Maryland State Pension CIO Andrew Palmer Announces Retirement

Palmer, CIO of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System since 2015, expects to step down this summer.

Andrew Palmer, CIO of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, which manages $68 billion in assets, announced at a SRPS board of trustees meeting on Tuesday that he will retire. Palmer, named CIO in July 2015, is tentatively expected to step down on June 30 while the board searches for a replacement.  

Palmer, the winner of a 2022 CIO Industry Innovation Award in the public defined benefit, >$20 billion to $100 billion category, emphasized at the time the importance of building trust among all stakeholders.  

“One of the keys to success is to have a high degree of trust between all the stakeholders involved in managing a pension system,” Palmer told CIO in 2023. “We’re really just trying to build something that’s effective and long-lasting and that can be impactful.”  

The SPRS managed $45.8 billion in assets as of June 30, 2015. Palmer oversaw an expansion of SRPS staff, which doubled by 2023, including the hiring of more than a dozen staff members during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Want the latest institutional investment industry
news and insights? Sign up for CIO newsletters.

Palmer was previously deputy CIO of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System, a position he held from 2008 to 2015. He was also previously director of fixed income at the TCRS and was director of fixed-income investments at ASB Capital Management. 

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics and a masters of arts degree in economics from the University of Maryland. 

The Maryland SPRS manages the retirement and pension benefits of 168,000 retirees, as well as the future benefits of 245,000 active and former members. Beneficiaries of the fund are Maryland public employees, including teachers, state employees, law enforcement, legislators, fire fighters and other public employees.  

In August, the fund named Thomas Kim as deputy CIO.  

Related Stories: 

Maryland Retirement Agency Hires Deputy CIO 

Maryland State Retirement Agency Is Adding COO 

2022 IIAW-Andrew Palmer 

Tags: , , ,

«