Jamie Vallance is Managing Director, Head of Funds and Secondaries, Private Equity at AIMCo (the Alberta Investment Management Corporation), where he leads the firm's global private equity funds and secondaries program.

He has spent 14 years at AIMCo, growing its funds and co-investment program from roughly $3B to $14B in NAV.

Katie and Jamie talk about why AIMCo reversed course and brought fund managers back into the program, the three phases every GP goes through before AIMCo commits, why he favours a concentrated portfolio of long-term partnerships, and how he thinks about the fast-growing market for secondaries and continuation vehicles.

He also explains why he's not a fan of FOMO — and what earns, and keeps, a Maple 8's backing.

Jamie Vallance is Managing Director, Head of Funds and Secondaries, Private Equity at AIMCo (Alberta Investment Management Corporation), based in Toronto, where he leads the global private equity funds and secondaries program. He is responsible for private equity fund managers across North America, Europe, and Asia, spanning buyout, growth equity, and secondaries strategies. He previously led AIMCo's direct private equity investing in the business services sector.

Jamie continues to serve as a board member of BGIS, and has previously represented AIMCo on the boards of ERM and Milacron. Before joining AIMCo in 2013, he worked in mergers and acquisitions at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.Com (Honours) from Queen's University, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Brian Kosoy is Managing Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Organization, which he co-founded in 2007 — a vertically integrated retail real estate firm, and one of the 10 largest private owners of shopping centres in the United States.

He started the firm directly into the financial crisis and spent the following fifteen years in a sector institutional capital was abandoning. Sterling now owns more than 80 centres across 14 to 15 million square feet.

Katie and Brian trace how retail arrived where it is — from the department store to the category killer to the smart phone — and where the growth is now: legacy grocery leases well below market, small shop rents with room to run, and boxes coming free for the first time in decades.

They also talk about why he believes that, by and large, cap rates on institutional-quality real estate assets follow capital flows rather than interest rates, and why he thinks his LPs are more his bosses than limited partners.

Brian Kosoy is Managing Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Organization, which he co-founded in 2007. Sterling is a vertically integrated private equity real estate firm investing in retail and consumer fulfillment assets across the risk spectrum in major markets across the United States. The firm owns more than 80 shopping centres across 14 to 15 million square feet, and Green Street* ranks it among the 10 largest private owners of shopping centres in the country.

Originally from Toronto, Brian moved to the United States for law school and practiced in New York City, primarily representing retailers on lease transactions across the five boroughs before moving to the investment side. He sits on and chairs the investment committees for all of Sterling's investment vehicles.

*Source: Green Street Retail Outlook Report, January 2026

Chris Smith is the founder and CEO of Ohana Real Estate Investors, an investment firm dedicated to the hospitality and residential sectors, where he has invested more than $4B since inception.

He started the firm in 2009 around a contrarian idea: that the operational complexity of higher-end hotels is not a risk to avoid but the opportunity itself.

Katie and Chris talk about why he treats hospitality as real estate first with an operating business on top, what the demand and supply data say about the luxury segment, why he favours resorts over cities, and how Ohana underwrites its exit before it buys.

He also explains what a set of car keys at 16 taught him about earning a re-up.

About our Guest

Chris Smith is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ohana, an investment firm dedicated to the hospitality and residential sectors. He is responsible for all of the firm's business activities and its strategic direction. Under his leadership, Ohana has invested more than $4B across hospitality and residential real estate since inception.

Before founding Ohana, Chris was an Investment Officer at Comprehensive Financial Management (CFM), a leading family office, where he was responsible for the real estate portfolio. He is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and previously served on the board of directors of Montage International and on several advisory boards for Special Olympics International. Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.