Clay Officially Tapped for PSERS

It’s now official. Jeffrey Clay is the executive director of Pennsylvania’s Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS). The PSERS Board of Trustees, which recommended him for the post in early October, made its decision official at its Oct. 31 meeting.

Clay, 50, won out over 139 other applicants.

Clay had served as interim executive director of PSERS since June when then executive director Dale Everhart resigned. Before the official swearing in, while he was still in his interim capacity, Clay terminated PSERS’ account with Putnam Investments, the fund management firm currently being investigated and sued for fraud by government regulators. Putnam managed approximately $1 billion in international securities for PSERS. The funds will be managed by PSERS internal investment staff in an international index fund.

Prior to becoming interim director of PSERS, Clay was chief counsel for the Keystone State’s qualified deferred compensation plan. Earlier in his career, Clay served as a law clerk and as an attorney specializing in real estate and appellate litigation with McNees Wallace & Nurick.

PSERS has about $43.5 billion under management and serves over 242,000 active school employees and 141,000 retirees. It is the 14th largest pension fund in the U.S.

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