Risk-based Investing at New Mexico PERA

Dominic Garcia serves as Chief Investment Officer for the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA), a $16 billion pension system that serves over 90,000 members and provides over $1.2 billion in annual benefits. Dominic is a native of New Mexico, began his allocator career at New Mexico PERA and returned to re-join the system in 2017 as CIO after nearly a decade at SWIB, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Our conversation covers Dominic’s path to the helm at PERA, challenges of governance and compensation in public pensions, addressing underfunding with variable liabilities, and his risk-based investment approach that includes the separation of alpha and beta, overlays, and the selection of alpha managers across public equities, hedge funds, and private markets.  Dominic has three times been named in the 40 under 40 by industry publications, and you’ll soon hear why.