2011 U.S. Investment Management Award Winner for Small Public Pension Fund

H. Craig Slaughter
Executive Director, West Virginia Investment Management Board
Award: Small Public Fund

In February 1998 the state pension fund of West Virginia bought its first stock. As executive director of the West Virginia Investment ­Management Board, H. Craig Slaughter was there. A history major at Cornell University, ­Slaughter was in his third year as a corporate lawyer in West Virginia when in 1989, at the age of 32, he was tapped by the incoming state treasurer to help staff what was then the West Virginia Board of Investments. The previous treasurer had resigned amid scandal, and the new treasurer and Slaughter had to clean house and begin the long process of enabling West Virginia to invest in the stock market — then illegal under the state constitution.

Almost a decade later, West Virginia became the last state to allow its pension fund to buy equities. In 2005 the legislature passed a law to allow investing in hedge funds, private equity and real estate. Today the West Virginia Investment Management Board, which manages a $9.8 billion pension fund as well as more than $2 billion in other state assets, stands as a model for modern pension portfolio management — with the results to show for it. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, the board returned 16 percent, and the long-term numbers are even ­better. 

Click here to access the profile index for the 2011 U.S. Investment Management Award Winners. Read the feature story, Best of the Best Money Managers.