Hirings

NEW YORK — American Independence Financial Services hired Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss to subadvise its $106 million American Independence International Equity Fund, confirmed Jared Goldstrom, portfolio manager at American Independence Funds. Barrow Hanley replaces American Beacon.

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Police Retirement System hired Aletheia Research and Management to run $10 million in an active all-cap growth equity portfolio, according to Sampson Jordan, pension administrator. Aletheia replaced Eagle Asset Management, which ran the money in an active domestic midcap growth strategy.

The board of the $348 million system decided the flexibility of an all-cap manager leads to better performance than large-cap, midcap or small-cap growth managers can provide, Mr. Jordan said.

The board also approved a $5 million commitment to Value Enhancement Fund VI, a commercial real estate fund run by VEF Advisors, and a $4 million commitment to the Retail Property Fund run by Main and Main Capital, Mr. Jordan said. He added the system's investment consultant, Consulting Services Group, will be reviewing potential international real estate investment opportunities and will report to the board in a few months.

PARIS — Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites will hire five managers to run a total of €600 million ($745 million) in socially responsible investment strategies focusing on active European large-cap and midcap equities, according to a spokeswoman for the €28.2 billion pension plan. The firms — AGF Asset Management, Dexia Asset Management, Morley Fund Management, Pictet Asset Management and Sarasin Expertise Asset Management — will attempt to beat the MSCI Europe benchmark. Individual portfolio sizes have not been determined, but each firm will run at least €50 million. Funding will come from cash.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System committed $562 million to private equity manager Pathway Capital Management, according to a report from the board of the $19.3 billion fund. That brings the system's overall commitments to Pathway to $1.95 billion. Funding will come primarily from reducing a $1.76 billion Dow Jones Wilshire 4500 index fund managed by Mellon Capital Management, which the system "uses as a proxy for private equity investments until the funds are drawn for that portfolio," Melinda Prince, spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The system also plans to commit a total of $359.2 million to five current separate account real estate managers: ING Clarion, which now manages $118 million; TA Realty, which now runs $292 million; UBS Realty, $278 million; RREEF, $329 million; and INVESCO, $262 million. Funding will come mainly from reducing a $2.1 billion S&P 500 index fund managed by Mellon Capital Management.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System committed €16 million ($20 million) to Charterhouse Capital Partners VII, up to $10 million to Paladin Capital Group's Paladin Private Equity Investors I and up to $6 million to TA Associates X. The $9.4 billion pension fund also committed up to $30 million to TPG Partners V, which has a $12.5 billion target, and up to $10 million to Halifax Capital Partners II, a $300 million small- to midmarket buyout fund that is a member of the TPG family of funds.

TRENTON — New Jersey Division of Investment committed $50 million to the CIM Urban Fund and $100 million to a global real estate fund run by RREEF. The commitments were approved by the State Investment Council, which oversees $74 billion in assets, including state pension funds.

The council also approved commitments of $50 million each to two private equity funds, one managed by Carlyle Partners and one by Blackstone Group.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System retained Great-West Retirement Services as record keeper for its $400 million deferred compensation plan, according to the plan's website.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Orange County Employees Retirement System hired Callan Associates as the $6.4 billion fund's general and real estate consultant, said Keith Bozarth, CEO. The system issued an RFP earlier this year because contracts of general consultant Callan and real estate consultant Townsend Group were set to expire this year, Mr. Bozarth said.

Also, William Blair was hired to manage $130 million in active emerging markets equities. Funding came from terminating Barclays Global Investors, which managed the portfolio passively; board officials decided to switch to active management, Mr. Bozarth said.

TIGARD, Ore. — Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the $57 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Salem, will make new private equity commitments of $200 million each to Centerbridge Partners I and Shamrock Activist Value Fund, said Kevin Max, spokesman.

ST. CHARLES, Ill. — Painters, District Council 30 Pension Fund hired hedge fund-of-funds managers Attalus Capital and Grosvenor Capital Management to run a total of up to $11 million for the $110 million pension plan, said Milan Diklich, administrative manager. Funding will come from a general distribution, Mr. Diklich said. Strategic Capital Investment Advisors assisted.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System hired Ashmore Investment Management to run $210 million in an emerging market debt fund and $140 million in a local currency fund, confirmed Bob Gentzel, spokesman for the $30 billion system. Funding came from cash.

The system will also invest a total of $320 million in six alternative investment funds, according to a news release. Pending final contract negotiations, the system will commit up to $50 million to the Avenue Asia Special Situations Fund IV; and up to $30 million in HarbourVest International Private Equity Partners V-Asia Pacific and Rest of World Partnership Fund and in the Oxford Fund, a real estate fund. All three are new commitments and will be funded from cash. The system will also make follow-on commitments of up to $100 million to TPG V, up to $60 million to Oak Investment Partners XII and up to $50 million to New Enterprise Associates 12.

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund hired Ashmore Investment Management to run $25 million in domestic core fixed income, according to Executive Director Warren Schott. Ashmore replaced EARNEST Partners, which was terminated for performance, Mr. Schott said. EARNEST managed a total of about $75 million in the strategy; the remaining $50 million will go to Wellington Management, which the $1.71 billion system hired in March. EARNEST officials were not available for comment.

Separately, officials allocated $100 million to a portable alpha strategy and consultant Consulting Services Group, has begun working on a plan to implement the strategy. CSG officials will present the plan in May.

The system also committed $10 million each to AEW Partners V, an opportunistic real estate fund, and the Siguler Guff BRIC Fund, a private equity fund.

REGINA, Saskatchewan — Saskatchewan Teachers' Superannuation Commission hired State Street Corp. as global custodian, according to Dave Barnard, executive director of the C$1.7 billion (US$1.49 billion) fund. State Street will also provide securities lending, accounting and compliance services. Mr. Barnard declined to comment on the previous provider.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County Retirement System hired emerging market equities managers OFI Institutional Asset Management and Ashmore Investment Management to run $35 million and $25 million, respectively, and Delaware Investment Management to run a $40 million active domestic large-cap growth portfolio, said David Pontius, manager of pension investments.

The $915 million system will fund the new emerging market equity allocations from a redistribution of assets among the five managers that run the system's $189 million in fixed income, he said. Delaware is replacing RCM, which ran the money in a similar portfolio. The termination was not performance-related, Mr. Pontius said. Consulting Services Group assisted.

MALVERN, Pa. — Vanguard Group hired AllianceBernstein as a subadviser to the $3.5 billion Vanguard Global Equity Fund, said spokesman John Demming. Rather than transferring assets from existing managers Marathon Asset Management and Acadian Asset Management, Vanguard will direct a portion of the fund's current cash position and the bulk of new inflows to AllianceBernstein.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont State Teachers' Retirement System hired PIMCO and Mellon Financial to run up to about $70 million each in a global asset allocation strategy. The board at its February meeting approved a plan to allocate 10% of the $1.4 billion system's assets to the strategy, with funding coming equally from international equity, large-cap equity, core fixed income and global fixed income.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington State Investment Board hired Frank Russell Securities to run a cash overlay on top of the $66.9 billion system's $50.2 billion commingled trust fund, said Liz Mendizabal, spokeswoman for the fund. Fund officials added the overlay to help eliminate "cash drag" on performance.

The board voted to commit $150 million to the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Special Situations Fund III. It also made private equity commitments of up to €125 million ($151 million) in the Fourth Cinven Fund, up to $100 million to New Enterprise Associates' NEA 12, and $75 million to HIPEP V, run by HarbourVest Partners, Ms. Mendizabal said. All investments are subject to fee negotiation.