Home ListingNovember 12, 2015

Virginia Commonwealth University Creates In-House Manager

An industry veteran has been appointed to oversee the launch of the university's new venture.

Reported by Featured Author

Nancy Everett A former Promark Global Advisors CEO and Virginia state pension CIO has been appointed to lead a newly created investment adviser for the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Nancy Everett is to become CEO and CIO of the VCU Investment Management Company (VCIMCO), an independent 501(c)(3) foundation to advise the university and its affiliated foundations on the management of its assets.

“The creation of the VCU Investment Management Company represents industry best practices in the financial stewardship of the university’s assets,” said Everett. “Our role is to work with VCU and its affiliates to provide the financial stability necessary to fulfill its mission and to help it grow and prosper for generations to come.”

VCU, VCU Health, and affiliated entities have a combined total of more than $2 billion of investable assets. Investing activities by VCIMCO are to begin in early 2016, the university said.

Everett, who joins the firm after two years leading and expanding BlackRock’s US OCIO business and three years at Lombard Odier building the manager’s large client base, has more than 30 years experience in the sector.

From 2005 to 2010, she led General Motors Asset Management, which became Promark Global Advisors, as CEO and CIO, responsible for more than $170 billion in assets. Previously, she had spent 26 years at the Virginia Retirement System where she climbed to the top investment position in 1999.

Alongside Everett, VCIMCO has appointed a board of experienced financial professionals including William Lee as chief operating officer. Lee was chief financial officer and chief compliance officer at Summit Rock Advisors in New York.

Elsewhere in the state, the current CIO of the Virginia Retirement System has been inducted into the 300 Club of influential investors. Ron Schmitz, who runs $68 billion for the state, is the latest CIO to join the group of iconoclastic international investors.

Prior to joining the Virginia system, a role for which he was nominated at CIO‘s Industry Innovation Awards in 2013, Schmitz was responsible for the investment of the $52 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, the $3 billion State Accident Insurance Fund and the $12 billion cash management account for state and local governments. In addition to other public fund experience, he also has worked in fund management and employee benefits for a number of private companies, having started in fund management in 1982 with Kraft Foods.