Chicago Teachers Pension CIO Moves to Kellogg Foundation

Carmen Heredia-Lopez has been appointed director of investments for the $8.3 billion foundation.

CarmenHerediaLopez_TimBower (Art by Tim Bower)Carmen Heredia-Lopez, current CIO of Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, has been tapped to lead the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s $8.3 billion portfolio.

According to the foundation, Heredia-Lopez will begin her post on December 1, 2014. As director of investments, she will report to Vice President and CIO Joel Wittenberg.

At the Battle Creek, Michigan-based philanthropy, she will be responsible for “driving further development of the foundation’s mission-driven investment strategy and managing emerging diversity-owned firm work and diversified assets,” the foundation said.

Working towards diversifying a not so diverse industry has been central to Heredia-Lopez’s career.

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The CIO is an alumna of the Robert Toigo Foundation and is heavily involved with the organization through mentoring and speaking at events.

“As women, we always question our quantitative ability,” she told CIO last year. “’Should I be here? What am I doing here?’ But I’m not afraid of math: I can do it. And foundations like Toigo give you that confidence.”

Heredia-Lopez has been at the helm of the $10.8 billion Chicago Teachers Pension Fund since January of 2013. Prior to taking over the CIO position, she served as the fund’s director of investments for two-and-a-half years.

She also worked as an investment analyst at the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund for more than four years after spending a decade in asset management and investment banking.

Heredia-Lopez holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Lloyd Raynor, one of the brightest prospects in Russell Investments’ London office, is to leave the firm for an asset manager, CIO has learned.

Raynor has decided to join Insight Investment to work on its liability-driven investment (LDI) team in the new year.

Raynor, who joined Russell in 2008 from Towers Watson, is to be a client director, reporting to Paul Bourdon, head of institutional client relationship management. He had been associate director at Russell and responsible for UK client consulting.

“This latest hire further strengthens our well-resourced client relationship management team and underlines our commitment to providing the best possible service and solutions to meet our clients’ evolving investment needs,” a spokesperson for Insight said.

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Russell was sold to the London Stock Exchange earlier this year. The acquirer took on the firm primarily for its index business, but has not laid out plans for the consulting arm.

Insight, which has long been a leader in the UK’s liability-driven investment market, has been pushing into the burgeoning US sector. Last month its parent company BNY Mellon bought US fixed income specialist Cutwater, which is to be merged into Insight.

Russell declined to comment on the move.

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