HARRISBURG, PA -- The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System will host a private equity panel discussion as part of its Jan. 16 public meeting of the Board of Trustees Investment Committee.
The discussion will consist of a question and answer session with four leading private equity managers from the United States and Great Britain. The session, scheduled to last between 60 and 90 minutes, will begin with a moderator posing questions to the panelists about investment strategies and issues affecting the private equity industry. Time will be allotted for Trustees, other public officials, reporters and others to ask their own questions of the panelists.
The session is part of Trustees’ and their designees’ yearly education requirements under the Public School Employees' Retirement Code. Section 8501 of the code states: “Each member of the board will be required to obtain eight hours of mandatory training in investment strategies, actuarial cost analysis and retirement portfolio management on an annual basis.” Trustees and their designees meet the requirements by attending seminars, workshops, courses or conferences conducted by PSERS internal investment professionals or outside professional organizations. Trustees and designees earned an average of 11 education credit hours in 2019.
“This is a timely subject for an education session given the ongoing policy and political debates about the role private equity plays in public pensions and the global economy,” said PSERS chief Investment Officer Jim Grossman. “An interactive discussion provides more educational value to the Board and the public than a study session on academic reports and statistics.”
The Investment Committee is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at PSERS headquarters, 5 N. 5th St., Harrisburg. The Committee will recess at about 9:50 a.m. to allow Trustees and others time to walk to the site of the panel discussion in the auditorium of the nearby Rachel Carson State Office Building, 400 Market St., Harrisburg. The panel is expected to begin at 10 a.m.
A full meeting of the board of Trustees will follow the discussion and start at 12:30 p.m. at PSERS headquarters. The agenda is here.
The panelists are:
Anika Agarwal, a Managing Director at Insight Partners, headquartered in New York City. She has been with the company since 2014. Ms. Agarwal focuses on leveraged buyouts and majority recapitalizations of application and infrastructure software companies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and a master’s in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
John “Jack” Glover, a Founding Partner of Incline Equity Partners in Pittsburgh. Mr. Glover is responsible for sourcing and executing new investments, managing existing portfolio company performance, and overseeing the firm’s strategic direction and employees. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
William Jackson, Managing Partner of Bridgepoint in London. Mr. Jackson has worked extensively on transactions across Europe and has served on numerous boards. He is currently President of the Board of Dorna Sports; Senior Independent Director of British Land plc, the FTSE 100 property company; and a Director of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He is a graduate of Oxford University.
Howard Ross, Co-founder of LLR Partners in Philadelphia. Mr. Ross is a member of the Board of Directors of Agility Recovery Solutions, Key2Act, Numotion, Rapid Ratings, Rizing and Suvoda. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The moderator is Darren Foreman, PSERS Director of Private Equity & Co-Investments.
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 hybrid options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. PSERS membership covers about 256,000 active and 237,000 retired school employees.
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