North Dakota State Investment Board Names Scott Anderson CIO

Scott Anderson

The North Dakota State Investment Board has named Scott Anderson as the new chief investment officer at the $20 billion North Dakota Retirement & Investment Office (RIO), which coordinates the activities of the State Investment Board and the Teachers’ Fund for Retirement. Anderson, who is scheduled to begin his new role this week, replaces former CIO David Hunter, who left in June to join a private investment firm in Alabama.

Anderson joins North Dakota RIO after his second stint with private mutual company American Family Insurance, where he was managing director of corporate development/mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for the past two years. Prior to American Family, he spent nearly five years at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), where he was managing director of asset and risk allocation. Before moving to SWIB, Anderson was director of performance and risk, investments, at American Family for nearly 10 years. And before that he spent seven years as a senior manager at Deloitte.

“Mr. Anderson brings a wealth of private and public sector investment experience to the RIO team,” RIO Executive Director Jan Murtha said in a statement. “With his prior experience at SWIB, a state investment program managing more than $150 billion in assets, he has the expertise to help build our ND investment program into the next level.”

Anderson earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Eric Chin, who has been RIO’s interim CIO since August, returns to his role of deputy CIO.

The State Investment Board said it chose Anderson at its Dec. 15 meeting. It was the second major hire for the retirement system in less than a month after it named Murtha as its new executive director in late November. Murtha had been serving as interim executive director since Hunter, who held both executive director and CIO roles, left in June.