NIA Pension Centre of Excellence (PCE)

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, PhD FCIA FSA, is the Director of Financial Security Research at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), and Co-Lead of the Pension Centre of Excellence. She is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the resident scholar at Eckler Ltd. Her research focuses on the financial and health aspects of Canada's ageing population. Bringing together leading industry experts and building on academic best practices coupled with innovative ideas, her work aims to improve retirement financial security for Canadians through practical insights, industry innovations and government solutions.

She has published numerous academic papers on a wide variety of topics relating to retirement financial security for Canadians. Her research contributions have received numerous awards and have been adopted by industry and government, in Canada and around the world. She is a prolific keynote speaker at industry and public policy engagements and a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail. A recipient of the 2001 Gold Medal in Actuarial Science at the University of Western Ontario, Bonnie-Jeanne received her FSA in 2004 and FCIA in 2019, and also holds a PhD in Actuarial Mathematics from Scotland's Heriot-Watt University. In 2011, she was chosen one of Canada's top young economists and attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany.

Doug Chandler is an independent research actuary based in Calgary. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Since 2016, he has served as the Canadian Retirement Research Actuary at the Society of Actuaries, where he is responsible for developing and completing objective research on Canadian retirement systems to inform public policy development and public understanding. Previously, he worked for 25 years as a consultant on retirement plans. In addition to providing retirement plan advice to clients, his responsibilities included professional practice leadership, thought leadership and writing for internal and external publications. Doug has been an active volunteer in Canadian Institute of Actuaries task forces on topics such as pension commuted values.

He Chen, FRM, is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute on Ageing. Passionate about improving the financial well-being of older adults, He worked at Canada’s top pension funds before joining the NIA. With nearly 10 years of experience in the financial industry — including with hedge funds, banks, pension funds and in asset management — he brings extensive knowledge of capital markets and pensions. With a Master of Mathematics in Actuarial Science and a Bachelor of Mathematics in Actuarial Science & Statistics from University of Waterloo, he received the Statistics and Actuarial Science Chair’s Award and has co-authored academic papers on retirement financial security and education. Previously, he collaborated with Statistics Canada on the LifePaths project, a longitudinal microsimulation model analyzing individual and familial behaviour in Canada. He also teaches Financial Risk Manager courses and supports new graduates and finance professionals to build their inventory of skills.

Sally Shen is currently Manager of Risk Analytics and Models at CPP Investments. Previously, she was Research Manager at OMERS, where she led the creation of innovative and impactful research, enriching and extending the ongoing efforts concerning pension plans and social value. Before joining OMERS, Sally served as a Research Associate at Global Risk Institute, collaborating with top academics and the pension industry for research, and played a crucial role in establishing the National Pension Hub. Sally’s journey in academia included being an Assistant Professor at Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, China, before she moved to Canada in 2017. She earned her Ph.D. in Finance in 2015 from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and has also worked as a researcher with APG. Sally has served as an international research fellow at Netspar since the year 2009. Sally’s research interests focus on social value of pension, longevity risk, pension communication, sustainable finance and climate risk, pension risk management, asset and liability management, pension technology, strategic asset allocation, liability valuation, and pension system design.