Welcome Ian Johnson to the Victoria Foundation

The Victoria Foundation would like to introduce you to our new staff member, Director of Investments, Ian Johnson.

Ian was born in Ottawa and grew up in Ottawa and Belleville, Ontario (with a brief year in Winnipeg). He is a graduate of Queen’s University, and after university, he spent over a decade teaching at a college in Kobe, Japan.

Ian is a highly experienced risk manager with extensive theoretical and hands-on experience trading proprietary strategies designed to mitigate the impact of market volatility and generate additional portfolio yield. He came back to Canada in 2007, and helped launch a Vancouver-based hedge fund. The Fund went on to be one of three finalists for Morningstar’s Best Opportunistic Hedge Fund in 2012, and he managed investments for some of Canada’s top institutional investors, including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the Jim Pattison Foundation.

Ian and his family moved to Victoria in 2017, where he worked as Chief Risk Officer for a top-ranked investment advisory team.  He joined the Victoria Foundation’s Investment Committee in 2020, and came on board as the Foundation’s Director of Investments in 2022.  He has been a CFA charterholder since 2015, and has a deep commitment to professional development and education.  He currently teaches multiple investment courses for the University of Victoria Continuing Studies program, and has been a guest lecturer for the 4th year Strategic Investing course at the Richard Ivey School of Business.

When he’s not working or playing with his two young kids, you’ll usually find Ian on one of the local tennis courts.