HARRISBURG – The Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) voted Thursday to name an Acting Chief Investment Officer.
Trustees selected Bob Devine, a 23-year PSERS employee, to temporarily lead the agency's investment office while the board conducts a nationwide search to find a permanent chief investment officer. As Acting CIO, Mr. Devine, formerly the Fixed Income Managing Director, will report directly to the Board. He will oversee a staff of 50 internal investment professionals and multiple contracted external managers who invest the system's $72.5 billion in assets in accordance with the Board's policies.
Mr. Devine succeeds Chief Investment Officer Jim Grossman who transitioned to a Senior Advisor position on Thursday and will retire on May 1, 2022.
PSERS Board Chair Chris SantaMaria stated, "Bob has the expertise, experience, and proven skills to lead our investment team at PSERS during the interim. Having Bob at the helm of our portfolio over the months ahead provides us with the stable leadership needed while we conduct the search for a permanent Chief Investment Officer."
Devine, 48, is a life-long Pennsylvanian. He grew up in Centralia, Schuylkill County, and graduated from Villanova University with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1994. Two years later, he earned a master's degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University. In 2004, Mr. Devine earned a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Mr. Devine joined PSERS in 1998 as an investment analyst in the private equity division. In 2000, he moved to PSERS' Fixed Income unit, where he held several positions until becoming the managing director of the four-member team that manages $19 billion in assets. Mr. Devine also held several other executive duties as a member of the office's internal Asset Allocation Committee, Asset Implementation Committee and Risk Oversight Committee.
"I am humbled by the Board of Trustees' trust in elevating me to this temporary position, and I look forward to working for them," Mr. Devine said.
"From a personal standpoint, I know it will be hard to follow Jim Grossman, a friend and colleague who taught me invaluable lessons about investing assets and managing people," he continued. "I want PSERS investment team and the rest of the agency to know my door will be open to their ideas and opinions as we move forward. Only by working together can we continue to faithfully serve Pennsylvania's dedicated public school employees like my 90-year-old grandmother a retired janitress who kept the schools of the Mount Carmel Area School District as spotless as her Northumberland County home that I still love to visit."
At a future date, the Board is also expected to name an Acting Executive Director in charge of administrative functions of the agency of 365 employees. That individual would succeed Executive Director Glen Grell, who will transition to a Senior Advisor role on Jan. 1, 2022, and then retire on Feb. 28, 2022.
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. As of June 30, 2021, PSERS had total net assets of $72.5 billion and a membership of about 256,000 active, 240,000 retired school employees and 26,000 vested inactive members.
###