LPs

Who Will Manage New York City’s Pensions?

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As of May 2013, the main contender for city comptroller is Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president.  

In an interview with Buyouts, Lawrence Schloss, the chief investment officer for the city’s five municipal pension funds, said that because November’s elections are right around the corner, he does not plan to replace Miller as head of private equity. “Private equity happens to be one area I know something about,” said Schloss, who came to his current position from Diamond Castle, a prominent New York private equity firm where he was chief executive.

Schloss said it would be unwise to replace Miller since Schloss himself has just seven months left on his contract, which expires on December 31st. Given the time involved in appointing someone new, said Schloss, that new person would be unsure about who their boss would be come the new year. 

As chief investment officer, Schloss reports to the city’s comptroller. The current comptroller, John Liu, officially announced in March that he was running to succeed Michael Bloomberg as mayor, which means that the next comptroller, also to be elected in November, will either re-appoint Schloss or appoint someone new.

“I’m here until I’m not here,” said Schloss, who refused to discuss his plans following the city’s elections. When asked if he wanted to stay in his current role under a new comptroller, Schloss said that is up to the next comptroller and that he could not answer the question.

Miller’s exit means that the two most senior people on the private equity staff are Elizabeth Caldas, who is a director, and Alex Doñé, an executive director. Doñé was hired in 2012 to manage the retirement systems’ emerging managers program. Altogether, there are five people on the private equity team.

The city’s five municipal pension systems that Schloss oversees are the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York, the New York City Police Pension Fund, New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System.