The posting
The Head of Corporate Finance is a senior investment leadership role accountable for leading Manulife’s global investment-grade corporate lending activities for the General Account. The role oversees approximately US$163 billion in investments, representing one of the General Account’s largest dedicated investment portfolios.
The Head of Corporate Finance is responsible for delivering strong, sustainable investment performance by identifying attractive relative value across public and private corporate credit markets, maintaining disciplined underwriting and risk management, and deploying capital effectively across Manulife’s global insurance businesses.
Key drivers of the outperformance of our investment program have been our direct contact and relationships with borrowers, our integrated global investment origination model across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, and our very close partnership with our portfolio managers and credit officers to drive balanced innovation that best fits different Manulife portfolios.
The role leads a global team of approximately 70 lending professionals across Toronto, Boston and London, with an additional 15 lending professionals in Asia operating through a dotted-line relationship.
This leader is also a senior contributor to the broader General Account strategy and investment governance, bringing deep corporate credit expertise, market insight and leadership to enterprise investment decisions.
Position Responsibilities: Market Engagement, Investment Strategy & Performance
Empower your lending officers and teams to be leaders in the marketplace, engaging directly with borrowers and prospective borrowers and peers to understand well the market for investment grade lending and identify emerging sectors and borrowers where we can obtain better risk return in our lending.
- Lead the global Corporate Finance investment strategy for an approximately US$163 billion investment-grade lending portfolio supporting the General Account.
- Drive sustainable investment performance and attractive risk-adjusted returns for Manulife policyholders and shareholders.
- Identify relative value across a highly diversified portfolio encompassing approximately 2,000 corporate borrowers.
- Oversee investment activity across both public bonds and private placements, with the portfolio currently comprising approximately 70% public and 30% private investments.
- Maintain a strong understanding of industries, companies and market dynamics to inform investment decisions and portfolio positioning.
Global Capital Deployment
- Lead corporate lending activity across multiple currencies, including USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, AUD and CHF.
- Optimize investment opportunities across Manulife’s global balance sheets, including Manulife Canada, Manulife Asia and John Hancock.
- Partner closely with portfolio management teams to align corporate credit origination and investment activity with liability characteristics, portfolio requirements and business priorities.
Credit & Risk Leadership
- Maintain disciplined investment underwriting and risk selection across a large and diversified corporate credit portfolio.
- Work collaboratively with credit officers and portfolio managers to evaluate credit risk and identify attractive risk-return opportunities.
- Bring industry expertise and judgment to complex investment decisions.
- Contribute senior investment expertise to broader General Account investment decisions and governance.
Leadership & Talent
- Lead a geographically dispersed global Corporate Finance organization across North America, Europe and Asia.
- Build a high-performing investment culture characterized by strong judgment, accountability, collaboration, transparency and respect.
- Develop leadership and investment capability across the organization and create a strong pipeline of future investment leaders.
- Establish clear priorities while empowering senior leaders and investment professionals to operate effectively within their areas of responsibility.
Strategic Leadership
- Serve as a senior member of the General Account Leadership Team and General Account Investment Committee.
- Contribute to the development of the General Account's broader investment strategy and priorities.
- Help identify and evaluate new investment capabilities, markets and opportunities where the General Account can generate differentiated value.
- Represent Corporate Finance and the General Account with key internal stakeholders and external market participants.
Key Stakeholder Relationships The Head of Corporate Finance works closely with:
- General Account leadership
- Portfolio Management
- Credit
- Investment Risk
- Manulife Canada, Manulife Asia and John Hancock
- Private Markets and other investment teams
- Senior Finance and enterprise leadership
- External borrowers, issuers, intermediaries and other market participants.
- Success requires balancing strong independent investment judgment with the ability to operate collaboratively across investment disciplines, geographies and business units.
Required Qualifications:
- Deep expertise in corporate credit and investment-grade lending, ideally across both public and private markets.
- Demonstrated experience leading a large and complex investment portfolio.
- Strong understanding of credit underwriting, relative-value assessment, portfolio construction and risk management.
- Experience operating across global markets and multiple currencies.
- Strong commercial and investment judgment, including the ability to make effective decisions in complex or changing market environments.
- Demonstrated ability to lead, develop and inspire senior investment professionals across multiple locations.
- Strong executive presence and the ability to communicate complex investment matters clearly to senior leadership and investment governance forums.
- Ability to collaborate effectively with portfolio managers, credit professionals and other investment teams while maintaining appropriate independence of judgment.
- A track record of innovation and continuous improvement within an investment organization.
The role being advertised is an existing vacancy.
About Manulife and John Hancock
Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.
Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer
At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.
It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact [email protected].
Working Arrangement
Hybrid
Base Salary & Benefits
Employees also have the opportunity to participate in incentive programs and earn incentive compensation tied to business and individual performance. The actual base salary will vary depending on local market conditions, geography and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training. If you are applying for this role outside of the primary location, please contact [email protected] for the salary range for your location.
Manulife offers eligible employees a wide array of customizable benefits, including health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans. We also offer eligible employees various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources. Our generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence. If you are applying for this role in the U.S., please contact [email protected] for more information about U.S.-specific paid time off provisions.
We use data and analytics technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and automated processing tools, to analyze and process the information you provide to us or third parties in the application process. For more information, please refer to our personal information collection statement.
