Kent F. Custer was named the first chief investment officer of the Illinois Police Officers' Pension Investment Fund, Naperville.
The fund's board of trustees approved the hiring of Mr. Custer at its meeting March 26, said Richard A. White, executive director.
The Police Officers' Pension Investment Fund was created by a law signed in December 2019 by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker consolidating 649 downstate and suburban police and fire pension plans into two new pension funds.
Mr. Custer has been CIO of the $2 billion Dallas Police and Fire Pension System since 2018. He said in an email he will join the Illinois fund May 1, and the Dallas plan has yet to name an interim CIO.
Before his tenure in Dallas, Mr. Custer had been CIO of the College Illinois prepaid tuition program, the state's 529 program, and also previously served as a senior investment officer for the $57.6 billion Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield.
The Illinois Police Officers' Pension Investment Fund will manage an estimated $8.3 billion of consolidated municipal police pension fund assets. The transfer of investment authority for the municipal pension funds' assets to the Police Officers' Pension Investment Fund will occur no later than June 30, 2022.
