New Trustee Elected to the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System

The Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS) today recognized Kenneth B. Haines—a veteran Prince George’s County teacher with experience both in the classroom and at the bargaining table—as its newest member.

The Investment Division of the Maryland State Retirement Agency (SRA) has successfully closed its 20-year-old Direct Equity Real Estate Program with the recent sale of the three remaining properties in its portfolio: Kentlands Square Shopping Center in Gaithersburg; Severna Park Marketplace in Severna Park; and Cranberry Square in Westminster. The three Maryland properties were purchased in September by Bethesda-based Saul Centers, Inc.

The Investment Division of the Maryland State Retirement Agency (SRA) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) from interested firms to provide various Corporate Governance Services. Specifically, the RFI seeks one or more firms to provide Corporate Governance Research and Proxy Services; Iran/Sudan Research Services; and Iran/Sudan Engagement Services.

Following a nationwide search, the Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS) today announced that A. Melissa Moye, Ph.D. has been selected as the system’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO). Dr. Moye, Deputy Treasurer for Financial Policy, has been serving as acting CIO since the departure last October of Mansco Perry, III who left to take a similar position with the endowment fund of Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System has been informed that its portfolio returned 20.04 percent on investments for the fiscal year that just ended June 30, 2011—exceeding the 7.75 percent assumed actuarial return rate. The performance raised the assets of the system to $37.5 billion—a total gain of $6 billion for the year.

Retired teacher Theresa Lochte has been elected by her fellow educators to a second term on the Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp today announced that the Court of Appeals of Maryland has ruled that an actuarial firm is liable to the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS) for damages of approximately $73 million resulting from the firm’s repeated errors in performing actuarial valuations for the State Police Retirement System, Law Enforcement Officers’ Pension System, and Judges’ Retirement System over a 22 year period.

On April 26 the Board of Trustees issued a resolution honoring the late Governor William Donald Schaefer and expressing gratitude for his fifty-plus years of public service—in particular his eight years on the Board from 1999 to 2007.