MOSERS’ Rick Dahl to Retire After 21 Years

RickDahl_ChrisBuzelli Rick Dahl (Art by Chris Buzelli)Rick Dahl, CIO of the Missouri State Employee’s Retirement System (MOSERS), has announced he will step down in the first half of 2016 after a 21-year tenure.

Current Deputy CIO Seth Kelly has been tapped to take over the investment chief position. Shannon Davidson, risk and operations manager, will be deputy CIO.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the board, Executive Director Gary Findlay, and most importantly… the members,” Dahl wrote in the 2015 system’s annual report. “The rewards, challenges, and fun that I have had is a testament to the great organization that is MOSERS.”

Under Dahl’s leadership, MOSERS has grown from approximately $2 billion to nearly $9 billion, and made returns of 5.9%, 6%, and 7.8% for 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years ending September 30, 2015.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

Growing the investment team from just three staff members to now more than 20, Dahl also led the pension plan into a risk-based asset allocation approach in 2012, with 80% of the portfolio in “beta-balanced” or risk parity.

“We recognized at the time that this effort would take us down a very different and possibly lonely path,” Dahl wrote. “The concepts we endorsed were not new to the industry, however, our willingness to embrace the concepts at the portfolio level placed us in very small company.”

Dahl admitted MOSERS is “currently living through one of the pressure tests” of the risk-balanced approach, reporting a loss of 2.6% for the year ending June 30, 2015, well below its 8% target return.

But the CIO emphasized MOSERS’ “longer-term story” demonstrated “patience, fortitude, and willingness to lean against the wind—all qualities which are cornerstones of our success over the years.”

Dahl told CIO he has no set plans after he leaves MOSERS, but likely would not work as a CIO of another public fund.

He also expressed his confidence in Kelly, Davidson, and the investment team of people with “intellect, desire, and humility.”

CIO-elect Kelly said he was “excited, but also humbled” to take on the top position. “My goal is to continue what Rick has created, bring the investment team together, and hope to fill Rick’s shoes,” he said.

Dahl will receive CIO’s Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual Industry Innovation Awards on December 3 in New York City.

One of Canada’s largest pension funds is opening an office in New York City to focus on principal debt and credit investments.

The C$112 billion ($84 billion) Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) has hired industry veteran David Scudellari to lead the new US affiliate as senior head of principal debt and credit investments.

“I am looking forward to sharing my expertise and extensive network of contacts to grow this new private debt asset class,” Scudellari said in the announcement. Given the “scale of anticipated capital deployment” and PSP’s long-term horizon, “we will have a unique investor profile in the leveraged finance landscape.”

The institutional fund also hired Ziv Ehrenfeld to serve as senior director.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

The New York office will initially handle principal debt and credit investments exclusively, according to a release. However, PSP Investments expects it to grow to accommodate a small team of other private investment professionals in the near future.

“With traditional capital providers having lost significant market share in the last few years, there is an attractive opportunity for a long-term investor such as PSP Investments to enter this trillion-dollar-plus asset class through its US affiliate,” said fund President and CEO André Bourbonnais.

Building a presence in New York is “the first step in making PSP Investments a truly global pension investment manager with a local presence in select international markets,” Bourbonnais added. It is already in the process of opening a European base in London.

PSP joins cadre of Canadian institutions with New York satellites, including the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System.