CIO Announces 2022 Industry Innovation Award Winners

The allocators driving change and enhancing institutional fund performance and the service providers driving innovation in institutional investing were recognized at the annual Industry Innovation Awards dinner.

2022 Industry Innovation Awards | Photography by Anthony Collins


The 12th CIO Industry Innovation Awards winners have been announced!

The winners were announced at the CIO Industry Innovation Awards dinner at Chelsea Piers in New York City on December 6.


The Asset Owner Industry Innovation Awards finalists and winners are as follows:

Corporate Defined Benefit

  • Cummins Inc.—Gloria Griesinger
  • Eastman Kodak—Thomas Mucha
  • DuPont Capital Management—Valerie J. Sill
  • International Monetary Fund—Derek Bills Winner
  • FedEx—Jeff Lewis
  • General Electric Pension Trust—Harshal Chaudhari

Efforts in Diversification

  • Pension Protection Fund—Barry Kenneth
  • Hartford Health Care—David Holmgren Winner
  • Nest—Mark Fawcett
  • New York Common Retirement Fund—Anastasia Titarchuk

Efforts in ESG

  • Pension Protection Fund—Barry Kenneth Winner
  • Hartford Health Care—David Holmgren
  • PGGM—Geraldine Leegwater
  • Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA)—Jonathan Grabel
  • Church Commissioners for England—Tom Joy

Endowments & Foundations

  • Wesleyan University—Anne Martin
  • The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation—Jonathan Hook Winner
  • Trinity Wall Street—Meredith Jenkins

Health Care Plans

  • SSM Health—Mark Cagwin
  • Indiana University Health—Josh Rabuck
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center—Jason Klein Winner
  • Hackensack Meridian Health—Donna Snider
  • Thomas Jefferson University—Alfred Salvato
  • Cleveland Clinic—Stefan Strein

Public Defined Benefit Assets Less Than $12B

  • Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System—Jason Malinowski
  • Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System; Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System—Katherine Molnar; Andrew J. Spellar
  • University of Missouri System—Thomas Richards Winner

Public Defined Benefit Assets $12B to $20B

  • Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan—Jeb Burns
  • New Mexico Educational Retirement Board—Bob Jacksha Winner
  • Los Angeles Water & Power Employees’ Retirement Plan—Jeremy Wolfson

Public Defined Benefit Assets Greater Than $20B to $100B

  • Pension Protection Fund—Barry Kenneth
  • Orange County Employees Retirement System—Molly Murphy
  • Indiana Public Retirement System—Scott Davis
  • Maryland State Retirement Agency—Andrew Palmer Winner

Public Defined Benefit Assets Greater Than $100B

  • State of Wisconsin Investment Board—Edwin Denson Winner
  • New York Common Retirement Fund—Anastasia Titarchuk
  • California State Teachers’ Retirement System—Christopher Ailman

Risk Management

  • International Paper—Robert Hunkeler
  • Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA)—Jonathan Grabel
  • General Electric Pension Trust—Harshal Chaudhari Winner
  • State of Wisconsin Investment Board—Edwin Denson

Sovereign Wealth Funds

  • Texas Permanent School Fund—Holland Timmins
  • Fondo de Ahorro de Panama (Panama Sovereign Wealth Fund)—Abdiel Santiago Winner
  • Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation—Marcus Frampton

CIO of the Year
Jason Klein, Senior Vice President & CIO, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Lifetime Achievement Award
Walter Kress, CIO, EY US LLC


The Asset Management & Servicing Awards finalists and winners are as follows:

Consultant of the Year

  • Mercer Consulting, in recognition of the service of Cori Trautvetter
  • NEPC, in recognition of the service of Kristin Reynolds and Allan Martin
  • Aiperion, in recognition of the service of Sorina Zahan Winner

Data and Technology

  • Diligend
  • Venn by Two Sigma
  • SEI Winner
  • Intelligo
  • Lumenai Investments LLC
  • Vidrio Financial

Diversity

  • Ariel Investments Winner
  • PIMCO
  • Verus Investments
  • NEPC

ESG

  • Russell Investments
  • TOBAM
  • Boston Common Asset Management
  • IOR, LLC Winner

Hedge Funds

  • Teza Technologies Winner
  • Lumenai Investments LLC
  • Tectonic Investors

Liability-Driven Investing

  • LGIM America Winner
  • Agilis
  • Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)
  • Capital Group

Multi-Strategy Investing

  • TOBAM Winner
  • LGIM America
  • Capital Group

OCIO

  • BERG Capital Management
  • SEI
  • Goldman Sachs Asset Management Winner

Private Assets

  • Principal Global Investors
  • PIMCO
  • Neuberger Berman Winner

Real Assets and Infrastructure

  • Principal Global Investors
  • ABL Aviation Winner
  • Actis


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Goldman Sachs Agrees to Pay $4 Million to SEC for ESG Violations

The investment bank agreed to the penalty and a cease-and-desist order without admitting fault for allegedly violating their ESG research policies.



Goldman Sachs Asset Management agreed in November to pay $4 million to the SEC to settle alleged violations of its own environmental, social and governance policies and procedures. GSAM did not admit or deny the material findings of the SEC.

GSAM created procedures as required by Section 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7, which require a registered investment adviser to implement policies designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act in their selection and monitoring of assets in portfolios with an ESG label.

The company policies were written for two ESG mutual funds and one separately managed account strategy which GSAM advised.

The ESG SMA Strategy is offered to clients in SMAs advised by GSAM and has about $103 million in client assets. The two mutual funds in question are the International ESG Fund, which has a net value of $127 million, and the Emerging Markets ESG Fund, which has a net value of $8 million.

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GSAM policies provided for a questionnaire to assist in the selection of investments in ESG mutual funds and the SMA. The questionnaire produced a numerical score, which was then weighted by industry. GSAM said in pitch books to clients that their investments were selected using this method starting in February 2018.

However, according to the SEC charges, GSAM was actually selecting investments by relying on previous research, and they did not apply the questionnaire results to most of the investments in the SMA until January 2020, nearly two years later, despite saying in promotional materials they had done so.

The previous research used was also not uniform between investments. GSAM sometimes used third-party data to which they applied the GSAM weighting and numerical score.

The questionnaires were also not kept in a centralized location, a violation of GSAM’s policies and something that hindered the SEC investigation, according to their report.

BNY Mellon paid a penalty of $1.5 million in May for misstatements and omissions in its statements related to ESG funds. The combination of the two actions led to a warning from Fitch Ratings in November that the SEC would be increasing enforcement on ESG funds and “greenwashing.” Fitch noted that these penalties can carry large reputational risk, especially if they occur repeatedly.

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