Kentucky Retirement Systems announces investment leadership changes

The $18.7 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems announced plans to replace its executive director and deputy executive director of its investment office as both executives are slated to begin work at consulting firm AndCo on October 5. Rich Robben, who is essentially chief investment officer for KRS, and his deputy Andy Kiehl will both leave at the end of the month, according to a press release announcing the search for their replacements. In joining AndCo, they will focus on helping to grow and serve the public pension plan business from Louisville. AndCo senior management said the hires are consistent with AndCo’s vision statement “To be a transformational organization viewed as the leader in our industry.” According to the firm, the addition of the two practitioners who have managed and allocated assets from a client’s perspective in the large public plan space will bring a wealth of practical experience and further enhance AndCo's ability to add tangible value for clients. For KRS, the changes come as the pension system reported a fiscal year annual return just above 1%. Robben was named executive director of the office of investments in 2019 after serving as interim executive director for roughly two years. He oversaw the fixed-income, equity and alternative asset divisions and served as the primary advisor to the KRS investment committee. In the meantime, staff in the office of investments will take over those duties as the search continues for his replacement. Kiehl’s duties of leading the real estate and real return asset classes will also be taken up by existing staff. Kiehl joined KRS in 2015 from Deutsche Asset Management in Louisville, where he was a director of global fixed income. The investment system reported a gain of 3.41% for the 12 months ending July 30, which was slightly above the systems’ benchmark that was up 3.16% over the same time period. According to the July investment report for the system, relative underperformance was driven primarily by weaker performance in specialty credit, core fixed income, absolute return portfolios and U.S. equity portfolios. “Fortunately, the KRS Investment Committee and staff recently implemented a new investment structure that best meets our plans’ liquidity and risk protection needs, all while focusing on producing excellent risk-adjusted returns,” said David L. Harris, chairman of the KRS Board of Trustees. “With that project behind us, I can assure all of our constituents that our funds will continue to have experienced staff and Investment Committee leadership actively overseeing them while we begin a search for Mr. Robben’s and Mr. Kiehl’s replacements.” The KRS Office of Investment team includes Anthony Chiu, who manages private equity and alternative investments. He joined the system in 2016 from The Presidio Group and at the retirement system is responsible for the selection, evaluation and ongoing monitoring of external investment managers with a main focus on private equity and alternatives. Others on the team are Joe Gilbert, who oversees and evaluates all domestic and international equity investments, and Steve Willer, who handles fixed-income investments.

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