HARRISBURG, PA – Three Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) employees were recently honored as “Rising Stars” in institutional investing by the international media publication Pensions & Investments.
Pensions & Investments published its 40-member Inaugural 2024 Class of Rising Stars list on Sept. 9, 2024, as part of its Influential Women in Institutional Investing series. The series, in its second year, recognizes investment professionals who work at pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, and asset management firms that serve those sectors. The Rising Star category honors women who, within the first 10 years of their careers, “are already making a profound impact in our industry.”
The PSERS honorees were:
- Angela Chen, 33, a portfolio manager: She oversees PSERS’ nearly $7 billion currency hedging program and provides support to the program’s tail risk mitigation portfolio.
- Emily Detz, 31, an intermediate investment professional: She oversees a $15 billion investment book spanning publicly traded equity, fixed income, and real estate assets.
- Rachel Groves, 26, an intermediate investment professional: She co-leads publicly listed infrastructure and real estate portfolios that total more than $5 billion while also conducting market trading and research support.
“I could not be prouder and congratulate Angela, Emily, and Rachel for their contributions to the investment profession and their hard work in support of PSERS’ mission to provide a secure retirement for our members,” said PSERS Chief Investment Officer Ben Cotton.
“The Pensions & Investments honor is a testament to PSERS’ entire investment office,” Chen said. “Working at PSERS has afforded me the opportunity to interface with folks who are not only clever and sophisticated, but also endlessly kind, supportive, and positive.”
Detz credited her career path to her father for introducing her at a young age to the stock market and investments. “Investments are something I have been interested in since I was a child,” she said, adding she is proud to put her education and skills to use in the public sector.
Groves agreed, saying, “Balancing profit and purpose is essential for societal impact. My work investing in infrastructure assets for teachers embodies that intersection.”
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About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new benefit options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of June 30, 2024, PSERS had unaudited total net assets of $75.2 billion and a membership of about 251,000 active, 250,000 retired school employees, and 27,000 vested inactive members.