African-American investment professionals in the News. . . better late than never! Last week Columbia University announced that Ms. Kim Y. Lew, chief investment officer and thirteen-year veteran of the Carnegie Corporation, will join Columbia’s $10.9 billion Investment Management Company as CEO on November 2nd. She won’t have far to move. Her new office is located about eight blocks south and three blocks east of her present location in mid-town Manhattan. This hire is a big deal and the search committee — Columbia University’s board of directors, President Lee C. Bollinger, and EVP of finance Anne Sullivan — shattered several glass ceilings when they welcomed Ms. Lew on board. Gender is a formidable barrier for females in finance. On our latest list of the top one hundred endowment chief investment officers pre-Ms. Lew, there are only sixteen women. [This is pre-Kim Lew and Brooke Jones, both moves announced last week.  Ms. Jones was Kim Lew’s investment director and will move to Bryn Mawr College as CIO next month. Dekia Scott, 19 years at Southern Company, was promoted to CIO in June] Fortunately, Columbia’s search committee was more interested in talent and ability than race, gender, or religion when they selected Ms. Lew. [Our full interview with Ms. Lew is just below] We see a lot of boilerplate in the nonprofit world about how “we don’t discriminate.” But, truth be told, if you are a woman, or more pointedly, an African-American woman in asset management, you face gale-force headwinds as you scale the institutional precipice. How bad is it? For over thirty years we have followed the careers of several thousand investment heads at Wall Street investment and money center banks, hedge funds, insurance companies, and nonprofits. Within our global database we have about six-hundred-fifty chief investment officers at endowments, foundations,…

In this issue CA vs NY: Performance and pay at the Mega-pensions Skorina seeks a chief investment officer We talk to Vicki Fuller, CIO of NY’s $200 CRF ————————————————– Vicki Fuller, New York State Common Retirement Fund, and the Quest for the Seven-Percent Solution Vicki Fuller, chief investment officer at the country’s third-biggest public pension — New York State’s Common Retirement Fund – has announced her retirement by the end of this summer of 2018. We just had a chance to chat with her about her life and times.  But first, here are a couple of mini-charts to put everything in perspective. As of September 2017, there were only three U.S. pensions with over $200 billion in assets – two in California, and one in New York.  Here’s how Ms. Fuller’s fund stacks up against the Californians. AUM (9-30-17) and trailing net multi-year returns (6-30-17) CIO Fund  AUM  1yr 3yr 5yr 10yr  Vicki Fuller  Aug 2012 – Jul 2018 NYSCRF $201bn 11.48 6.17 8.35 5.59  Chris Ailman Oct 2000 – Jul 2018 CalSTRS $216bn 13.40 6.30 10.10 5.00 Ted Eliopoulos  Feb 2014 – Jul 2018 CalPERS $337bn 11.20 4.64 8.80 4.40   We included 10-year returns, although only Mr. Ailman was aboard for the whole decade.  Indeed, he’s still motoring along with almost 19 years on the job. Also, Mr. Eliopoulos recently announced that he, too, will depart this summer; so, we’ll soon see CIO turnover at two of the big three. Ms. Fuller can’t claim credit for the entire 10-year number, but it’s interesting to see that New York State does slightly lead the Californians over the longer haul. The other critical stats for pensions are the assumed rate of return and funded status. Assumed rate of return and funded status (6-30-16) CIO Fund Assumed Return Percent Funded Status…