Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, issued an RFP seeking a consultant to provide a standardized diversity, equity and inclusion measurement and scoring system.
The investment department will be the $57 billion pension fund's first division to use the DEI measurement system to "help develop and analyze diversity and inclusion metrics for existing and potential business partners," the pension fund said in a news release Monday.
Other departments within TRS may also use the DEI measurement tool over time, the news release said. TRS' board of trustees approved the search for a DEI consultant during a virtual meeting Dec. 9.
Jose Gonzalez, investment officer for the pension fund's $724 million emerging managers program, told trustees then that developing a diversity, equity and inclusion measurement tool is "a major initiative of staff" in 2021, adding that his intention is to "expand measurement of diversity" beyond the usual consideration of the percentage of minority or women money management company ownership to include workforce diversity.
Responses are due by 2 p.m. on Feb. 22 according to the RFP available on TRS' website. Finalist presentations will take place in March, and the candidate will be selected in April, the RFP said.
