Big raise set for top pension fund official
By Don Michak
Journal Inquirer
Published: Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:08 AM EDT
The next chief
investment officer for the state pension fund will be paid between $275,000 and
$350,000 annually under a change an independent oversight panel approved this
week.
The new salary range unanimously backed by the Investment Advisory Council
represents an increase of between 40 percent and 48.6 percent over the current
compensation schedule, under which the chief investment officer has been paid
between $185,000 and $250,000.
David Roth, chairman of the council’s
selection committee, said during the panel’s meeting Monday that the revised
salary range was “competitive” and “should give good flexibility for
appropriate position compensation,” according to minutes from the meeting.
Roth added that unlike in other states, there are no incentives or bonus plans
for the chief investment officer’s position at the Connecticut pension plan.
The council’s action came at the request of state Treasurer
Denise L. Nappier, according to the minutes, which
also reveal that the treasurer is poised to fill the investment officer’s post
with a Farmington resident she called “a seasoned local finance professional.”
Nappier said her preferred candidate is M. Timothy
Corbett, the former interim team leader of fixed income at McMorgan
& Co., a San Francisco-based asset management firm focused on union health
and welfare plans and owned by New York Life Investment Management.
Corbett previously was managing director of Hartford Investment Management Co.,
the asset management subsidiary of The Hartford, and a
former head of portfolio management for Aetna.
Nappier asked that the council approve her
recommendation to offer the chief investment officer job to Corbett pending
successful contract negotiations, and the panel voted unanimously to do so.
While the treasury employs a number of outside advisers to invest state pension
funds, the chief investment officer supervises the overall pension plan division,
which is responsible for recommending and monitoring pension plan assets,
analyzing liabilities, and recommending asset allocation policy.
Lee Ann Paladino is currently serving as acting chief
investment officer, following the departure in 2007 of the former chief
investment officer, Susan B. Sweeney, who had been appointed five years
earlier.