Robert Astley Named Next Chair of CPP Investment Board

Toronto, ON (September 5, 2008) – The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is pleased to announce that Robert Astley will become the organization’s next Chair of its board of directors effective October 2008. Mr. Astley was appointed by Jim Flaherty, Federal Minister of Finance and will succeed Gail Cook-Bennett, the CPPIB’s founding chair since 1998, whose term expires in October.

During her tenure, Ms. Cook-Bennett has led the board of directors to oversee the creation, development and growth of the CPP Investment Board from its early days as a passive investor to its current position as an active global investment organization. Ms. Cook-Bennett has also been successful in sustaining and enhancing a unique governance model based on transparency, accountability and integrity.

“It was an honour for our founding board of directors to launch the CPP Investment Board as a start-up organization in 1998,” said Gail Cook-Bennett. “Current directors oversee a well-respected investment organization that continues to grow and diversify the $128 billion CPP Fund to help secure the future pensions of 17 million Canadians. I am proud to have been part of this evolution over the past 10 years.”

Mr. Astley was appointed as a director for the CPP Investment Board in September 2006 and is currently chair of its audit committee. As former president of Sun Life Financial Canada and former president and CEO of Clarica Insurance Company, Mr. Astley currently sits on the board of directors for the Bank of Montreal and is chair of its human resources and management compensation committee. Mr. Astley is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Laurier School of Business and Economics. Mr. Astley is former chair of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association and of Wilfrid Laurier University.

“I am honoured to assume the role of Chair, following Gail Cook-Bennett's outstanding leadership,” said Robert Astley. “I look forward to working with the board of directors, President and CEO David Denison and his management team in service to Canadians, as the CPPIB continues to build a world class organization."

The CPP Investment Board’s chair appointment process, designed by the reformers of the Canada Pension Plan in 1998, is managed by the federal Minister of Finance who consults with the finance ministers of each participating province and with the CPPIB board of directors to select the chair from among the CPPIB’s board of directors.

The Chief Actuary of Canada projects that the CPP Fund will grow to more than $310 billion in assets by the end of 2019 and that the CPP, as constituted, is sustainable throughout the 75-year period of his latest report. This growth trajectory makes the CPP Fund one of the largest single-purpose pools of investment capital in the world, thereby helping to secure the CPP for the long term.

About CPP Investment Board
The CPP Investment Board is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan to pay current benefits on behalf of 17 million Canadian contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build a diversified portfolio of CPP assets, the CPP Investment Board invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, inflation-linked bonds, infrastructure and fixed income instruments. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in London and Hong Kong, the CPP Investment Board is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At June 30, 2008, the CPP Fund totaled C$127.7 billion.

The Chief Actuary of Canada estimates that CPP contributions will exceed annual benefits paid through to the end of 2019, providing a 12-year period before a portion of the CPP Fund’s investment income is needed to help pay CPP benefits.

For further information contact:
Joel Kranc
Manager, Communications
(416) 874-5163
jkranc@cppib.ca