The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) has named Jonathan Grabel as its chief investment officer, effective April 17.
“We are excited to welcome Mr. Grabel to the LACERA team,” LACERA CEO Gregg Rademacher said in a statement. “He brings a wealth of experience from both public pension plans and investment management firms, and we look forward to his contribution in delivering financial security for our members.”
Grabel joins LACERA from the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico, where he was responsible for investing more than $15 billion for both the defined benefit and defined contribution trusts. Before joining the New Mexico public pension system, Grabel held a similar position with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. He replaces Vache Mahseredjian, who has served as interim CIO since May 2015, when former CIO David Kushner resigned.
LACERA administers defined benefit pension plan and retiree health care programs for the County of Los Angeles and participating employers. It has approximately $50 billion in assets and serves 95,000 working members and 62,000 benefit recipients.
Grabel’s private sector experience includes working with New York-based private equity firm Baker Capital and Nomura Securities International as well as Arthur Andersen’s tax advisory service.
Jude Perez, who had been deputy CIO under Grabel at New Mexico PERA, has been designated as Grabel’s interim replacement. Perez was named to CIO magazine’s “40 Under 40 list” in 2016.Tags: Baker Capital, David Kushner, Jonathan Grabel, Jude Perez, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA), Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, Nomura Securities International, Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico, Vache Mahseredjian