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Our strategy
Our organizational strategy is our blueprint for building a resilient, high performing plan. It is purpose-built for the people we serve, and reflects our ambition to grow the plan responsibly and use that scale to enhance value for today’s members and employers, while preserving and extending sustainable pensions for more of the university community.
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- About us
- Strategy
Built to serve. Positioned to grow.
UPP’s inaugural strategy focused on building the systems, capabilities, and culture needed to deliver on our pension promise.
With those foundations in place, our 2026+ strategy marks a shift from building to delivering: refining how we work, elevating the experience for our members and employers, and translating our values into tangible results.
We will continue to serve with care, invest with integrity, and demonstrate the value of UPP’s model through performance and service excellence.
“Behind every pension is a person, a retiree, a family counting on that income. Every interaction is an opportunity to show up with care, earn trust, and make a meaningful difference in their experience.”
Barbara Zvan
UPP’s President and Chief Executive Officer
Meeting the sector’s evolving needs
Across Ontario, universities are navigating a time of change. Financial pressures, policy shifts, and changing enrolment patterns are reshaping priorities and adding complexity to long-term planning.
As a pension plan built by and for the university sector, UPP is committed to being a responsive and resilient partner. To ensure this strategy reflects the realities of the sector, we engaged in extensive consultations with university leaders and employee representatives to understand what our members rely on most from UPP today, and what the sector will need in the years ahead.
Across campuses, we heard a consistent message
UPP’s strengths of security, portability, responsible investing and scale are highly valued. There are also opportunities to build on this strong foundation through enhanced education, more onboarding support, smoother pathways to participation and sustained long-term performance.
The 2026+ strategy is designed to answer that call by strengthening trust, elevating our support and services, and delivering long-term value while continuing to evolve alongside the sector.
UPP's strategic priorities
UPP’s strategy is anchored in five interconnected pillars. These pillars define our approach to advancing our vision through strong service, disciplined investing, thoughtful growth and organizational excellence – with sustainability considerations embedded across each one.
Our three core value drivers reflect how we deliver value, build trust and strengthen the Plan over time:
Serve with care
Deliver high-quality services that build trust, support confident decision-making, and reflect what matters most to our members and employers.
Invest for resilience
Generate strong, risk-adjusted returns through disciplined execution, integrated risk management, and long-term stewardship – ensuring pension security for our members, today and tomorrow.
Amplify our impact
Serve as a trusted pension solution that grows with the university community, delivering greater value through the benefits of scale.
UPP’s cross-cutting enablers support and amplify this work.
Optimize our work
Strengthen the systems and practices that drive performance, support governance, and enable cost-effective growth.
Champion our people and culture
Support the people, leadership, and culture behind our mission, connecting purpose to performance at every level of the organization.
What this means for Ontario’s university communities
UPP’s strategy underscores our enduring commitment to the communities we were built to serve. It outlines how we will deliver secure, sustainable pensions for generations of university faculty and staff while providing institutions with a comprehensive pension solution built for today’s opportunities and tomorrow’s challenges.
For members
Secure, portable and competitive defined benefit pensions supported by responsive service and a professionally managed fund built for resilient long-term performance.
For employers
A complete pension solution that simplifies administration and delivers stability, cost efficiency, predictable funding, and tailored support while preserving a compelling employee benefit.
For both
A shared commitment to delivering sustainable pensions through collaborative plan design, transparent governance, disciplined management, and responsible investing – offering growth, stability, and value for all participants.