Orange County Pension CIO Resigns | Chief Investment Officer

Girard Miller OCERS Girard Miller, OCERSOrange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) CIO Girard Miller has announced his resignation, CIO confirmed.

His last day will be January 5, 2017, the California pension fund said.

“OCERS has been well served by Girard’s outstanding investment skills and passion for and pride in his work,” said Steve Delaney, the fund’s CEO. “He is leaving in place an excellent team of investment professionals and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

OCERS said its HR department would conduct a national search for Miller’s replacement early next year. Director of Investment Operations Shanta Chary, along with the investment team, general consultant Meketa Investment Group, and strategic portfolio and risk consultant PCA, will manage the fund in Miller’s absence.

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Miller said he would “return to the private-sector investment management and advisory business” after the transition.

Miller joined OCERS in July 2012. During his tenure, the fund grew from $9.4 billion to $13 billion and focused on creating a better alignment of interests between asset owners and managers.

Prior to his role at OCERS, Miller served as a senior strategist for retirement finance and public-sector investments at the PFM Group. He also worked as COO at Janus Capital Group, president and CEO at the ICMA Retirement Corporation, and head of public funds at Fidelity Investments.

Miller holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and two master’s degrees from Syracuse University and Wayne State University.

The Columbia Investment Management Company has promoted one of its managing directors to the CIO role as part of a leadership shakeup in the wake of ex-CEO Narv Narvekar’s departure.

Tim Donohue, who first joined the endowment in 2008, will be the new investment chief, succeeding Peter Holland. Holland had served as Colmbia’s CIO from 2003 until September of this year, when he was promoted to CEO after Narvekar was named the next Harvard endowment chief.

Narvekar is set to begin his new role at Harvard on Monday.

“Tim has contributed to our performance across the portfolio in many different ways,” said Holland in a statement. “I look forward to his continued leadership in helping us generate strong risk-adjusted returns.”

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Donohue was previously a vice president and partner at management consulting firm Booz Allen, where he spent 11 years focusing on corporate and business unit strategy and performance improvement for energy-related companies.

Prior to joining Booz Allen, he worked at oil companies BHP Petroleum and Caltex Petroleum in various operating, planning, trading, and engineering roles.

Donohue holds an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School.