Public pensions serve a critical role in society. All too often, they’re only in the news when beneficiaries or taxpayers are displeased. At Trusted Insight, we lift up the stories of institutional investors who are quietly going beyond their benchmarks to deliver outsize returns for their beneficiaries. This year’s Top Pension Fund Investment Directors list honors the work of pension LPs who have been leading today’s most successful and innovative pension programs.
2021
Top Public Pension Investment Directors
Reginald Tucker is a managing director at Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS), where he has served since January 2019. Previously, he was a senior investment officer at New York State Common Retirement Fund. Prior to that, he was an investment officer at Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds. Tucker holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a B.A. from New York University.
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Travis Haney is a senior investment manager at the State of Michigan Department of Treasury, where he leads a team responsible for sourcing, evaluating, negotiating, and monitoring private equity investments including buyout, venture capital, and special situation partnerships with a focus on comparable direct, secondary, and co-investment opportunities. Treasury’s Bureau of Investments manages over $100 billion, with more than $20 billion invested in private equity broadly. Prior to joining the Bureau of Investments, Mr. Haney was a portfolio manager at Coe Capital Management, LLC, and previously, he worked as a securities compliance examiner in the Division of Investment Management of the Securities & Exchange Commission. Mr. Haney received his B.B.A., summa cum laude, from Western Michigan University in Finance with a minor in Economics. He holds CFA and CAIA charters and is a member of the CFA Society of West Michigan and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association.
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Ryan Rathman is a senior investment manager of the venture capital division at the State of Michigan Retirement System, where he has served since 2017. He is responsible for evaluating co-investment opportunities in the technology sector and venture capital fund investment opportunities across all stages and sectors. Previously, he spent over 15 years working in the finance and technology sector. He served as a research analyst focused on enterprise software at Morgan Stanley, vice president business strategy at Oracle Corporation, vice president institutional equities at Morgan Stanley, head of planning and strategy focused on global field marketing at SAP and senior vice president focused on technology partnership development at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He holds an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business and a BA in economics and government from Georgetown University.
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Tanya Kemp is the managing director of private markets at San Francisco Employees' Retirement System (SFERS), where she is responsible for overseeing SFERS' $10 billion global private markets portfolio across private equity and real assets strategies. She has served the organization for over 12 years and held multiple investment leadership roles. Prior to that, she was an investment risk and performance analyst at Missouri State Employees' Retirement System (MOSERS). Kemp holds an MBA in finance from the University of Missouri and an M.S. in international economics from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.
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Ricardo Lyra is a director of private equity at the Employees Retirement System of Texas, where he has served since 2016. Previously, he was a managing partner at HortaVida. Prior to that, he held numerous positions at Colgate and Ford Motor Company. Lyra holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in political science from New York University.
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LeAnne Larrañaga-Ruffy is currently the Head of Alpha at the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (NM PERA), a $17 billion public pension fund. She has also managed the Global Equity portfolio, which includes public and private equity since 2014. Throughout her career she has focused her efforts on manager selection and portfolio construction, across various asset classes and implementation structures. She has passionately served PERA’s 90,000 members since 2011. LeAnne has spent her 20 year career in the public pension industry of New Mexico proudly helping ensure a stable, lifetime benefit for the citizens of New Mexico. LeAnne was named in the Trusted Insights Top 30 Pension Private Equity Investors in 2020 and was nominated by peers for the Investor Intelligence Award-Private Equity in 2016. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from New Mexico State University. LeAnne has been a life-long resident of New Mexico and enjoys spending time with her family.
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Brad Woolworth is a manager of private equity at New York State Teachers' Retirement System. Previously, he served as a chief investment officer at the City of Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement and was previously an Investment Officer and as head of private markets and real assets. Prior to that, he was an investment officer of private equity at the New York State Common Retirement Fund. Woolworth holds a BA in economics from San Francisco State University and an MSEP in economics from Suffolk University.
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Mike Lazorik
Director, Principal Investments and Private Equity
Mike Lazorik is the director of principal investments and private equity at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He is responsible for making direct investments into private equity and venture-backed opportunities on behalf of Texas Teachers' $120+ billion pension fund. He has served the organization since 2010. Prior to that, he was a director of corporate development at BMC Software and a director at Dell, Inc. Lazorik holds a BBA in finance and marketing at the University of Texas at Austin.
