Maryland applauds departing CIO

The US$587 million Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (Maryland SRPS) has confirmed the departure of its chief investment officer, Mansco Perry III (pictured), to the position of CIO of the endowment fund of Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

During his tenure at Maryland SRPS, Perry led the creation of the Terra Maria program, which expanded the System’s emerging managers allocation, which then realised earnings of 18.51 per cent on $2.25 billion in assets in fiscal year 2010. The program exceeded its benchmark by more than 3 percentage points since its inception, according to Maryland State Treasurer and Maryland SRPS chair, Nancy Kopp.

Meanwhile in May 2009, Kopp said Perry established a currency management program which helped protect the System from currency volatility. Perry also diversified the System’s passive investment management as well as active investments across the System’s $33.7 billion portfolio.

Having joined the System just before a significant set of changes to the board’s asset allocation, Kopp said Perry’s leadership and skill were reflected in the System’s most recent returns of 14.03 per cent, which placed Maryland within the 35^th percentile among state pension plans of comparable size.