Church Commissioners CEO to Retire After 25 Years

Andrew Brown

The Church of England’s investment division is looking for a new chief executive officer as Andrew Brown, its current head, will be retiring after 25 years with the plan.

The Church of England’s $9.8 billion investment management company’s chief will exit the fund in January 2020. He had been in charge since 2003.

“It has been a privilege to serve the Church and to work closely with exceptional people—the Estates Commissioners, Commissioners, and my colleagues at the National Church Institutions,” he said. “After 16 rewarding years [as CEO], it is the right time, for myself and the Commissioners, for me to step down.”

Brown started with the fund in 1994 as its chief surveyor, moving up the ladder nine years later. Once he took over, the fund began to diversify its investments, cutting down on real estate to allocate to other areas, such as timberland and infrastructure. Property-related investments now account for 27.4% of the total portfolio.

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The organization also became more active in promoting ethical and responsible investments under Brown’s watch. These areas have been successful in recruiting other institutions such as the $210.2 billion New York Common Retirement Fund in supporting its cause.

The two recently pushed to strengthen ExxonMobil’s governance policies at the oil firm’s annual general meeting. Although attempts were unsuccessful in swaying those proxy votes in their favor, the controversy they stirred up couldn’t be ignored.

The new CEO will be tasked with running the fund, keeping its investment policies in check, and managing and mitigating risk.

Interested candidates can apply here.

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Tags: Andrew Brown, CEOs, Church Commissioners for England, Church of England, Pension, UK

America’s third-largest public pension fund, the New York Common Retirement Fund, cemented a $300 million capital commitment with Blackstone’s Saudi Arabia-backed infrastructure fund recently, according to a disclosure from the state’s comptroller office.

Blackstone’s Infrastructure Partners has a unique commitment structure with a dollar-for-dollar matching system with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, with estimated total assets under management of $320 billion.

It’s part of a large-scale push into the infrastructure sector for the New York Common and follows recent commitments of $500 million to Brookfield Infrastructure Fund V, and $268 million to EQT Infrastructure IV—both investment vehicles focused on North America and Europe.

Blackstone’s fund is targeting $40 billion in total capital commitments—$20 billion from investors and $20 billion from Saudi Arabia. It’s expected to target “control and control-oriented infrastructure investments, as well as investments in public-private partnership infrastructure projects” across energy, communications, transportation, and water and waste. Blackstone recently announced it held a final close of the inaugural fundraising phase for the fund, with $14 billion in aggregate commitments.

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“These investments will allow us to deliver much-needed improvements to our nation’s infrastructure, create jobs, and enhance America’s economic growth, productivity, and global competitiveness,” said Sean Klimczak, global head of infrastructure at Blackstone.

On top of that, New York also committed $300 million to Goldberg Lindsay & Co., a North America and Western European-focused fund that seeks to make control investments in mid- to large-size companies.

It also sealed a $200 million commitment with Whitehorse Liquidity Partners III, a fund designed to make preferred equity investments in private equity portfolios as an alternative to traditional secondaries.

Other arrangements included in the disclosure included deals with NewQuest Asia Fund IV ($20 million), S Capital Opportunity Fund ($5 million), Empire GCM RE Anchor Fund ($300 million, and Motive Capital I ($20 million).