Hawaii Pension Parts Ways With CIO

Chief investment officer Vijoy Chattergy is no longer employed with Hawaii’s $16 billion state pension fund, where he had served as CIO since 2012,亚博赞助欧冠has learned.

An automatic response from Chattergy’s former email account states that he is no longer with the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii. The retirement system’s executive director Thomas Williams did not respond to multiple requests for comment by press time.

Local newspaper theHonolulu Star AdvertiserfirstreportedChattergy’s departure on Thursday. AWall Street Journalreportlast week noted that the pension fund had recently lost money after betting on low volatility through selling put options, a strategy that abruptly backfired during the sharp spike in volatility amid the stock market gyrations over the past few weeks.

“We’ve taken some losses that you’d expect with these sharp moves,” Chattergy told theJournalin an interview on Feb. 8.

TheJournalarticle did not address Chattergy’s departure.

[IIDeep Dive:Vijoy Chattergy Keeps Hawaii’s Pension Plans Open to Options]

Chattergy became CIO of the Hawaii pension fund in late 2012 after a brief stint as interim investment chief. He first joined the retirement system in 2011 as an investment specialist under then-CIO Rodney June, who would shortly after depart for the CIO job at the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System.

In addition to implementing the options-based strategy, Chattergy spent his tenure broadening the pension fund’s exposure to private market asset classes like real estate and private equity.

The pension was severely underfunded when Chattergy took charge, and has remained in trouble since. As of June 30, Hawaii ERS had anunfunded liabilityof $12.9 billion, for a funded ratio of 54.9 percent.