Baltimore, MD (October 5, 2020) — R. Dean Kenderdine, Executive Director of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (SRPS), has notified the Board of Trustees that he will retire from his position, held since 2007, on June 30, 2021. The SRPS administers retirement, disability, and death benefits on behalf of more than 408,000 active, vested, and retired State employees, teachers, State Police, correctional and law enforcement officers, judges and legislators. The fund has more than $58 billion in assets under management for the benefit of its members.

“It has been my great privilege to serve the people of Maryland for more than 40 years, and I have had the honor of doing so alongside so many outstanding, dedicated, and talented women and men who have devoted their careers to the service of our state’s citizens,” said Kenderdine. “To have spent the last 14 years of my time working to ensure the retirement security of those same public servants in state and local government is the most rewarding culmination of my career I could have imagined. I am so very grateful to all who have served the State Retirement System and supported me – the outstanding members of the System’s Board of Trustees, who have governed the System with great skill and fidelity, and the extraordinary employees of the State Retirement Agency who have consistently worked to ensure our mission.”

Kenderdine will leave SRPS a legacy of progress and modernization. Soon after taking the reins, he successfully managed the Agency during the turbulent Great Recession and was influential in helping the Legislature enact pension reforms in 2011 that put the System on the road to improving its funding ratio for the long term. Kenderdine shepherded the Agency’s migration from its antiquated Legacy Pension System to the state-of-the-art Maryland Pension Administration System (MPAS) that now includes a member portal, called mySRPS, through which members can access their accounts and conduct business online.

Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, Chair of the System’s Board of Trustees, stated, “Dean will truly be missed; certainly by the Trustees he has helped inform and the staff he has led, but also by the employees and retirees he has served these past fourteen years. Whether or not employees and retirees have had the opportunity to cross paths with Dean and experience his commitment firsthand, he has worked diligently every day to help to secure their retirement benefits; the Board will certainly be challenged to find an equivalent successor. We wish Dean all the best in his well-deserved retirement.”

Kenderdine has dedicated his entire career to public service. Prior to SRPS, he served as Chief of Staff for the Comptroller of Maryland; Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Film and the Arts for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development; District Director and State Director for United States Senator Barbara A. Mikulski; and Program Director for the Maryland Department of Human Resources.

While serving as the Executive Director of SRPS, Kenderdine has been an active member of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA)—serving more than six years on the Executive Committee—and the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR). He also serves on the board of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

The Board, which appoints the Executive Director, is expected to begin the process of searching for a replacement in time for Kenderdine’s retirement.