A Profile of Cathe Tocher, Great-West Life & Annuity - Dcprovider.com

Cover StoryS PA R K M E M B E R P R O F I L ECathe Tocher“We were dictated to in almost everyway, even in how we should comb ourhair and paint our nails,” Cathe recalls.“But that was fine with me because all Iwanted was to be a ballerina.”When her family moved fromWinnipeg for three years so her fathercould follow a job opportunity, Cathe, 13at the time, chose to stay behind with hergrandparents to pursue her dream.Disappointment came at 16, however,when the director of the ballet companytold her she’d never be the prima ballerina.“I didn’t want to be in a supporting roleso I decided to leave the ballet, cut mylosses, and decide what I was going to dowith my life,” she says. “I was a total overachieverand had to redirect the passionI’d had for dance in another direction.”By 19, she had obtained her privatepilot’s license, following in the footsteps ofCathe TocherSenior Vice President, InvestmentsGreat-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co.Cathe Tocher wanted to be a ballerina from the time she was six. Byage 11, she was dancing in the junior professional division of the RoyalWinnipeg Ballet. It was a strict program, based on the Russian model wherechildren practiced in the morning and attended school in the afternoon.her father who was a commercial pilot forAir Canada. She also spent the year afterhigh school studying the French languageat Universite de Poitiers in Royan, France.“Growing up in Canada, I’d taken Frenchall through school and had developed alove of the language. I was determined itwas critical for me to be bilingual.”Back home in Canada, Cathe attendedthe University of Manitoba, where shegraduated with a Bachelor of Commerce(Honors Degree) in Finance in 1983. Sheminored in French.Cathe’s interest in business emergedduring high school when she realizedher natural inclination was toward math.She turned toward finance because sheliked the discipline it provided and it wasquantitatively driven. She also believed itheld more opportunities for women andoffered the financial rewards she desired.Her future career was decided in aportfolio management class during herthird year in college. “The light wenton, and I said that’s what I want to do.”Winnipeg, however, didn’t offer manyjob opportunities in finance. Right aftercollege, she worked at an investmentadvisory firm for two years. Then anopening came up at Great-West for ajunior bond analyst. “I had to get thatjob!” So she went all out for it andmanaged to beat out a long line ofapplicants. That started her career atGreat-West 23 years ago.Learning the ropes atGreat-WestCathe began as a corporate bond analyston the U.S. dollar fixed-income portfolioteam. Her make-or-break opportunitycame six months after she joined thecompany when her hiring managerresigned. “We were very thinly staffed andI felt like I was working around the clockbecause there was so much I needed tolearn. Reality is not like a university class,”she says. “It was a critical time for me andI was fortunate because people around meand relationships on Wall Street helpedme learn the bond business.“I had enormous opportunities anddeveloped strong relationships during myfirst four years at Great-West. Althoughit was a huge learning curve, I managedto move up because of hard work and thesupport I had from management. I couldhave fallen into an abyss had it not beenfor these relationships, for which I ameternally grateful.”In 1990, Cathe and her family movedto Denver, where Great-West hadw w w . s p a r k u s a . o r g

consolidated its U.S. dollar operations.It was a challenging time for her in manyrespects. She and her husband had justhad their first child and were movingto another country. She also had a newboss and had to develop new workingrelationships.Once settled in Denver, Cathe continuedmanaging separate accounts and was givena handful of portfolios to manage inGreat-West’s fledging retirement servicesbusiness.All-star portfolio managerOver the years, as Great-West’s assetmanagement business has grown, so haveCathe’s abilities as a portfolio manager.Today, she manages all 46 of Great-West’sseparate account portfolios, increasingassets under management from $250million in 1990 to $9.6 billion as of June30, 2010.Cathe and her eight team membersmanage portfolios to custom investmentpolicies comprising investment-gradefixed-income asset classes, representingboth total return and stable value strategies.Within the 401(k) marketplace, Cathe has5- and 4-star Morningstar-rated funds andhas maintained her track record of beatingportfolio benchmarks for more than 17years – unusually good performance for aninsurance company.What does it take to achieve thiskind of performance? “It’s all aboutbuilding and maintaining a disciplinedprocess. That goes not only for selecting,evaluating, and analyzing securities, butalso for monitoring the securities youhold. Every day we ask ourselves this: buy,hold, sell? The consequence of indecisionis typically underperformance. You haveToday, she managesall 46 of Great-West’sseparate account portfolios,increasing assets undermanagement from $250million in 1990 to $9.6billion as of June 30, 2010.to be responsive and nimble and makechanges when you need to,” she says.“We have daily morning meetings to talkabout what’s going on in the market andwhat everybody is doing. And we revieweverything again at the end of the day. Itell my team when we are 5-star, there’sonly one way to go and that’s down; wecan’t rest on our laurels.“We listen to what the market is tellingus. You listen, you research, you analyze,and you talk to the Street. At the endof the day, it’s about listening to whatthe market is telling you and makingdecisions. I spend a lot of time mentoringand developing my team. The more junioranalysts learn a difficult lesson early intheir careers, and that is to let it go. As aportfolio manager, you have to be forwardlooking – you can’t manage looking in therear-view mirror.”Cathe is very hands on. “It’s like beingon 24/7. For me, to be good at what I do,I have to be in it every day. It’s what I’mabout. I couldn’t be removed. And it’s nota matter of confidence in my team becauseI have a great team. But I’m the portfoliomanager so it’s my job.”For Cathe, maintaining goodperformance through the economicdownturn took experience and instinct.“I also had the benefit of being able todraw on the breadth and depth of theentire investment division. My boss, MarkCorbett, who is the CIO, has incrediblevision and perspective, and I was able totap into that strength in developing andmodifying strategies and managing theportfolios.“When we were going through thefinancial crisis, it was really hard for anyinvestor to grasp the depth of the problem.The game changed and portfolio managerswho didn’t realize this and managed asthey had in the past underperformed,”she says. “Sometimes you had to ignorewhat fundamental analyses and relativevalue data were telling you and jumpon board with what the Federal Reservewas doing with its balance sheet. It wasan unbelievable time. I felt fear. I wason edge. It was very, very challengingto manage through that. But, again, ifyou listened closely to the market, to thesignals coming from the Administrationand from the Fed, you would have won.We made mistakes and didn’t come outunscathed. But relative to our peers, wehad solid performance.”Historically, Great-West has focusedon small- and mid-sized retirement plans.But a strong performance record, evenbefore the economic downturn, has beenattracting larger-sized plans. “One of ourfirst very large customers had performanceproblems. But we were able to restructureT H E S P A R K J O U R N A L • F O U R T H Q U A R T E R , 2 0 1 0

