Scott Evans to depart as CIO of New York City Retirement Systems

Scott Evans, the chief investment officer of the New York City Retirement Systems, will leave on June 29, the end of the current fiscal year, city Comptroller Scott Stringer announced Tuesday.

Mr. Stringer, the fiduciary of the five pension funds in the $194 billion city pension system, said in a news release that Mr. Evans would be succeeded on an interim basis by Alex Done, who is deputy CIO for private markets for the city's bureau of asset management, which manages investments for the pension funds. Mr. Stringer said he has launched a formal search for Mr. Evans' successor, a process that should be completed by the end of the year, according to the news release.

Also, Mr. Stringer said Mr. Done will be assisted by Michael Haddad, deputy CIO for public and tradable markets.

"Working together with trustees, we have modernized the operations of the funds and implemented a host of new reforms to better serve our members — today and for generations to come," Mr. Stringer said in the news release. "Scott Evans is a consummate professional whose pension advice is sought after around the globe, and I know I speak on behalf of all our trustees when I thank him and the rest of the bureau of asset management staff for their superb management of the funds these last four years."

Mr. Evans became CIO in July 2014. He could not be reached for comment by press time.

In the news release, Mr. Stringer listed a series of pension system achievements under Mr. Evans' leadership:

• The pension system produced a annualized return of 7.4%, exceeding the annual assumed rate of return of 7%.
• The bureau of asset management was restructured to include deputy CIO positions for both public and private securities and to add chief compliance and chief risk officers "to ensure robust controls are in place at all times."
• The bureau banned all placement agents and placed "strict controls over personal trading among (bureau) employees and other executives."
• The pension system investments have greater transparency, "including streamlined reporting that requires all manager fees to be deducted from published total fund return figures, and requiring all managers of private-market securities to fill out comprehensive fee disclosures each reporting period."
• The bureau asks prospective fund managers about the diversity, including race and gender, of their employees. In addition, Mr. Evans helped launch the Boardroom Accountability Project. This is an effort to give shareowners the right to nominate directors at U.S. companies using a proxy-access policy, which advocates "diverse, independent and accountable directors" at corporate boards.