Gregory Roth

Two of the Empire State’s biggest pension systems, the $160 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund and the $95 billion New York State Teachers Retirement System, have laid out goals to expand their in-house private equity teams.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, one of Canada’s largest and most innovative, named Ron Mock to succeed Jim Leech as its president and CEO, according to a spokeswoman, Deborah Allan. Since 2008, Mock has been the pension’s senior vice president in charge of fixed income and alternative investments.

Pantheon Ventures has become the latest firm to announce plans to manage private equity for retail investors, in this case through target-date retirement funds whose sponsors wish to offer exposure to the asset class.

Two of the nation’s largest university endowments saw executive-level changes in the last week, including the surprise decision by Cari Lodge, the director of alternative investments at Tulane University, to join Commonfund, Lodge confirmed in an e-mail message. Lodge joined Tulane only in June 2012. It is not known when Lodge will assume her new duties at Commonfund, nor who will replace her at Tulane. Calls to both Tulane and Commonfund were not returned.

The Oregon Investment Council, which manages $81 billion in assets, committed $950 million to funds at three private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management, Lone Star Funds and The Blackstone Group, confirmed James Sinks, the council’s spokesman.

The North Carolina Retirement Systems, which manages $78 billion in pension assets, is a step closer to increasing its overall cap on alternative investments to 40 percent from 34 percent after the state senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of such a move. So far, the North Carolina house has not yet scheduled a vote on the measure, which also would need Gov. Patrick McCrory’s signature to be put into law.

Pantheon Ventures has become the latest firm to announce plans to manage private equity for ordinary investors, in this case through target-date retirement funds whose sponsors wish to offer exposure to the asset class.

Abbott Capital Management, a prominent funds-of-funds firm, has named Martha Cassidy as a director to focus on secondary fund sourcing and due diligence.