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Yup Kim
Investment Director and Head of Investments, Private Equity
Yup Kim is the head of investments, private equity at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). Previously, he was a senior portfolio manager of private equity and special opportunities at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, a $65 billion sovereign wealth fund with over $14 billion committed to private equity and special opportunities. Prior to that, he was a vice president and investment committee member at Deutsche Bank Private Equity and previously worked at Silver Point Capital and Citigroup. Kim holds a B.A. in economics from Yale University.
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Ben Cahyono is the director of alternative investments at the Georgia Division of Investment Services, where he has served since 2012. Previously, he worked in private equity and hedge fund investments at Delaware Investments. Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager of private equity at the State Board of Administration of Florida. Cahyono holds an MBA in finance from the University of Dayton and a B.A. in Ohio Dominican University.
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Lucy Reams is a portfolio manager of private equity at the State Board of Administration of Florida. She has served SBA Florida since 2008, and held positions such as assistant portfolio manager, private equity, and senior quantitative analyst. Reams holds an MBA from Florida State University and a bachelor's degree in finance and economics from the University of Central Florida.
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Andrew Mayer is a senior investment officer at the Wyoming Retirement System, where he has served since 2012. He holds the CFA and CAIA designations and is responsible for coverage of the Marketable Alternatives asset class (multi-asset mandates and hedge funds) for the system. Prior to WRS, Andy spent four years at Janus Henderson based in Denver. Andy received his B.S. in Finance from the University of Northern Colorado and earned an MBA with a concentration in Investments from the University of Notre Dame.
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Mark Canavan is the director of the real return group at the New Mexico Educational Retirement Board. He has served NM ERB since 2007 and previously held the title of senior portfolio manager of real estate, infrastructure, and real assets. Prior to that, he was a chief investment officer at the New Mexico State Treasurer's Office. Canavan holds a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of New Mexico.
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Joe Dawson is a deputy director of private equity investments at the New York Common Retirement Fund, where he helps execute capital allocation decisions and private equity investments within the $20 billion private equity asset portfolio. He has served at the organization since 2000. Dawson holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School and a BASc from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
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Ryan Morse
Director, Alternative Investments
Ryan Morse is a director of alternative investments at the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System (SERS), where he has served since 2018. Previously, he was an Investment Officer of Private Equity at NYS Teachers’ Retirement System, where he served for over 5 years. Prior to that, he was a semiconductor research technician at the Research Foundation of SUNY. Morse holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University at Albany.
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Gary Ratliff is the director of alternative investments at Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association. Previously, he was a senior investment consultant at Watershed Investment Consultants, Inc. Prior to that, he was a chief investment officer at Texas Tech University and at the Denver Public Schools Retirement System. Ratliff holds a master of science in finance from the University of Denver and a bachelor's degree in finance from UNM Anderson School of Management.
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K.C. Howell is a managing director of private markets at Virginia Retirement System. Howell has held several different positions over more than two decades. Howell began his finance career at Crestar Asset Management Company, formerly Capitoline. Howell is a chartered financial analyst (CFA), holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Christopher Newport University, and earned an MBA from the College of William and Mary.
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Dana Johns joined the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System in June 2011 and is an experienced private markets investor, senior portfolio manager, and leader in the U.S. public pension and broader institutional investor community. Ms. Johns has over 15 years of experience investing and managing a multi-billion global portfolio of institutional alternative investment assets. She has deep expertise in private equity and a highly developed personal network with established top-performing private equity fund managers and next-generation managers. Ms. Johns has a demonstrated long-term track record for selecting and managing a strong performing private equity portfolio. She is committed to supporting discourse and initiatives focused on the thoughtful advancement of private market investing and creating pathways to inclusion for underrepresented talent in private equity.
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Craig Demko is the director of private equity at the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer. He has been at North Carolina since 2005 and was previously a portfolio manager there. Demko holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
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John Drake is the senior investment officer of private equity for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, where he served for over 14 years. Previously, he was an investment analyst of private equity for the Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois. Early on in his career, he was a credit analyst at Illinois National Bank. Drake holds an MBA and a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Illinois.
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