Maureen Jensen

Early life

Maureen Jensen was born in Winnipeg and grew up in mining towns. She learned the values of hard work and self-reliance after her father, a mining engineer, died when she was only 8. Not a lot is known publicly about her childhood and early life.

She earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto, and later went on to earn a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Jensen has a BSc. in Geology, is a Registered Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo), has a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) and holds both the ICD.D and the GCB.D designations.

Career

After graduating from Harvard, Jensen began her career in the private sector, working as an auditor at KPMG. She later moved on to work in various roles at TD Bank, where she gained extensive experience in financial regulation and compliance.

In 2008, Jensen transitioned to the public sector, joining the OSC as its Executive Director of Corporate Finance. In this role, she was responsible for overseeing the OSC’s corporate finance division, which is responsible for the review of prospectuses and continuous disclosure filings.

In 2013, Jensen was appointed as the Director of Enforcement at the OSC. In this role, she led the OSC’s enforcement team and was responsible for enforcing securities laws and regulations in the province of Ontario.

In 2016, Jensen was appointed as the Interim CEO of the OSC, and in 2017, she was officially appointed as the Chair and CEO of the OSC. She is the first woman to hold this position in the OSC’s history.

In her role with the OSC, Jensen was responsible for the overall direction and management of the OSC. She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

Prior to her work as a regulator, Jensen held several senior positions at the Toronto Stock Exchange and had an earlier 20-year career in the mining exploration industry. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of the Toronto Centre, a Director of Franco Nevada Corporation, Chair of OBSI (Ombudsman for the Banking and Securities Industry), a public governor of FINRA and is Chair of The Prosperity Project.

During her tenure at OSC, Jensen has been recognized as an advocate for investor protection and market integrity and has been a strong voice for regulatory reform in Canada and internationally. She has also been an active participant in the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators and has been involved in various initiatives to improve regulatory cooperation and coordination among national securities regulators.

Additionally, Jensen has a long and distinguished career in the securities industry, prior to joining OSC, she held leadership positions at various organizations such as The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), where she served as Senior Vice President, Enforcement and Market Regulation and The Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF), where she served as the President and CEO.

In an interview with The Future Economy, she spoke about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global economic standings, as well as how this might shape the financial markets within Canada and worldwide. One key takeaway from that interview was Jensen’s statement that, “We are witnessing a big shift away from basic resources towards the new digital economy. So, investors are moving with the shift as well.”

She also talked about the huge shift in demographics, with baby boomers moving toward retirement, and the prediction of large wealth transfers happening in the coming years. These are trends that those in the financial and investment communities need to follow. In addition, the finance and investments industries are seeing rapid technology growth. Just as it impacts every other industry, finance is also changed with the technology. The way we invest, what we invest into, and our activities and consumption shift with the growth of technology.

Jensen adds, “Any economy that is not looking at these trends and trying to disrupt its own behavior is going to face problems with prosperity in the future.” This quote is a great testament to Jensen’s philosophies and actions taken within the positions she has held. She has a great eye toward predicting trends in the industry and also understanding risk management and how investors can protect themselves from shifts in the market.

Net Worth

Maureen Jensen’s exact net worth is not known to the public.

Achievement

Throughout her career, Jensen has played a key role in the development and implementation of various regulatory initiatives in Canada. She has also been recognized for her work in the field of financial regulation, receiving the Women in Capital Markets “Leadership in Capital Markets” award in 2016.

In 2020, Maureen Jensen was appointed as the Chair of the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators, which is a group of international regulatory bodies that work together to promote the stability and efficiency of financial markets.

Jensen has received broad public and industry recognition for her many achievements, including:

Honorary Distinguished Lecturer from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame 2022-23

Trailblazer Aware 2014 – Women in Mining

Investment Industry Hall of Fame (2020)

The Toronto Life’s 50 most influential (2013, 2014)

PDAC’s Distinguished Service Award (2008)

CIM’s Robert Elver Mineral Economics (2004)

CIM’s Distinguished Lecturer (2000)