Ela Karahasanoglu

Ela Karahasanoglu is the chief investment officer at Canadian Scholarship Trust (CST Savings), one of Canada’s oldest education savings providers and a pioneer in group Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs). CST provides Canadians access to education savings through group plans and mutual fund offerings via CST Spark. Ela oversees approximately $6 billion in diversified portfolios across fixed income, equities, and real assets. Prior to joining CST, Ela was CEO of EKR Total Portfolio Advisory. Previously, she led the total fund management team at BCI, a $230bn+ Canadian institutional investor, and served as managing director, multi-asset strategies at IMCO, where she oversaw an $8.5bn portfolio and acted as deputy CIO for WSIB’s $35bn fund. Earlier in her career, Ela held senior roles at CIBC Asset Management and Mercer, spent six years in New York as Head of Research, Portfolio Management and Trading at a quantitative global macro hedge fund, and worked in credit derivatives and asset management at Merrill Lynch, New York. She began her career as a currency and bond trader in Turkey. Ela has over 25 years of global investment experience across public and private markets. She is a published thought leader, frequent speaker at international investment conferences, and the author of #YouCan. She has been recognized by Institutional Investor as an “Innovator” (2020) and “Hedge Fund Rising Star” (2018). Ela holds an MBA from Georgetown University and is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder.