As investment officer for the absolute return portfolio at $133 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, Robert Mazurek has been instrumental in rebuilding the fund’s $4 billion hedge fund book over the past four and a half years. Alongside senior investment officer Peter Carey, he helped transform New York Common’s hedge fund portfolio from one that relied largely on fund-of-funds managers to one that focuses on direct hedge fund investing, with an emphasis on due diligence and avoiding conflicts of interest. Mazurek, 39, began his career as an associate at accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand and later worked as a structured credit analyst for a monoline insurance company before being tapped by New York Common in 2006.

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