Michael Nobrega sits on a bench in downtown Calgary as a photographer takes shots of him.

Passersby cast quick glances, conclude that he's not Wayne Gretzky, David Beckham or some other celebrity, and keep walking. The lack of recognition suits Nobrega, president and CEO of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), just fine.

"I have no interest in an ego job as the head of OMERS," says Nobrega, who is making a visit to Cowtown from his Toronto base. "When I took the job, the responsibility of the job was to meet the pension promise. That's my duty - my duty of care."

He oversees more than $60 billion worth of OMERS pension plan assets. But Nobrega is happy if the average newspaper reader doesn't know his name.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
President and CEO Michael Nobrega counts on a strong management team to add value to the $60-billion OMERS pension plan.

"I stepped in to do the job because the opportunity was there to do it," he says. "But I didn't take the job for any purpose other than to make a difference. If I don't think I can make a difference or add value, I will not take up space. That's not my style."

Nobrega, 63, honed his style during a long career as a chartered accountant and his youth in Guyana.

1. How did your parents end up being in Guyana?

"My dad was involved in some Canadian businesses and eventually we all moved to Canada."

2. What was it like growing up there?

"Different. It was a Third World country. But it was a great growth experience. I'm colour blind. I think I am where I am today because I grew up in that environment. It's straightforward to me that people are people. In that context, it was a great education. I went to regular schools, participated in regular sports activities and I enjoyed it. I call myself a Canadian with a Guyanese heritage."

3. What appealed to you about accounting?

"I did math at university and I did economics (but) I don't think anything appealed to me in terms of accounting. In those days, it was a very dry subject - but I had to make a living. I wanted independence and to make my own way. So when I finished my degree, I applied to a number of CA firms. I got accepted and from there I became a CA.

Then I rose through the ranks and, ultimately, became a partner (with Arthur Andersen.)" 4. When you were aspiring to become an accountant, what were your business goals?

"I think the first goal, when you're young that way, is to make a living. I don't think there was any particular goal other than to get a professional degree. I looked forward to finishing university. As I got into the program, I got more involved in accounting and it taught me a great deal, like how to read a balance sheet. I had a great exposure in terms of different companies, different industries, different styles of management (and) different sizes of companies. A lot of them couldn't meet the payroll. From that point of view, it was a real learning experience - not necessarily from the technical point of view only, but also from the human point of view. I began to understand that it's not simply numbers. It's also trying to connect with people, trying to motivate them, trying to have the right things for them in place (and) mentoring people. So I think the experience really taught me a great deal."

Michael Nobrega

5. What was a memorable experience that you had around that time?

"I worked in many of the large mergers and acquisition jobs that were going on in the late '70s and early '80s. I finished off my career at Arthur Anderson and I became a member of their junior board. I was able to serve on that junior board for two years (and) met a great deal of partners worldwide. I was able to connect with partners in South Africa, Indonesia and Japan. The experience that I had as a boy in Guyana gave me an intuition that I would be able to deal with other parts of the world. Leaving the (accounting) profession was difficult. I had sort of risen to the top, and I decided that I was too much on the consulting side. I decided I wanted to make a move and build a business. That's how I got involved in infrastructure, because I left the profession and started to think through the issues of the deficit in Canada, because I knew that Canada was undergoing tremendous amounts of current-account deficits. The debt was increasing. Really, two things were going to happen. Discretionary expenses in large projects - the airports, big transportation projects - were going to be curtailed. Also, the governments would push the deficit down to the bottom end - the municipalities. And, they would suffer with their water systems, their hospitals and their bridges. Because I had so much experience with mergers and acquisitions and doing large transactions, I felt that it provided me with a real platform. That's how Borealis, to some extent, was seeded. (We decided) that we should form a company and call it Borealis, but it had to be backed by a capital pool because you had to have big funds. The big funds were eventually tied to OMERS, and OMERS became the sponsor and owner of Borealis."

6. What is your view on investing in infrastructure, at this point?

"I think the pension funds themselves - large capital pools in this country - are ideally suited to be partners with governments on the very large infrastructure projects. We can be substantial partners with the governments on what I call the infrastructure required to trade. One (example) is the North American Free Trade Agreement, which removed tariffs and, hence, barriers for free trade amongst Canada, the United States and Mexico, but has put a lot of pressure on our existing infrastructure at the borders. Secondly, the demand for our resources and our two-way trade with China and India and the emerging countries, especially in ports like Vancouver and Montreal. Goods that are coming to those ports have to be moved across the country. We don't have the rail infrastructure to handle (the traffic) and we don't have the ports or roads infrastructure to make us efficient.

I think there's a real drag on the economy in Canada - right across the country - from our lack of major infrastructure. You're talking billions of dollars. The benefit for government is that they don't have to divert money that could go to health care, education (or) to service the national debt. So they have a capital source.

