INPRS CIO leaves to join Purdue

Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS) chief investment officer David Cooper will leave the $25 billion pension fund in September to join the Purdue Research Foundation, according to a statement.

Cooper initially joined the Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund (PERF) in 2007. He became its CIO in 2010, and CIO of INPRS a year later when PERF merged with the Indiana State Teachers' Retirement Fund.

Of the $24.96 billion INPRS manages, (as of 3 July) the pension fund allocates 12.7 percent, or $3.17 billion, to private equity, according to PEI's Research & Analytics division. Its target allocation is 10 percent. 

When asked about the INPRS approach to private equity investing, its spokeswoman Jennifer Dunlap wrote to PEI: “The purpose of the Private Equity Program is to earn risk-adjusted returns in excess of public equity markets. The PE program is also expected to decrease the volatility of the System's assets through the diversification benefits of having lower correlations with other asset classes.”

Bo Ramsey was appointed the retirement system's director of public equity in 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has overseen the launch of a private equity co-investment programme in 2014, which has backed Brentwood Associates in its bid for Excelligence Learning Corp, according to reports.

In April 2014 the system committed $150 million to Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities platform. This year it made a follow-on commitment of $25 million to Brentwood Associates Private Equity Fund V, to which it had previously committed $8.5 million in September 2014.

INPRS will form a committee to lead the national search for a new CIO, the statement said.

Scott B. Davis will become the interim CIO at INPRS; he joined the pension fund in 2010 and is currently deputy CIO and director of public equity. Prior to INPRS, Davis was director of debt management at the Indiana Finance Authority.