John Ruffolo

When Canada’s tech sector produces its next giant-killer, you can bet John Ruffolo will have had a hand in it. As the chief executive officer of OMERS Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Ontario municipal workers’ pension fund, Ruffolo presides over a $200-million fund that’s offering big money to startups that just might become megaplayers with the scale and global reach of BlackBerry. A longtime partner with Deloitte, Ruffolo had been advising companies and venture funds in the TMT sectors for more than two decades when OMERS hired him to launch Ventures. The $65-billion pension fund wasn’t investing in venture capital at the time (it exited the space in 2008, discouraged by low returns and the high management fees charged by VC funds) but by 2011 it saw growing potential in the market and decided to get back in—through direct investments. The move made OMERS the first major pension fund in Canada with an in-house venture-capital arm.