New Jersey Division of Investment Hires Head of Private Equity

The New Jersey Department of the Treasury’s Division of Investment has named Dana Johns as its head of private equity, effective immediately.

Johns joins New Jersey’s investment division, which manages the retirement plans for more than 800,000 members in seven pension systems, from the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, where she spent almost 12 years and was most recently a senior portfolio manager overseeing private equity partnership investments.

“We are very happy to welcome Dana as our new head of private equity,” Shoaib Khan, CIO and director of the investment division, said in a release. “Her demonstrated success in managing institutional investments in the private market will help us further our fiduciary duty to the pension members we serve.”

Prior to joining MSRPS in 2011, Johns spent nearly 10 years at private equity firm Camden Partners, where she was an investment associate.

Johns is also board chair of the Private Equity Women Investor Network and a member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council, Academy for Institutional Investors Editorial Committee, AIF Women’s Leadership Steering Committee and the SEO Alternative Investments Limited Partner Advisory Council.

She earned a B.A. in comparative literature from Indiana University Bloomington and a B.S. in computer info systems from Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland. She also graduated from Loyola University Maryland with a master’s degree in finance earned while working at Camden Partners.

According to the Private Equity Women Investor Network, Johns has a “highly developed personal network with established top performing private equity fund managers and next generation managers” and “has a demonstrated long-term track record for selecting and managing a strong performing private equity portfolio.”