Charles Van Vleet, assistant treasurer and CIO of Textron Inc.’s employees retirement benefits, will step down at the end of April after 12 years on the job.
Van Vleet, in a telephone interview, said after a 44-year career — roughly half in asset management and half with plan sponsors — it was time to move on.
As of Sept. 30, Textron had $14.5 billion in retirement plan assets, with $8.5 billion in defined benefit and $6 billion in defined contribution.
A longtime believer in the capacity of equity markets to deliver value for investors on the strength of innovations, Van Vleet will be leaving just as strong market gains in recent years have left a number of U.S. defined benefit plans comfortably overfunded.
Textron’s defined benefit plan is very much among them. Van Vleet said Textron's pension plan assets come to 135% of its obligations to beneficiaries.
Among corporate pension plans with more than $1 billion in assets in the BNY Mellon Universe, Textron delivered top-decile returns for the seven and 10 years through Dec. 31.
Van Vleet said he’s not looking to keep a hand in the industry by serving, for example, on boards after he steps down from Textron, focusing instead on hobbies such as carpentry, while considering other pursuits.
A Textron spokesman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
