A. Melissa Moye is resigning as chief investment officer of the $45.4 billion Maryland State Retirement & Pension System, Baltimore, officials announced Monday.
She is leaving at the end of August to become a senior policy adviser with the U.S. Treasury Department’s office of state and local finance.
Deputy CIO Robert Burd will serve as acting CIO. The board has not begun the search process yet, spokesman Michael Golden said.
At the Treasury Department, Ms. Moye will focus on public sector pensions for the office, which was created in May to coordinate efforts to oversee developments in state and local financial markets, including public pension fund liabilities. Maryland pension board chairwoman and state Treasurer Nancy Kopp said in a statement that while the board will miss Ms. Moye’s leadership, “we are thrilled with the opportunity Dr. Moye will have to apply her wealth of knowledge and experience at the national policy level.”
Ms. Moye became CIO in September 2011 after serving as acting CIO since October 2010. Before that, she was deputy treasurer for financial policy and a trustee of the state pension system. Mr. Burd started with the retirement agency in 2001 as an assistant director of externally managed investments and was named managing director of private markets in 2008.
In a statement, Ms. Moye said the retirement trust funds “are well positioned for the future, both in terms of asset allocation and operations.” During her tenure as CIO, the system grew by $10 billion and averaged an 8.26% return over the last three fiscal years, above its 7.7% market benchmark. In fiscal year 2014 ended June 30, the system earned 14.4%.
Ms. Moye is credited with repositioning the portfolio to reduce its volatility profile and growing the private equity program to 7% from 3.5%, as part of a long-term allocation target of 10%.
