David Villa, CIO at State of Wisconsin Investment Board, dies

David Villa, executive director and chief investment officer of the $145 billion State of Wisconsin Investment Board, Madison, died Feb. 13, a SWIB spokeswoman confirmed Monday in an email.

Further details about Mr. Villa’s death were not immediately available, spokeswoman Vicki Hearing said.

Mr. Villa, 66, joined SWIB in 2006 as CIO and was appointed executive director in 2018.

“SWIB and the state of Wisconsin have lost a visionary leader and a devoted public servant,” said David Stein, chairman of SWIB’s board of trustees, in a news release.

“For 15 years, David worked tirelessly to build an organization committed to helping Wisconsin’s public-sector employees to retire in dignity,” he added.

The SWIB statement said Mr. Villa “joined SWIB with an innovative plan to change the way money was invested at SWIB. He envisioned a destination for investment management talent located in the heart of the Midwest. He also worked to expand SWIB’s statutory investment authority, diversify its holdings into new asset classes and develop the capability for SWIB to manage assets in-house.”

During Mr. Villa’s oversight as CIO, SWIB increased its internally managed assets to more than 50% of total assets from 21%. It also “generated strong returns at a lower cost than its peers and during the last five years added $1.9 billion to the ($129.8 billion Wisconsin Retirement System) above its performance benchmarks,” according to the statement.

Rochelle Klaskin, SWIB’s deputy executive director and chief administrative officer, has been named acting executive director, and three investment managing directors have been given authority to share the role of CIO, Ms. Hearing said in her email. The names of the officers were not provided.

As part of its oversight function, the board had discussed succession planning with Mr. Villa in 2020 and now “is focused on facilitating a smooth transition of executive leadership,” SWIB’s statement said.