DTE Energy Names CIO | Chief Investment Officer

DTE CIO Angela Buk Angela BukDTE Energy has appointed alternatives specialist Angela Buk as its new investment chief, the utility firm announced Wednesday.

Buk, who most recently led the alternative investments team in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) treasury asset management group, replaces ex-CIO Paul Cavazos, who departed for outsourced-CIO American Beacon in June.

“We are excited to have Angie join our team,” said Mark Rolling, vice president and treasurer at DTE. “Angie is a highly qualified investment professional whose experience and education makes her well suited to lead the strategic investment of the company’s $9 billion in trust assets.”

At FCA, Buk ran a multi-billion dollar portfolio of hedge funds, real estate, private equity, and opportunistic investments. She also served as a member of the investment committee responsible for $30 billion of pension assets and other trust investments.

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Previously at FCA, Buk led a team responsible for investment operations, compliance, risk management, and defined contribution. She has also served as senior auditor at Deloitte.

At DTE, she will be responsible for the energy company’s six investment portfolios, including defined benefit and defined contribution plans, a foundation, and a nuclear decommissioning trust.

Buk holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Rhode Island’s state pension will halve its hedge fund allocation over the next two years following a unanimous vote by the state investment council, the fund announced Wednesday.

“While our pension system has achieved positive performance and beaten our benchmark, I believe that we can do better.”The move, part of a “Back to Basics” rethink of the $8 billion portfolio, will pull $500 million out of hedge funds to be reallocated to “more traditional asset classes” including low-cost index funds, said General Treasurer Seth Magaziner.

“While our pension system has achieved positive performance and beaten our benchmark since I took office, I believe that we can do better,” Magaziner said. “Our ‘Back to Basics’ approach will improve returns through common sense investments that have proven they can deliver growth and stability.”

The Back to Basics project will see “a majority” of the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island portfolio invested “in strategies designed to produce strong returns over time,” the treasurer said in a statement. While growth and income strategies will be made up of index funds, the rest of the portfolio will be given over to assets “designed to protect the pension system against market risks such as inflation and volatility.”

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Magaziner added that the changes were predicted to bring in stronger performance as well as “save millions for taxpayers and strengthen retirement security for our public employees.”

Rhode Island is the latest public fund to reduce its exposure to hedge funds in recent years. Chief among those heading for the exit were the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which announced its decision to cut its $4 billion allocation entirely in 2014, and the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, which said in April it would scrap a $1.7 billion hedge fund portfolio.

So far this year, the Rhode Island pension has added $334 million through investment gains and contributions, the fund said. These above-benchmark returns came despite the departure of CIO Anne-Marie Fink in June, as she left to join a family office.