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Newsmakers

Advocacy Groups Call for Funds to Divest from Owner of Trump SoHo Hotel

The legal groups claim investment money violates President Trump’s fixed salary mandate.

By Chris Butera

Launching petitions and sending letters to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the New York State Common Retirement Fund, two advocacy groups are asking they divest from a fund that is paying one of President Donald Trump’s companies to run a New York hotel.

The legal advocacy groups, Massachusetts-based Free Speech for People and Courage Campaign in Los Angeles, are urging the two pension funds to either divest from the CIM Fund III, which owns the Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium, or work with other investors in an effort to have CIM cease all relations with the Trump organization.

CIM currently has $19.7 billion in assets under management.

“The money used for this investment comes from mandatory deductions from the paychecks of public employees,” the letters said. “These employees are thus forced to indirectly subsidize President Trump beyond the Constitution’s mandate of a fixed salary.”

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Article II of the US Constitution prevents the president from receiving additional payments beyond his salary from state governments. According to Reuters, not only do public pension funds from at least seven US states occasionally send millions of dollars to CIM, but the fees the funds pay CIM may also violate Article II.

According to a statement, CIM “is committed to creating attractive investment opportunities for its investors and then overseeing those investments to produce the best outcomes possible for the funds it manages.” The statement also says that the Trump SoHo is underperforming and CIM is making efforts to improve performance.

“The Fund’s investment in CIM Fund III, which dates to 2007, is in the process of being liquidated as part of its normal cycle,” a spokesperson for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told CIO. “As a limited partner, the fund has limited rights as an investor and does not make or control CIM’s investment choices.”

CalPERS, which disclosed it paid CIM $1,722,418 in management fees in Q1 2017, declined to comment.

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Home > News > Newsmakers > Emory University CIO to Retire
Newsmakers

Emory University CIO to Retire

Mary Cahill to step down after more than 16 years in the role, and search for replacement is launched.

By Michael Katz

Emory University’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Mary Cahill has announced that she will retire as of Aug. 1, after more than 16 years in the position. Cahill has been responsible for overseeing investments of all endowment, trust, operating, and employee benefit funds of the university and health-care facilities.

“During her tenure at Emory, Cahill built Emory Investment Management, diversified Emory’s portfolio, and implemented a disciplined and structured investment and operating process that led to growth in endowment assets for Emory,” said the university in a statement.

The university said that Christopher Augostini, Emory’s executive vice president of business and administration, will assume oversight responsibility for Emory’s investment portfolio, and launch a search process for a CIO effective immediately. Augostini joined Emory on July 1, after having spent the previous six years as senior vice president and chief operating officer of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

While at Emory, Cahill built the university’s first investment organization, including the public markets investors, private market investors, risk management, and administration/operations teams. She developed investment programs for alternatives, including hedge funds, private equities, real estate, and natural resources.

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Prior to joining Emory University in 2001, Cahill had been deputy CIO at Xerox for 10 years. She is currently a member of the NCAA investment committee, the Woodruff Arts Center investment committee, and is also a member of the board of the Robert Toigo Foundation, the Institute for Quantitative Research, and the Emory Center for Alternative Investments. She is also on the pension managers advisory committee for NYSE Euronexxt, and an investment advisory member of The Zeist Foundation, Inc.

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