A huge number of jobs would be created from that expenditure. It would also generate a lot of productivity, efficiency and wealth in the economic system. For pension funds, it would provide an opportunity to put a number of dollars into the Canadian marketplace that will give us stable returns over the long period of time without having the political risks and the currency risks that automatically go with making investments outside of Canada."

7. How would you respond to people who have concerns about public-private partnerships (P3s) and say that private companies shouldn't be involved in infrastructure investments?

"If people take the time to understand what a P3 is and what it can bring to the marketplace, I think they would understand it.

Part of the criticism is that we make profits on the cost of funding that we're buying from the government. But I don't think government funding is free. There has to be a cost.

"It should be similar to what the private sector can do - especially capital pools. (Then), they tell me that P3s tend to result in lower standards, whether it's in transportation (or) that sort of stuff. I say to them: 'Show me examples.' I can show you our portfolio of P3s that provide higher standards more efficiently and more capital investment in the project. To say that a P3 is the wrong thing means that you don't have confidence in your government to negotiate the appropriate agreement. I think governments should use their money sparingly. They should use it for what is absolutely necessary rather than what is discretionary.

8. There's a great emphasis now on green projects, especially when it comes to power. What is your outlook for green infrastructure?

"I think we've been pioneers in that area. Nuclear is, in many ways, green power, so we have always (favoured) nuclear. We have fully avoided coal.

We also invested heavily into a district energy company (Enwave) in Toronto that uses cool water from Lake Ontario to provide air conditioning to office buildings in downtown Toronto - which is totally green. We've been very much on the bandwagon of green since we started in the construction game, because I think we had the intuition that that's where it was going to go."

9. What do you see as the challenges for green infrastructure developers?

"I think it's pricing, whether the consumer will pay the prices necessary to have green. There's a lot of people that talk the talk but don't walk the walk. You've got to pay premium prices to get green power. That can be the biggest obstacle to get to the green revolution."

10. Is there any particular energy type that you see standing above another one when it comes to green power?

"If you're looking at the big industrial economies like ours, I don't think we can go anywhere but to have a nuclear Renaissance. I don't know where else you go. Gas production in this country is dropping by 30 per cent a year. We're not getting more of it, we're getting less. If we get the Alaska pipeline or the Mackenzie (Valley), they tell me that most of that gas will be used for the oilsands. I don't think that gas will go to Central Canada. For big industrial economies, I don't think wind or solar will do it. I think the (energy) mix you're going to have in this country over the next 50 years is going to be 40-45 per cent, maybe, nuclear. You have a lot of coal in this country. But the question is, can you get the coal? Can you make it economical? Not only is the capital cost insane, but the operating costs are much higher than they would be with nuclear."

11. Given all of the assets that you manage and oversee, what is it like managing something of that scope?

"You've got to have a very strong management team, and we do have a very strong management team running our assets. Secondly, you have to have very good systems, computer systems and reporting systems. The third thing you have to have is very informed governance.

In other words, the right people on the right boards doing the right oversight - and you have to be involved and not micromanage the situation. Obviously, you've got to provide the right compensation and the right to be standard bearers. Once you've put those things in place, you've got the platform for a very good business model."

12. How would you describe your management style?

"I would say I'm certainly not a micromanager. Others would say otherwise. I would like to think of myself as a very informed manager of our activities. I take a very keen interest in the files as to what's going on - especially in the very large investments and the large activities that go on around OMERS. I select a management team that would accept responsibility if they were in my position."

13. What's your preference as far as your profile?

"My preference is to keep a low profile - because it's not my money. (It belongs to) the pensioners and active members of OMERS. It's their money. So I shall not be showcasing myself or building my reputation on their money. I know there's interest in the people that run these plans, so I need to step out occasionally and say who I am and what I do. I recognize that I have to go out and provide some messaging on what OMERS is all about."

14. Do you see any areas in the future that OMERS would go into?

"Geography is more important than the asset classes right now. Canada only represents three per cent of the GDP of the world and we probably have 60 per cent of our assets in Canada. If there's anything new that we will do, it's probably look for opportunities outside of Canada. We'll probably have some boots on the ground in certain parts of the world that we don't now, like Europe and maybe Asia. We'll look at that in the near future. That doesn't say we're not keen on Canada. We're very keen on Canada. But we do have to diversify ourselves somewhat."

15. What's your position on possibly acquiring a major stake in BCE?

"I believe that it's hypothetical, because I think Teachers have got it wrapped up pretty well. But to the extent that they come and ask us to have a look at it, we certainly will. But the problem that we have is that we've got so many projects on the go. We just don't have any time or resources to look at all the projects that come our way."

16. What kind of personality does it take to manage these vast assets and look to uncharted areas?

"You can't walk into this business without a lot of experience - particularly in today's structured transactions. You've got to understand a lot of structure.

