MassPRIM Appoints Michael Trotsky As New Executive Director

(August 3, 2010) — The $41.3 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (MassPRIM) has selected Michael Trotsky as its executive director, effective August 18.

Trotsky replaces Michael Travaglini, who was among the highest paid government employees in the state while at MassPRIM and resigned June 11 amid concerns that the Legislature might limit future compensation. He become managing director of a Chicago investment firm, Grosvenor Capital Management.

“The issue of incentive compensation here is back on the front burner,” Travaglini, who started at the fund in February 2004, said to The Boston Globe after announcing his resignation. “If you need the context for my decision, it’s an entirely personal one. I have a wife and three children and I’m going to provide for them,” said Travaglini, who earned up to $322,000 with bonuses while at the pension.

Travaglini’s successor is currently executive director of the Massachusetts Health Care Security Trust Fund. For Trotsky’s new executive director position, the board approved an annual salary of $245,000.

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In recent news, the fund announced returns of 12.82% for the fiscal year ended June 30. This is in sharp contrast with results from the previous year, when the fund plunged 23.6%, or nearly $13 billion – its biggest loss in history. Overall, the pension gained $3.6 billion for the 2010 fiscal year.

To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

(August 2, 2010) — According to a monthly transaction report from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, the $132.6 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund has closed seven transactions in June totaling approximately $236.5 million.

Among the transactions closed was the fund’s relationship with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which ran a $600 million ACWI ex-U.S. equity account.

“The GS relationship was not renewed as the Fund is reducing its exposure to domestic and international public equities pursuant to the revised asset allocation Comptroller DiNapoli approved in November 2009,” fund spokesman Robert Whalen told ai5000.

The fund completed five transactions in its $10.5 million real estate portfolio, one transaction worth an estimated $26 million with Gilde Buyout Fund IV – an independent private equity group based in Europe, and one $200 million transaction in the absolute returns portfolio of the Rock Creek Empire Fund. “No placement agents were used in the transactions,” the release stated.

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DiNapoli, the fund’s sole trustee, publishes monthly transaction reports that specify the nature, size, parties of fund investments, and specifically whether a third-party placement agent was used in obtaining investments, reflecting efforts by the pension to heighten its standard of transparency and openness in operations.

To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742