Social Capital Partners appoints Matthew Mendelsohn as new CEO

November 29, 2023| News release

TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2023 –Social Capital Partners (SCP) today announced the appointment of Matthew Mendelsohn as its new CEO, effective January 2, 2024. Jon Shell, SCP’s current Managing Director will become SCP’s Chair.

Matthew is a Canadian public policy leader. For over 25 years, he has designed and implemented public policy solutions that work in practice and has advised governments, organizations and elected leaders on ways to improve economic, social and democratic outcomes. Matthew is a former deputy minister with the governments of Canada and Ontario, and was the founding Director of the Mowat Centre, a public policy think tank at the University of Toronto. Most recently he was a Visiting Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and a Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group.

“Matthew is the ideal leader for our new chapter as we pursue our next big ideas,” said Bill Young, Founder of SCP. “As SCP enters its next phase, we will focus on transformational public policy. Our goal is to drive changes that will confront wealth inequality, the thickening barriers to intergenerational mobility, and obstacles to asset ownership for many Canadians.”

In describing SCP’s next phase, Jon Shell, added: “Good public policy can expand opportunities for Canadians to own businesses, homes and assets. Canada can continue to deliver on its promise, but we must do more to combat the financialization of our economy and create more opportunities for Canadians and communities to build wealth.”

“I have long been a big admirer of SCP and its relentless focus on having a positive impact on the lives of Canadians through concrete action, focused investments and coalition building,” said Matthew. “Rising wealth inequality is corrosive to democratic societies and diminishes all of us. The Canadian dream must remain a realistic aspiration for more Canadians, and public policy needs to catch up to the structural realities of our economy. SCP can help drive this work.”

“Good public policy can expand opportunities for Canadians to own businesses, homes and assets. Canada can continue to deliver on its promise, but we must do more to combat the financialization of our economy and create more opportunities for Canadians and communities to build wealth.”

Share with a friend

Related reading

BlogNever 51

Are Canadian pension funds stepping up for Canada at this moment of threat? All signs point to maybe

Large Canadian pension plan OMERS announced earlier this week that it will attempt to increase its investments in Canada by $10B over the next five years. This is a good sign, says SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn, but announcements and good intentions will not be enough. The incentive structure for fund managers, and the allocation of resources across asset classes and geographies, will need to change if pension funds are able to deliver on what their contributors and beneficiaries expect of them.

VideoIn the media

Watch the video: Should pension funds help build Canada’s future? | TVO’s The Rundown

TVO's The Rundown convened a discussion about whether Canadian pension funds should increase domestic investments versus investing internationally. The video segment examines the risks and rewards of using Canadian pension capital for nation-building projects, highlighting that Canadian pension funds managed nearly $2.5 trillion in assets by the end of 2024, but a large portion is invested outside of Canada. Panelists Matthew Mendelsohn and Keith Ambachtsheer discuss whether funds should focus solely on financial returns or also on contributing to Canada's economic growth.

Report

Tied Up: Unleashing Canada’s non-profit housing potential

Canada’s non-profit housing sector is structurally constrained. Well-intentioned accountability mechanisms, designed to protect public investment and ensure affordability, often have the unintended effect of limiting balance-sheet capacity, restricting access to financing and preventing asset leverage. Consequently, the non-market housing sector remains underdeveloped. In consultation with stakeholders and partners in the non-profit housing space, report authors Michelle Arnold and Savraj Syan identify three technical issue fixes that could unleash Canada's non-profit housing potential.

Skip to content