Get to Know the Board of Directors

Jay Ireland is the former President and CEO of GE Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) where he led GE’s operations on the sub-continent across power generation, healthcare, transportation, oil & gas, and aviation. He was a GE Officer and a member of GE’s Corporate Executive Council.

Prior to his GE Africa appointment, Mr. Ireland led GE Asset Management (GEAM), a global investment firm with approximately US$120 billion in assets under management. Before leading GEAM, Mr. Ireland was President of NBC Universal Television Stations and Network Operations. He started his career with GE in 1980 in its Financial Management Program and was the CFO of GE Plastics before joining NBC in 1999. Mr. Ireland served three years as a US Army Officer.

Mr. Ireland was the Chair of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and was also Co-Chair of the US Africa Business Centre, which launched in 2015. He is a director of Gates Corporation and a Trustee of St. Lawrence University where he received a BA in 1977.

Mr. Ireland serves on the Mastercard Foundation Board of Directors.

Jennifer Fonstad is a serial entrepreneur and veteran investor with over 25 years of experience investing in early-stage ventures. Ms. Fonstad co-founded and leads the Owl Capital Group, an early-stage investment firm, and co-founded Aspect Ventures. She also serves as an Executive Fellow with the Harvard Business School.

Previously, Ms. Fonstad served as a Managing Director with Draper Fisher Jurvetson for 17 years, where she helped grow the firm from $150 million assets under management to over $3.5 billion. She has participated in more than 100 investments with eight IPOs and 23 M&A exits.

Ms. Fonstad’s success as an investor has twice been recognized on the Forbes Midas List, and she was named Deloitte’s “Venture Capitalist of the Year” in 2016. Working Mother named her one of “The 50 Most Powerful Moms” in 2017.

Prior to venture investing, Ms. Fonstad was a consultant with Bain & Company and spent a year teaching math to high school students in sub-Saharan Africa. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Mastercard Foundation Board of Directors.

Ms. Fonstad is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and holds an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. Her favorite role is as a mother of four children.

Tsega Gebreyes is a veteran investor and entrepreneur with significant Pan-African operating and investing expertise. She is currently Founding Director at Satya Capital Limited, an independent investment group focused on providing long-term growth capital.

Ms. Gebreyes was formerly a Board Director and Senior Executive at Celtel International, where she played an instrumental role in attracting capital for investments in Africa and was a driving force behind the growth of the business through multi-country expansion across Africa. She has also held various roles at Citibank Group and McKinsey & Company.

In addition to her roles, Ms. Gebreyes chairs the remuneration committee of Airtel Africa and is also a non-executive director of LSEG. She was previously Vice Chair and Senior Independent Director of SES and a Director of Sonae Group on a number of other private company boards. Ms. Gebreyes serves on the Mastercard Foundation Board of Directors.

Ms. Gebreyes received a BA from Rhodes College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jim Leech retired as President and CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, one of the world’s largest and most innovative pension funds, in 2014. During his tenure as CEO, Ontario Teachers’ was ranked first in the world for investment returns and service to members. In addition, the pension plan eliminated its funding deficit and is currently in surplus. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Mr. Leech headed Ontario Teachers’ Private Capital, the pension plan’s international private investing arm.

For the past decade, Mr. Leech has focused on philanthropic leadership and non-partisan public service. He is Chancellor Emeritus of Queen’s University, Chair Emeritus of the UHN Foundation, Special Advisor to McKinsey & Company, Advisory Board Chair of the Institute for Sustainable Finance and Board member of Historica Canada. Mr. Leech was formerly Chair of the Board of the Mastercard Foundation.

In 2013, Mr. Leech co-authored The Third Rail, Confronting our Pension Failures, a best-selling book that received the 2013-2014 Best Canadian Business Book Award.

Mr. Leech was appointed Special Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Finance to review the province’s electricity sector pension sustainability in 2014. In 2017, he was appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada to assist the federal government in establishing the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

Mr. Leech was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to Canada as an innovator in pension management, for his writings on the subject of retirement funding, and for his community involvement and as a member of the Order of Ontario. He was also awarded the Canadian Decoration for his meritorious military service.

Mr. Leech holds a B.Sc. (Honours Math and Physics) and Honorary Doctor of Laws from the Royal Military College of Canada and an MBA from Queen’s University. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Lynn Patterson is a corporate director and served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada (BoC) from May 2014 until her retirement in July 2019. In this capacity, she was one of two deputy governors responsible for overseeing the BoC’s analysis and activities promoting a stable and efficient financial system.

Prior to this, Ms. Patterson served as Special Adviser to the Governor and Senior Representative (Financial Markets) at the BoC’s Toronto Regional Office. Prior to joining the BoC, Ms. Patterson was President and Country Head for Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canada. She is a recipient of the Diamond Jubilee Medal as a builder and innovator in Canada’s investment industry.

Ms. Patterson received an Honours BA from the University of Western Ontario and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Michael Sabia is the President and CEO of Hydro-Quebec. He served as the Deputy Minister of the Department of Finance Canada from 2020-2023. He is also the former Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

From March 2009 to January 2020, Mr. Sabia served as President and CEO of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), where he oversaw the strategic direction of CDPQ and the global growth of the organization.

Before joining CDPQ, Mr. Sabia held senior positions with BCE, including President and CEO. From 1993 to 1999, he was a senior executive with Canadian National Railway, where he became Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Sabia spent the preceding decade working as a senior official in the Government of Canada, as the Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet and in senior positions in the Department of Finance.

Mr. Sabia has been Chair of the Board of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. He was also a member of the Canadian Government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. Mr. Sabia serves on the Mastercard Foundation Board of Directors.

Mr. Sabia is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He obtained a BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Toronto and an M. Phil in Economics and Politics from Yale University.