Wisconsin Pension Chief To Retire In 2012

Pension Manager: Wisconsin Investment Board

PE Assets: $5 billion in invested capital

Overall Assets: $80 billion

Chief Investment Officer: David Villa

Keith Bozarth, executive director of the $80 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board, announced plans to retire in 2012, the extra time being needed to allow SWIB to find a replacement and help with a transition, according to a press release.

Wisconsin runs one of the nation’s largest private equity programs. The system’s current private equity target is 7 percent, and SWIB manages about $5 billion in invested private equity capital.

“We are sorry to see Keith leave, but appreciate his many accomplishments,” Jim Sentry, the chairman of SWIB’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “SWIB has accomplished a great deal (under Bozarth), including increasing its internal management of funds from 21 percent to 55 percent and revising its risk management process. These accomplishments have helped SWIB remain a model organization with an outstanding reputation.”

Bozarth joined SWIB in 2007 from the $9 billion Orange County Employees Retirement System, where he was chief executive. At that time, SWIB managed $93 billion in assets, considerably more than it does now.

A spokesman for SWIB, Vicki Hearing, said that Bozarth would not be available to comment on his departure.

SWIB manages the nation’s ninth largest pension system, which offers benefits to some 570,000 current or former state employees.