SWIB CIO Villa Joins Iconoclastic 300 Club

(July 15, 2013) – State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) CIO David Villa, a member of aiCIO’s Power 100, has joined the 300 Club–a group of global investors created to “raise uncomfortable and fundamental questions about the very foundations of the investment landscape.”

Villa, who runs investments for the $95 billion fund, joins fellow public pension CIOs Chris Ailman of the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and Bob Maynard of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho. The group is chaired by Hermes Fund Managers’ Saker Nusseibeh.

“The ever-changing environment in which we operate means we cannot rely on the perceived wisdom of yesterday, but must instead develop new solutions to manage risk and ultimately ensure that investors receive the best possible outcomes,” Villa said in a release. “I look forward to joining my colleagues in the 300 Club to help develop answers to the questions posed by a rapidly changing financial environment.”

Idaho’s Maynard was the first North American to join the Club. “It’s just a group that expresses skepticism in the more complicated approaches being sold today,” he said last October. “I mean, hedge funds, I’m skeptical about a lot of them. They’re a catchall for lot of repackaged stuff. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen tactical asset allocation or investment outsourcing brought back, for example.”