David Wescoe has been appointed interim CEO of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA), formalising a role he had been appointed to as a consultant last month.
Wescoe was brought in as a consultant by the trustee board in February as the public pension set about an internal restructure, which included recruiting a CIO. The following month, the then CEO Brian White resigned.
Prior to joining consulting firm Efficient Market Advisors, Wescoe was CEO of the $6 billion Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans and San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System.
At the system’s April 2 meeting, the board agreed to formalise Wescoe’s appointment and change his remuneration agreement. According to a memo posted by SDCERA, Wescoe is set to earn $25,000 a month, rather than the previous $350 an hour he had been billing as a consultant. The memo states the new set up would see his hourly rate drop to $155.
At the same meeting, it was agreed that SDCERA should push ahead with its search for a CIO, a process that was initiated towards the end of last year. The decision to recruit a CIO came as a vote to fire outsourced-chief investment officer Partners was narrowly defeated in September.
Mary Hobson of recruitment firm EFL Associates told the board she had received 200 applications for the CIO position and potential candidates were to be interviewed that afternoon.
Board members discussed pausing the search for a permanent CEO while the CIO search was conducted, but agreed to push on with gathering information from stakeholders and other interested parties about what they would want from the person taking over the top job.
Additionally, Wescoe said he and Hobson were very close to bringing a candidate for the CFO role, which is also being recruited along with that of general council, to be presented to the board.
The board was told that it would be likely they would be presented with a potential CIO candidate in May and that the successful applicant could be in position by the summer.
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