Andrew Junkin has been named chief investment officer of Rhode Island, which oversees the State Investment Commission that includes the $8.4 billion Rhode Island Employees' Retirement System, Providence, Treasurer Seth Magaziner said.
Mr. Junkin replaces Alec Stais, who left in May to become CIO at Providence Health & Services. For the past five years until March, Mr. Junkin was president of Wilshire Consulting, where he worked for 15 years.
The pension fund returned 1.69% in May and 6.6% during the 12-month period ending May 31, outperforming the 5.6% benchmark for the period, Mr. Magaziner said Tuesday in a statement.
The State Investment Commission adopted a "back-to-basics" asset allocation policy in September 2016 to help during times of market stress. Mr. Magaziner said the allocation was key to the system's 12-month investment performance, returning 15.7%.
The Rhode Island pension system outperformed most of its peers in the first quarter of 2020, according to data released by Investment Metrics, formerly MSCI InvestorForce. During the quarter, it bested the median U.S. public pension plan by 4.2%, ranking it 28th out of 546 public pension funds nationwide, according to Investment Metrics. As markets reacted to the coronavirus outbreak, the median public pension plan returned -13.8%, while Rhode Island's plan declined -9.6%.