After just five months as the director of strategic partnerships at Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, Mike Woollatt called it quits.
Woollatt said in a phone interview Tuesday that he was wooed by an offer from Hamilton Lane to lead the alternative asset manager’s new Toronto office. “The opportunity to help bring one of the largest private-markets asset managers in the space in the world to Canada was something I could not turn down,” he said.
Woollatt, who joined Hamilton Lane as a principal on its co-investment and fund investments teams, will lead the firm’s work with the Canadian government’s Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative, according to a statement Tuesday from the asset management firm. Canada created the program to increase late-stage venture capital to entrepreneurs and businesses in the country, selecting Hamilton Lane as one of its first managers.
“It’s a dream job,” said Woollatt. “Canada has world-renowned institutional investors who have been anchors in the Canadian ecosystem for a while.”
The country’s middle-market private equity landscape has grown significantly in recent years, according to Woollatt, who said he joined Hamilton Lane in January.
A spokesman for OMERS declined to comment on his departure.
[II Deep Dive: OMERS Ventures Launches €300 Million Fund]
Prior to joining OMERS, Woollatt was the chief executive officer of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, according to Hamilton Lane’s statement. In that role, he said he created the first private markets database of its kind for Canadian venture and private equity firms.
At the end of December, Hamilton Lane had $469 billion in assets under management and supervision, according to the statement.
