Bob Maynard
Bob Maynard, CIO of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI), is retiring effective September 2022. For nearly 30 years, Maynard has been responsible for all PERSI investments and has overseen the growth of the fund’s asset value from $2.1 billion to more than $24 billion today.
During his long tenure, Maynard’s investment philosophy has been based on the mantra of “simple, transparent, focused, and patient,” which PERSI said helped navigate the pension fund through difficult economic times, such as the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, from which the fund was quick to recover.
“For 30 years, Bob has played an instrumental role in transforming PERSI into the strong and stable fund it currently is,” Jeff Cilek, PERSI’s chairman of the board, said in a statement. “Bob’s insight into the global economy and steady hand will be missed.”
Maynard has been credited with restructuring and resurrecting PERSI’s investment program in the 1990s and heading an investment program that has often ranked among the top quarter of public pension funds over the past three decades. He has also received several awards and recognitions from peers and investment publications.
When Maynard took over as CIO for the Idaho retirement system in 1992, the pension fund had $2.1 billion in assets and, with a funding level of 62%, was among the worst funded plans in the country at the time. As of the end of fiscal year 2020, the retirement system reported a funding ratio of 87.7%. The pension fund also had problems holding on to CIOs in the ’90s, going through three of them in three years before Maynard came along. And when he took over, Maynard found himself at the helm of a fund that was a jumble of trendy investing styles and strategies.
Maynard started his career in 1975 clerking for the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court, after which he went on to serve as assistant attorney general for the state, mostly litigating on oil and gas cases.
PERSI’s retirement board said it will begin the process of selecting a replacement at the appropriate time.
Related Stories:
Veteran Series: How Bob Maynard Turned PERSI Around
PERSI’s Maynard: How Complexity Is Failing Investors
CIO EXCLUSIVE Ashbel “Ash” Williams, CIO of Florida SBA, to Retire in September
Tags: Bob Maynard, Chief Investment Officer, CIO, Jeff Cilek, PERSI, Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho, retire