(Bloomberg) -- Alberta Investment Management Corporation appointed Evan Siddall as its new chief executive after the pension management company made a wrong-way bet on volatility last year.

Siddall is the former chief executive of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the national housing agency. He will succeed Kevin Uebelein, who held the post for more than six years, on July 1, according to a news release issued Thursday.

The leadership change came as AIMCo reported a total fund return of 2.5% last year, equal to C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) in net investment income. The tepid results, down from annualized total fund returns of 7.7% over 10 years, came after the company’s bet against market volatility early last year resulted in a loss of about C$2.1 billion at the time.

Siddall comes to AIMCo after leading CMHC for seven years, during a time of massive appreciation in Canadian housing values in cities including Vancouver and Toronto. His prediction, at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, that the pandemic would reverse the growth, resulting in a 9% to 18% plunge in home values, proved wrong. Instead, the market recorded a record year for sales and prices. Siddall explained the error in March, saying he was sharing the predictions of colleagues.

“I am looking forward to working with AIMCo’s talented team of professionals in delivering consistently superior investment performance on behalf of our clients,” Siddall said in the release.

AIMCo’s loss early last year caused one Alberta pension, the Local Authorities Pension Plan, to report a first quarter loss of C$5.1 billion, with “nearly all” asset classes underperforming. The loss was followed by the appointment of Mark Wiseman as a director and chair of the board of directors in June, replacing Richard Bird.

The Financial Post reported in November that Uebelein would be stepping down, most likely by July 2021. Wiseman said Uebelein wasn’t asked to leave, according to the report.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.