"You need to be exposed to a lot of businesses, which I have been, and (you must have) an ability to connect with good management teams."

17. How are you preparing for your retirement?

"OMERS has very robust succession planning. It does it every year. There's somebody behind me who will step right in, and there's somebody behind him or her. That's how I got the job, I was part of the succession plan. The board always has the final say. But, certainly, the best place to go is actually internally to get your people because they have the culture, they have the background (and) they're familiar with the assets and the milieu of the organization."

18. What do you like to invest in personally as part of your retirement preparation?

"When I leave this job, probably real estate. I'm not a big player in the capital markets just because of the perception of conflicts of interest. I want to stay away from that perception. Any funds I've had, I've put (them) basically in low-level real estate. I don't compete with our real estate company. It could be minor residential properties or a parking lot. It's very passive (investing) and doesn't require a lot of my time, because my time should be devoted to running OMERS."

19. What do see as the hot, or strong, real estate markets in Canada right now?

"Alberta, for sure. I would say it's essentially the West."

20. What would you do if you left OMERS?

"If my health stayed up well, I think I would remain active. I could very well buy into a company with other people.The big thing in the world in the next couple of years is going to be this green factor. To the extent that I could bring my business knowledge and experience to people with better ideas, more creative ideas. But my wife might decide when I leave this job that I spend some time with her, because I haven't had much time to spend with the family during my professional career. It hasn't been easy. Great jobs take time. If you're not prepared to put the time in, then you shouldn't take the job."

Michael Nobrega

* Title: President/CEO.

* Born/raised/age: Georgetown, Guyana/Georgetown & Toronto/63.

* Education: Bachelor of arts (honours) in economics and mathematics from the University of Toronto. Obtained chartered accountant designation in 1973.

* Family: Married with two daughters aged 29 and 26 and one son aged 21.

* Career: Nobrega became president and CEO of OMERS in March after serving as the head of Borealis Infrastructure, which he launched in 1998 and grew to a firm with upward of $5 billion in assets. Before starting Borealis, he served as a merchant banker and chartered accountant.

* Moonlighting: Nobrega has raised funds for several organizations, including local school boards, the University of Toronto and the United Way. He has sat on the boards of the Ontario Centre of Excellence, the Primaris Group (OMERS' real estate arm) and Share Life, a Catholic version of the United Way, and has served on Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario committees.

* Recreational Pursuits: Squash, running.

Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System

* Brass: Michael Nobrega, president and CEO of OMERS; Michael Latimer, president and CEO of Oxford Properties Group; Paul Renaud, president and CEO of OMERS Capital Partners; Michael Rolland, president of Borealis Infrastructure.

* Profile: Founded in 1961, OMERS holds a combination of public and private equities as well as real estate and infrastructure assets. OMERS holds millions of shares in such big-name firms as Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada, Calgary-based pipeline builder Enbridge Inc., Saskatoon-based uranium giant Cameco Corp., Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways, Rogers Communications Inc. and Microsoft. Real estate assets, managed through its Oxford Properties subsidiary, include equity stakes in such landmarks as BCE Place in Toronto, Canterra Tower in Calgary, Bell Tower in Edmonton, Constitution Square in Ottawa, the Marine Building in Vancouver, Winnipeg Square and complete ownership of Fairmont Hotel resorts across the country. Infrastructure assets include Bruce Power in Ontario, Express Pipeline System (which carries crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest), Detroit River Rail Tunnel (through a joint venture with CP Rail), Confederation Bridge and Associated British Ports.

* Stats: OMERS includes 375,000 members (285,000 employed and 90,000 retired), 90 municipalities and 70 associations. OMERS owns several investment-related subsidiaries, including Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc. and private equity firm OMERS Capital Partners. OMERS itself has 400 employees while wholly owned subsidiaries employ about 1,700. Taking joint venture companies and investment alliances into account, OMERS directly and indirectly participates in the employment of up to 25,000 people. Approximately 80 per cent of employees are unionized.

* Corporate Structure: OMERS is a private pension plan governed by administration and sponsor corporations under the Ontario government's OMERS Act, which was passed last year. The OMERS Administration Corporation, which replaced the former OMERS Corporation, administers the pension plan on a day-to-day basis and manages investments and member pensions. OMERS also has a Sponsors Corporation, which is responsible for plan design, benefit changes, member contribution rates and a reserve fund.

* In The News: The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) recently cleared OMERS of any wrongdoing following a three-year investigation into OMERS outsourcing asset management of its real estate, infrastructure and private equity investments to Borealis Capital Corp. between 1997-2004. As the former head of Borealis, Michael Nobrega was also under investigation.

OMERS has since repatriated asset management of real estate, infrastructure and private equity investments.

* Website: www.omers.com

* HQ: Suite 700, One University Avenue, Toronto, M5J 2P1.

* Phone/Fax: (416) 369-2400/(416) 360-0217.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)