Rhode Island CIO Departs for Washington Hospital System

The CIO who oversaw investments at the Rhode Island pension system, Alec Stais, has left to take over as investment chief at a hospital health care system in Washington state.

The former Rhode Island CIO informed the state pension plan last month that he would be moving to Washington to take the lead at Providence Health and Services, considered the third-largest not-for-profit health care system in the nation. The hospital system has about $30.5 billion in assets, according to financial statements from this year’s first quarter.

“We are grateful to have had the benefit of his service and expertise these past three years and wish him well in this next phase,” said a Rhode Island fund spokesman. There is no news yet on who the replacement will be, he said.

Stais, who joined the retirement system in 2017, oversaw the $8.3 billion retirement system, which recently tumbled 9.6% in the first quarter after the coronavirus meltdown.

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Previously, Stais worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, where he spent more than two decades, most recently as a managing director. Prior to that, he was a vice president at MetLife, where he spent 10 years.

At the Rhode Island plan, Stais replaced Tim Nguyen, who took over as interim investment head after former CIO Anne Marie Fink stepped down in 2016.