Cover StoryS PA R K M E M B E R P R O F I L E Cathe Tochertheir portfolio and turn it around. Thisled to referrals and other large-case wins.People started to come to us to workout problems in their portfolios. And it’snot just about investment performance.Great-West has a solid reputation forcustomer service.”Cathe credits her accomplishments tothe freedom and support she’s received,which has given her the confidence todevelop her abilities in what is a relativelymale-dominated profession. Although shesays she is not particularly a feminist,she realizes she’s beaten the odds to getwhere she is and feels fortunate aboutit. “I love to come to work every day.I love what I do, and I think that putsme in another minority. Many peoplehave championed me, empowered me,and enabled me,” she says. “My boss haslet me run with this business from theground up. He challenges me to perform,and in fund management there’s no placeto hide. You either outperform your peersor your benchmarks, or you don’t. Thegood thing is that I’m very competitiveand believe money management is avery good place for people to channeltheir competitiveness. You are constantlycompeting with yourself.”In addition to portfolio strategy andeconomic outlook, Cathe specializes ininvesting in residential and commercialmortgage-backed securities and managesinstitutional trading. She also providesbusiness line support for sales, clienteducation, and client retention.In her role as general account portfoliomanger and strategist, she works closelywith Great-West’s executive vice presidentand chief investment officer. She hasCathe credits heraccomplishments to thefreedom and supportshe’s received, which hasgiven her the confidenceto develop her abilities inwhat is a relatively maledominatedprofession.key roles in risk management, includingasset-liability management, and productdevelopment, pricing, and sales. “Beinginvolved in other areas of the business iscritical to expanding my depth. If I wasn’tdelivering performance, my roles wouldbe much more limited.”Great-West Retirement ServicesCathe is a Chartered Financial Analyst(CFA) and a member of the DenverSociety of Security Analysts.High-energy FamilyCathe and her husband, Doug, havetwo children: Mika, 20, and Rory, 17.The family’s Canadian roots are evident inRory’s having played competitive hockeysince he was 7 and Mika’s choosing toreturn to Canada for college. She attendsthe University of British Columbia.Says Cathe, “I’ve always been theepitome of the guilty career mother soany time I’m not working is time focusedon my family. We’re very sports-orientedand have always worked out together a lot,everything from running to rollerblading.I’d have to say we are a very high-energyfamily.”Great-West Retirement Services, a business unit of Great-West Life &Annuity Insurance Company, is the fourth-largest retirement plan recordkeeper in the United States, based on total participant accounts as rankedby Plan Sponsor magazine in June 2010. In all, Great-West RetirementServices provides 401(k), 401(a), 403(b) and 457 retirement plan servicesto 24,000 plans representing 4.4 million participant accounts and $126billion in assets at June 30, 2010.Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, headquartered inmetro Denver, serves its customers through a range of group retirementsavings products and services, individual life insurance and annuities, andbusiness-owned life insurance. It is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiaryof Great-West Lifeco Inc. and “A Member of the Power FinancialCorporation Group of CompaniesTM.”“A Member of the Power Financial Corporation Group of Companies” isthe service mark of Power Corporation of Canada. Great-West RetirementServices and the Partnership logo are the registered trademarks of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company.w w w . s p a r k u s a . o r g