Derek Dobson is CEO and Plan Manager of CAAT Pension Plan. A seasoned pension expert with over 30 years of industry experience, he has led the CAAT Plan to become one of Canada’s most sustainable pension plans.
Under his leadership, CAAT opened its modern defined benefit (DB) plan to all workplaces in the private, non-profit, and broader public sectors. He championed an innovation strategy and purpose-driven culture that would drive the release of new plan designs and features, including DBplus, Contribution Choice, and GROWTHplus. Since his appointment in April 2009, Derek’s expertise in strategy, funding, governance, and risk management, along with the Senior Executive Team, have been instrumental to enhancing benefit security and growing membership across 20 industries.
He received the 2023 Institutional Connect Lifetime Achievement Award and 2019 ACPM Industry Award for his creativity in addressing challenges in Canada’s retirement income system. He passionately advocates for access to efficient, high-performing pensions.
A sitting member of the Pension Policy Council at C.D. Howe Institute, Derek is also a founding faculty member of the Masters of Trust Management Standards of the International Foundation of Employee Benefits and Pensions (IFEBP). He served as co-chair of the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council (CPPLC) and Board member of the Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM).
Derek holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo.