July 2017 was a month of major shakeups in the biggest pension funds around the world. Five pensions and an endowment saw chief investment officers resign or retire. Two key partners at asset management firms resigned due to claims of inappropriate conduct in the latest wave of sexual harassment scandals in Silicon Valley. A former advisor to President Donald Trump returned to private equity consulting. Here are the top people moves in July:
Asset Allocators:
Mary Cahill, chief investment officer and vice president of investments at Emory Investment Management, will retire on Aug. 1, 2017. Her retirement concludes her 17-year tenure at the helm of endowment. She shared her experience building an investment office and constructing a diversified portfolio in an April 2016 interview with Trusted Insight. Christopher Augostini, the university’s executive vice president of business and administration, will oversee the endowment’s investment portfolio and launch the search process to replace Cahill.
Geik Drever, strategic director of pensions at the UK’s West Midland Pension Fund, will retire at the end of September. Rachel Brothwood, West Midland Pension Fund’s director of pensions, will take over from Drever on Oct. 1, 2017. The pension will also lose its chief investment officer, Jason Fletcher, to LGPS Central, a £40 billion pension fund asset pool.
Kevin SigRist, chief investment officer of North Carolina Retirement Systems, unexpectedly resigned after the pension reported its highest valuation ever. The fund reported a 2.7 percent investment return in the second quarter and a 10.6 percent increase for the fiscal year, boosting the pension fund’s assets to $93.9 billion from $92.2 billion due to gains in the stock portfolio.
Daniel Garant, chief investment officer of Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), resigned from his position. The pension gave no explanation to the resignation, which comes as a surprise, following PSP Investments' strong financial results for the fiscal year ending Mar. 31, 2017. Andre Bourbonnais, president and CEO of the Montreal-based pension, will assume the role until a replacement is found.
Kang Myoun-Wook, chief investment officer of South Korea’s $513 billion National Pension Service, resigned seven months before his two-year tenure ended. The National Pension Service cited personal reasons for his departure. The pension fund will form a committee to find a replacement. In-Sik Cho, global public market head, was appointed acting chief investment officer on Jul. 22, 2017. The pension fund is in an unprecedented executive leadership vacuum as both the chief executive officer and chief investment officer roles are vacant.
Jerry Albright was appointed chief investment officer of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas Board of Trustees. The announcement follows last month’s decision by former chief investment officer Thomas “Britt” Harris to join The University of Texas Investment Management Company as the endowment’s chief executive officer. Albright served as chairman of the retirement system’s Internal Investment Committee and sole director of TRICOT London, the first international office of the pension fund. He previously served as the pension fund’s chief operating officer as well as the director of investment operations.
Anders Schelde, the chief investment officer of Nordea Life & Pension in Denmark, was appointed chief investment officer of MP Pension, the labour-market pension fund for academic public sector staff. He will take over the role from MP Pension’s previous head of investments, Niels Erik Petersen, on Nov. 1, 2017. The chief investment officer role in Nordea Life & Pension was filled by Erik Callert, the former chief investment officer of Swedish insurance company, SPP.
Asset Managers:
Dave McClure resigned as general partner of all funds and entities managed by 500 Startups days after the New York Times reported several harassment allegations. Following the resignation, McClure apologized in a blog post titled “I’m a creep. I’m sorry.” Christine Tsai has since taken over as CEO of 500 Startups.
Ignition Partners, a venture capital firm, announced the resignation of managing partner Frank Artale following complaints of inappropriate conduct.
The Carlyle Group announced that Managing Directors Patrick R. McCarter and Campbell “Cam” R. Dyer were promoted to co-heads of the Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications team. They succeed long-term Head James A. Attwood, Jr. who will continue as a managing director on the team. They assume their new roles Sept. 1, 2017.
President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn returned to private equity consulting, having formed a new firm named Resilient Patriot, LLC. Prior to his role in the Trump administration, Flynn consulted for private equity firm Francisco Partners.
Click here to see Trusted Insight’s previous people moves recap.
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Updated Aug. 2, 2017 at 11:45 AM - Correction Statement: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that Francisco Partners conducted business with the Turkish government. The original text was an uncited, over-simplified reference to a Oct. 25, 2016 Forbes article detailing employee concerns at Procera Networks, a company Francisco Partner purchased in 2015, over the potential misuse, by Turkish corporate clients, of Procera's network intelligence technology.