Thinking Differently with Pensions at Textron

Charles Van Vleet is the CIO of Textron, where he manages $10 billion in defined benefit assets and $5 billion of defined contribution assets. Charles joined Textron a decade ago after eight years at the pension fund of United Technologies and is widely respected as one of the most thoughtful and outspoken CIOs in the space.

Our conversation covers Charles’ background and turns to the objectives of corporate pension funds, Textron’s strategic asset allocation, and Charles’ creative implementation of value-added opportunities across asset classes. Along the way, he shares a host of opinions about what works and doesn’t for institutional investors.

Show Notes
5:26 Charles’ background
7:43 Japan’s impact on timing markets
11:25 Lessons on leadership and investing
13:16 Portfolio construction
14:06 Investment challenges for pension funds
17:58 Assessing asset allocation
23:17 Investing in China
24:14 Perspectives on private markets
29:30 Handling challenges with managers
31:23 Owning real estate
34:34 Thinking about duration
40:05 Selecting managers
43:13 Thinking about ESG
47:32 Sharing ideas with peers
49:30 Portfolio positioning in current environment
51:17 Closing questions