Home ListingMay 29, 2014

NYC Pensions Appoint TIAA-CREF Veteran as New CIO

Scott Evans, former CIO and president of asset management at TIAA-CREF, will begin managing the city’s $150 billion retirement system in July.

Reported by Featured Author

(May 29, 2014) — New York City Pension Funds have appointed Scott Evans, a 27-year veteran in asset management, as their new CIO, filling the role previously held by Larry Schloss.

Evans, 55, will begin managing the city’s five public pension funds, worth $150 billion, and staff totaling nearly 40 on July 14 this year.

“Scott is a respected and experienced finance professional who will bring decades of knowledge to the comptroller’s office bureau of asset management,” New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him and my fellow pension board trustees in the coming years as we seek to achieve strong, risk-adjusted investment returns for the pension funds’ 700,000 members, retirees, and beneficiaries.”

Evans worked for 27 years at TIAA-CREF leading its retirement services for more than 3.7 million enrollees. He served as CIO and president of asset management at the firm, managing nearly $500 billion in assets until his retirement in 2012.

“It is a great honor and privilege to be entrusted with providing for the retirement security of New York City’s public employees,” Evans said. “I am looking forward to working with the investment professionals in the bureau of asset management and all of the systems’ trustees to ensure that this public pension fund, the nation’s fourth-largest, is well positioned for the long term.”

The new CIO currently serves as a trustee and chair of the Due Process Oversight Committee of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation and an external advisor to Dutch pension giant ABP.

“Scott has been an industry leader in finding innovative and low-cost ways to invest and fund retirements for working people and he will ably lead our bureau of asset management team as we seek to maximize our pension fund returns consistent with prudent investing on behalf of the funds’ beneficiaries,” Stringer said. “We are moving this office forward by being smarter in our operations and implementing necessary reforms to the existing structure supporting the five funds.”

Evans fills the CIO position that has been vacant since the departure of Larry Schloss in October last year. Schloss, 59, led New York City Pension Funds for almost four years and grew their assets by $45 billion. He left the city’s retirement system to become president of investment adviser Angelo, Gordon & Co., overseeing $24 billion in assets.

Seema Hingorani, head of public equities and hedge funds for the pension funds, stepped in as interim CIO after Schloss’ departure.

Evans will earn a salary of $224,000 per year as CIO.