Deb Barnes

Chief Risk Officer

Deb was appointed Chief Risk Officer in June 2023. She brings a results-oriented approach to risk management and a dedication to developing diverse teams.

She joined OMERS in 2020 as the Managing Director, Capital Markets Risk. Prior to OMERS, Deb spent 15 years at QIC, an Australian-headquartered asset management firm that specializes in Fixed Income, Infrastructure, Private Equity and Real Estate. Deb began her career in Risk in 2016 after 10 years in QIC’s Global Fixed Income team. From 2011 to 2015 Deb led QIC’s Global Trading function from London which executed trades across fixed income, currency, equity and commodity markets.

Deb graduated from the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2005 with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Information Technology. Over the last 8 years, Deb’s commitment to learning has led to Executive Education studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Business School (HBS) in the areas of leadership and advanced risk management. Since 2018, Deb has returned to HBS annually to present to their Executive Education cohort on the application of learnings from the Risk Management for Corporate Leaders program.

In 2019 Deb was appointed to the University of Queensland’s Advisory Board for the UQ School of Economics and the Advisory Board for Trust, Ethics and Governance.