LACERA Board Sacks CEO Lou Lazatin | Chief Investment Officer

When Lou Lazatin joined the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) as its chief executive officer in November, she had no idea her tenure would only last eight months.

The $54 billion fund fired her earlier this month after its board put Lazatin on administrative leave on May 31.

The pension plan has since launched a nationwide CEO search, placing Chief Counsel Steven Rice as its interim head. Rice, who confirmed the board’s actions with CIO, declined comment on why Lazatin was ousted as the fund’s policy bans staff from commenting on such matters.

Lazatin became CEO in November, replacing Robert R. Hill, the temporary chief during the Los Angeles fund’s hunt for Gregg Rademacher’s successor. Rademacher retired in October 2017. Hill went back to his role as assistant executive officer after Lazatin’s appointment to help with the transition.

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This was Lazatin’s first stint at a public pension fund during her executive career. According to the ex-head’s LinkedIn profile, her C-suite run was previously confined to the health care industry. She last was CEO at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children of Southern California, and earlier spent eight years as president and chief of Saint John’s Health Center, where she had also reportedly been fired, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Tags: Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), Lou Lazatin, Pension, Steven Rice

Photo by Margarita Corporan

For 10 years, CIO has honored the accomplishments of you, the chief investment officers, with our Industry Innovation Awards.

On Thursday, December 12, at the New York Public Library, CIO will once again bring together institutional investors and those who provide for them.

It’s time to nominate deserving asset owners and asset managers/servicers for this year’s awards.

Since we started these awards in 2010, “innovation” has perhaps become an overused buzzword. While others may confuse innovation with change, we do not: Our goal is to highlight the truly innovative approaches to asset management and asset owning, separating the merely different from the meaningful.

When nominating, ask yourselves, who has done something that is truly different, and that may have changed the way we think about this business?

To nominate, please follow the survey directions here.

What You’ll Need:

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To make a nomination, you’ll be asked whether you’re nominating an asset owner or asset manager, the name and title of the person or entity you’re nominating, their location, email address and to choose which category they fall into.
The asset owner CIO categories fall into plan size and type, as well as special categories for ESG and Collaboration. Asset manager categories fall into a full array of topics of expertise. You can make more than one nomination, and you’ll do this by indicating if you’re done or ready to nominate another. Please feel free to make as many nominations as you’d like.

THE DEADLINE TO SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATIONS IS AUGUST 3.

Click here to view CIO’s 2018 Industry Innovation Award winners.

Tags: Asset Managers, Asset Owners, CIO, Endowments, Foundations, NextGen, Pension