From Investing to Representing: Mark D. Wiseman, Canada's Ambassador to the United States (LLM '98) in conversation with Sara Cohen, 2026 Yale World Fellow

Ambassador Wiseman (LLM '98) has been at the forefront of global investing in both Canada and the United States. He now represents his country internationally as Canada's top diplomat in Washington, DC. How do these roles and experiences complement each other and contribute to prosperity, nation building, and leadership? And what are the keys to success?

Join us for a conversation followed by audience Q&A between Ambassador Wiseman and his (once and future) Deputy, 2026 Yale World Fellow Sara Cohen.

About the guest

Mark Wiseman is a Canadian business executive and investment manager, economic policy leader, and industry-leading expert in alternatives and active equity investments.

Among his board and advisory roles with various organisations, Mr. Wiseman has most recently served as Senior Advisor and Chairman of Lazard Canada, on the Board of Directors of NOVA Chemicals, as Chairman of the Board of Alter Domus, and as a senior advisor to the Boston Consulting Group. He also recently served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation, from 2020 to 2023. Previously, he was Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, Global Head of Active Equities, Chairman of BlackRock’s alternatives business, and Chairman of its Global Investment Committee. He also served on BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee.

Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Wiseman was President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, where he first served as Senior Vice-President, Private Investment, and then as Executive Vice-President, before becoming CEO.

Born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Mr. Wiseman holds a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University as well as a law degree and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University, where he obtained a Master of Laws. He also served as a law clerk to Justice Beverley McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada.

He is a dedicated community leader who has served on the board of several nonprofit organisations, including Alpine Canada Alpin, Sinai Health System, the Capital Markets Institute, and the Dean’s Advisory Board at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his service.

About the host

A career diplomat, Sara Cohen is the Deputy Ambassador (Foreign Policy and National Security) at the Embassy of Canada to the United States in Washington, D.C. As part of the Embassy’s senior executive leadership team, Sara oversees programs dealing with foreign and defense policy, energy and environment, public safety, border security, immigration, intelligence liaison and law enforcement.

Prior to assuming this position, she held various executive positions in Ottawa at the headquarters of Global Affairs Canada. This includes Director General, South America and Inter-American Affairs Bureau (2020-2022) and concurrently the Prime Minister’s National Coordinator for the 2022 Summit of the Americas. Previously, she was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017-2020) and Chief of Staff to the Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2016-2017).

Other assignments at headquarters include two years deployed to the Privy Council Office in the Foreign and Defense Policy Secretariat, responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean. She has also served abroad as the Head of the Political Section at the Canadian Embassy in Bogota, Colombia (2009-2012), and was Head of the Political Section at the Canadian Embassy in Santiago, Chile (2014-2016). Fluently trilingual (English, French, Spanish), she holds a Master’s degree from University College London and a BA from McGill University.