BMO ETF Portfolio Managers

Sara Petrcich
Head of ETF & Structured Solutions
Sara Petrcich has over 20 years of Capital Markets experience as well as one and a half years in the Bank doing a secondment for the CFO and Treasurer at one of Canada’s largest banks. Her experience has been predominantly as a derivatives trader in structured and exotic products including commodities, equities, rates and credit. She has an exceptionally strong risk management background as a result. At BMO Global Markets she was head of Risk Strategy, reporting into the head of Global Markets as their exclusive and trusted risk advisor. She oversaw the entire portfolio of trading book risk across the Capital Markets businesses as well as the associated risk metrics governing the businesses. She was responsible for implementing macro hedges to manage tail risk and optimize Capital Market’s risk taking capabilities vis a vis customer activities as well as managing regulatory metrics impacting the businesses’ balance sheet. She was appointed as Managing Director and Head of Synthetic Asset Management in August 2022 where she led the build out and creation of synthetic funds and products within BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM). Sara leads the ETF & Structured Solutions team, which subsequently came from the combination of the ETF and Synthetic Asset management businesses. Sara is also responsible for building out a macro hedging framework for the CEO of BMO GAM and Head of Wealth. She is currently on the PineBridge Risk Committee and the Executive BMO GAM sponsor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I).

Rob Bechard, CFA, M.Sc.
Managing Director & Head of ETF Portfolio Management, Exchange Traded Funds
Rob serves as the head of equity and fixed income portfolio management for the ETF group. Rob joined BMO in 2009 to help lead the launch of their ETF and passive business and was responsible for management and trading the underlying constituents of their fixed income ETFs which included Canadian corporate, provincial and federal bonds. Prior to joining BMO Asset Management Inc., Rob worked at Barclays Global Investors where he worked for 7 years as a fixed income portfolio manager and trader at offices in Toronto and London, England. He has also worked extensively on synthetic equity and currency hedged portfolios. Rob holds a BSc in mathematics from Queen’s University, an MSc in mathematical trading and finance from City University Business School in London, England, and is a CFA Charter holder.

Chris McHaney, CFA
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Chris has over two decades of experience in the investment industry and currently serves as portfolio manager for derivative-based and equity-based portfolios. This includes the management and trading of options on Canadian, US and European equities and ETFs. He also manages various cross-asset portfolios, which include Canadian and US fixed income and global equities. He has taken on numerous roles since joining BMO Financial Group in 2002, including Manager of Investments for BMO Asset Management Inc. where he was responsible for mutual fund manager monitoring and selection. In this role, he was also responsible for overseeing the currency hedging program across the mutual fund platform. Chris holds a BBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business and is a CFA charterholder.

Alfred Lee, CFA, CMT, DMS
Portfolio Manager and Investment Strategist, Exchange Traded Funds
Alfred is a portfolio manager and investment strategist at BMO ETFs, where he currently heads up the index equity team. His team currently manages some of the largest ETFs in Canada. In addition to his portfolio manager duties, Alfred also serves as the investment strategist for the team, putting together trade ideas and model portfolios for institutional and retail clients. Prior to moving to equities, Alfred was a lead portfolio manager on the entire fixed income BMO ETF line up and also spent a year seconded to the Bank of Canada, managing their Provincial Bond Purchase Program (PBPP), one of the central bank’s emergency asset purchase programs in 2020. Prior to joining BMO, Alfred worked at two other Canadian banks as a research analyst, focusing on macro-economics and ETFs and also worked in an institutional consultant practice of a major bank.

Chris Heakes, CFA, M.Fin.
Head, Disciplined Equity, Portfolio Manager
Chris joined the BMO ETF portfolio management team in 2011, and focuses on factor-based equity and derivative-overlay portfolios, including but not limited to BMO’s Low Volatility, Dividend, and Covered Call equity ETF suites. His prior investment experience includes a role as a quantitative equity research associate, and work in investment funds product and client support. Chris holds a Masters of Finance from the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management (Dean’s List), where he studied investments, including derivatives and derivative pricing. Chris also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo with studies in History and Mathematics and the CFA designation.

Matt Montemurro, CFA, MBA
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Matt joined the BMO ETF portfolio management team in 2012, specializaing in fixed income. He is currently the team lead for all fixed income portfolios managed by BMO ETFs. In his role as portfolio manager and trader, Matt, and his team, are responsible for all segments of the fixed income market, both in Canada and internationally. Matt has over a decade of industry experience in managing and trading Canadian federal, provincial, corporate and real return bonds; US Treasury and corporate bonds, both investment grade and high yield (cash bonds and CDX); as well as, emerging market debt. Matt has spent his entire career at BMO joining the bank in 2009. Matt holds an HBA and MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and is a CFA Charter holder.

Raymond Chan, CFA, FRM
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Raymond has 19 years of experience in the investment industry and currently serves as an equity portfolio manager and currency hedging specialist. Prior to joining BMO Asset Management Inc. in 2009, Raymond served as a portfolio manager at Barclays Global Investors where he was responsible for managing all equity ETFs, including one of Canada’s largest, while also co-managing the indexed, hedged and balanced portfolios of institutional clients. He holds a BA in economics from Carleton University, a Financial Risk Manager designation, and is a CFA charterholder.

Charles-Lucien Myssie, CIM
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Charles joined the BMO ETF team as a Portfolio Manager for derivative and equity-based portfolios. He brings over two decades of experience in the investment industry. Prior to joining BMO, Charles served as Portfolio Manager-Trader for seven years, where he managed equity derivatives value-added strategies and helped build the equity derivatives book. More recently, he played a key role as a derivatives sales-strategist with CIBC capital markets covering institutional clients such as pension plans, asset managers and real money accounts for the Quebec market. Charles holds a master degree in Econometrics from the University Paris X, France.

Vishal Bhatia, CFA
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Vishal joined BMO Asset Management in July 2016 and brings with him over two decades of experience in the investment industry. Vishal is a member of the ETF portfolio management team at BMO AM, focusing on equity and multi-asset portfolios. Prior to joining BMO, he worked at the asset management arm of a large Canadian bank, most recently as lead portfolio manager for a wide range of developed and emerging markets equity funds and US-listed ETFs. Vishal holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto and is a CFA charterholder.

Winnie Jiang, CFA
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Winnie is a portfolio manager and trader who joined the BMO ETF team in June 2021. Winnie is responsible for managing and trading both Canadian and international passive fixed income mandates, including government bonds, investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, real return bonds, etc. Winnie has over 10 years of experience in the investment industry covering both active and passive mandates. Winnie holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and is a CFA charterholder.

Omanand Karmalkar, CFA
Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Omanand is a portfolio manager on the BMO ETF team focusing on equity, derivatives-based and multi-asset portfolios. Prior to joining BMO Asset Management Inc., Omanand was a Portfolio Manager at TD Asset Management on the Asset Allocation team where he provided ongoing risk management and tactical/strategic portfolio design of fund-of-fund solutions. He also helped develop new innovative solutions and manage option strategies. He holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and is a CFA Charterholder.

Alizay Fatema, CFA
Associate Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Alizay is an associate at BMO ETF team where she is responsible for assisting in fixed income trading and portfolio management. She primarily focuses on fixed income segments such as sovereign, provincial, corporate - high yield & investment grade bonds as well as emerging markets debt. Over the past few years, Alizay has acquired experience in various areas of treasury and capital markets such as fixed income trading, ALM, FX sales, product development and product control. Prior to joining BMO, she worked with CIBC. Alizay holds a master’s degree from the University of London, majoring in accounting and finance and is a CFA charterholder.

Mirza Shakir
Associate Portfolio Manager, Exchange Traded Funds
Mirza is an Associate Portfolio Manager on the BMO ETF team, covering all index equity ETF mandates as well as further enhancing and automating processes using programming. Prior to joining BMO GAM in 2021, Mirza spent 3 years in ETF market-making and index research at a large Canadian investment bank. Mirza holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Joint Honours Economics and Finance from McGill University in addition to a Data Science certificate from the University of Toronto and is a CFA Charterholder.