crombie REIT, responsible for strategy, capital markets, and transactions across the organization.
Jim Eplett
Jim has over 35 years of Canadian commercial real estate experience spanning both lending and asset management, credit structuring, commercial mortgage underwriting and evaluating the properties and markets underlying CRE loans. He has navigated several commercial real estate cycles with direct involvement in over $20 billion of mortgage originations and $4 billion of property transactions. Prior to joining BMO in 2006, Jim held multiple positions in both commercial real estate credit and equity at Merrill Lynch Mortgages, MetLife Real Estate Investment, GE Capital Real Estate and Knowlton Realty Ltd. He holds an Honours Business Administration (HBA) from Ivey Business School in London, Ontario.
Mark Jarosz
Mark serves as lead for Private Credit investments. Mark brings over 15 years’ experience in originating, structuring and advising across credit assets. He has worked with a large Canadian pension fund focused on leveraged loans, as well as a boutique structured credit shop. He holds a B.A (Hons) in Economics and Commerce and a postgraduate degree in Quantitative Finance (Wilmott/NYU).
Iain Munro, MBA, B.Sc.
Iain Munro serves as Head of Private Equity, North America at BMO Global Asset Management (“BMO GAM”). Iain has more than 25 years of experience delivering advice and solutions to private equity groups and middle market companies throughout Canada and the U.S. as a principal investor and investment banker. Iain’s disciplined approach to investing has been developed through his experience operating within leading Canadian financial institutions with strong risk management cultures and stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. Iain joined BMO GAM’s Private Equity team in 2018 to expand its platform to North America. Prior to joining BMO, Iain held various senior leadership roles at two Canadian financial institutions, including Managing Director & Head of North American Private Equity Coverage. In this position, Iain led high performing teams based in Chicago, Charlotte and Toronto providing junior capital solutions to Canadian and U.S. private equity groups, primary fund investments and equity co-investments. Iain is active in the community. He is a member of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, a past-member of the Association for Corporate Growth and is a current and past member of the Board of Directors and Advisory Committees of several private companies. Iain earned an MBA from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario.
James Lising, CFA
James joined BMO GAM from QuadReal, the real estate investment arm of BCI. At QuadReal, James helped to establish a new Portfolio Management function within the International Real Estate Group, investing globally across both public and private debt and equity markets. James then joined the OpCo Investments Team / Operating Partner Group at QuadReal, which oversaw direct equity investments in real estate operating platforms across the UK and North America. Prior to QuadReal, James was at Canaccord Genuity in Equity Research covering Canadian real estate securities.
As an Associate on the Alternatives team, James works with the Head of Alternatives, ESG, and Innovation (Jeff Shell), Head of Private Equity (Iain Munro) and Lead, Strategic Partnership (Alex Singh) to underwrite investments (direct and fund investments) across asset classes in the Alternatives space and establish strategic partnerships, globally, with best-in-class investment managers.
Graham Partner, CFA, FRM
Graham Partner is a financial services professional with a broad background across asset management, capital markets and treasury environments for global financial institutions. Currently, he has responsibility over strategic initiatives for alternative investment products at BMO Global Asset Management
Alexander Singh
Alex is in a leadership role focused on alternatives partnerships and merchant banking activities across BMO Wealth and BMO Global Asset Management. Alex’s career has spanned alternatives and impact investing, including many years building and scaling independent alternatives asset managers and merchant banks including Acasta and West Face Capital. He was also an investment banker, and began his career as a banking/bankruptcy and securities/M&A lawyer at BLG LLP. He holds a BComm from McGill University, and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Dalhousie University.
Jeffrey Shell
Jeff joined BMO Global Asset Management in August of 2021 from BMO Capital Markets, where he served as head of Global Financial Institutions, with responsibilities that included serving Asset and Wealth managers. Previous to this, Jeff had a number of leadership roles at BMO including heading Trade Finance, Treasury & Payments Solutions and Asia Corporate Banking, in addition to serving as an advisor in Corporate Strategy. Prior to BMO, Jeff worked as a strategy consultant, as a university researcher and as an entrepreneur. He has authored a number of patents related to advanced technology interface design. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Queen’s University and an MBA from Cornell University.
Contact us
To learn more please contact us at [email protected].
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