Last week, Institutional Investor announced finalists in five categories of our annual Allocators’ Choice Awards. Now it's time to learn who is in the running for Corporate Pension Plan CIO of the Year, Allocator Team of the Year, Asset Manager/Allocator Partnership of the Year, and Leadership and Vision.
Corporate Pension Plan CIO of the Year
Brian Andersen, CIO at Constellation, for successfully spinning out a $30 billion investment office from Exelon during a bear market and the Great Resignation, then quickly improving funded status to 93.5 percent. When he was Exelon’s v.p. of investment strategy, Andersen helped plan the split before the separation in 2022. He then hired eight new team members and worked to ensure team cohesion between those in the Chicago office and those working remotely. Andersen — a finalist for Rookie Fund of the Year at II’s 6th Annual ACAs in 2023 — also aggressively de-risked, holding cash and opportunistically adding fixed income.
Jessica Hart, CIO at Exelon, for running a complex portfolio with a lean team of future industry rising stars. Hart, who was previously at Northern Trust Asset Management before joining the Chicago-based energy company’s investment office in 2022 (first as deputy CIO then as CIO in 2024), has long been known in the industry as a savvy investor and thoughtful mentor who rewards initiative. And with Exelon’s $11 billion portfolio (which has a third of its assets in alternatives like PE and hedge funds) generating strong returns, Hart shows how it can pay to stay in-house as a corporate allocator.
Simon Lai, CIO of the John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust, the pension plan of the employee-owned British department store chain, for leading a rare re-risking of a pension fund. After pensions were forced to sell government bonds to free up cash during the gilt meltdown in 2022, most derisked, including by buying annuities from insurers.
Lai, who was deputy CIO of the trust before stepping into his current role, is now talking to managers and gathering ideas to determine next steps. As a nominator said, the CIO, who deliberately maintains a low profile, “flourishes on getting a lot of input and ideas from other places,” to feed back to the investment committee and inform his decisions. It’s a story worth telling as other pensions look for growth and a way forward after the debacle.
Hunter Reisner, CIO at the YMCA Retirement Fund, for rebuilding the portfolio and hiring an exceptional team to run it more like an endowment than a typical corporate pension. Reisner has been the fund’s investment chief since 2010. In his more than 40 years in the investment business, he has led several investment teams and organizations. Previously, Reisner founded Citigroup Private Equity — formerly Travelers Investment Group Alternative Investments — which grew to manage over $10 billion in assets. Many consider Reisner to be “one of the best, but least-celebrated CIOs out there,” delivering strong long-term results.
Elizabeth Tulach, CIO at The Boeing Company, for rapidly growing one of the largest corporate pension plans in the U.S. As CIO of Boeing, Tulach oversees one of the largest corporate pension plans, with roughly $125 billion in DB and DC assets. When she took over as CIO in 2021, the pension was facing serious debt, cash, and contribution issues. So, she and her team developed a plan to generate enough liquidity to make its pension payments and turned the struggling plan around. Now, the pension is one of the best funded. Investors with whom II spoke hold the winner of II’s Next CIO competition in 2018 in high regard, admiring Tulach's independent thinking and intellectual curiosity.
Asset Manager/Allocator Partnership of the Year
AllianceBernstein, Brookfield Asset Management, and Carlyle, for testing a new model to bring private markets to corporate retirement plan sponsors. Their joint platform combines asset allocation, private market investing, and operational infrastructure into a single solution designed to sit alongside sponsors’ qualified default investment alternatives, such as target-date funds. The approach comes as debate continues over whether private markets belong in retirement plans at all. By using a multi-manager framework that adjusts over time, the firms are attempting to address concerns around liquidity, complexity, and suitability — offering a potential path for introducing private assets more carefully to retirement savers.
California State Teachers’ Retirement System and ABS Global Investments, for their partnership to source emerging markets equities. A year after CalSTRS began investing in ABS Global’s emerging markets strategy, the relationship has expanded whereby ABS functions as a specialist extension of CalSTRS’ investment capabilities. The result is a relationship that reflects a level of integration typically reserved for internal teams rather than external managers.
MassMutual and Barings, for bringing in a partner that adds both capital and assets to support growth. By selling an 18 percent stake in Barings to MS&AD Insurance Group through its Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance arm, MassMutual aligned the firm with another large insurer that can both allocate assets and provide capital to expand the business. The deal reflects the reality that many asset managers don’t have the scale to keep growing and need capital to seed funds, make acquisitions, and access resources to compete in a business where fees keep getting squeezed.
University of Florida Investment Corp. and AQR Capital Management, for creating a partnership that goes beyond portfolio construction. In selecting the Cliff Asness-run investment firm to create a custom portfolio for the University of Florida, the endowment is getting a trusted partner to provide thought leadership as well as customized solutions. UFICO chief Mark Baumgartner has high confidence in this portfolio and partnership, explaining that he has enormous respect for AQR’s approach and long-term perspective. “Cliff Asness never pulls any punches," Baumgartner says. "You may not agree with him, but he speaks truth.”
Zenzic Capital and GCM Grosvenor, for combining institutional capital with niche expertise to target underserved segments of Europe’s real estate credit market while also boosting emerging managers. As anchor investor to Zenzic’s real estate credit opportunities fund, GCM Grosvenor has deployed capital from large U.S. pensions to the lower middle market European real estate credit market. In addition to providing capital, GCM Grosvenor is also advising Zenzic on how to scale its institutional business. By pairing Zenzic’s origination expertise, structuring capability, and local execution with GCM Grosvenor’s experience building enduring platforms, both organizations and their clients stand to benefit.
Award for Leadership and Vision of the Year
Steven Gilmore, CIO of CalPERS, for leading the largest public state plan in the country to adopt the total portfolio approach, a method of portfolio management reserved typically for large sovereign wealth funds. Since Gilmore recommended CalPERS adopt TPA, it’s become the topic of conversation across the industry. Gilmore even admitted he wasn’t trying to reshape the industry. But intentional or not, the former New Zealand Superannuation Fund CIO has led the entire allocator industry to rethink portfolio management.
Hazman Hilmi Sallahuddin, CEO and CIO of KWAP, the Malaysian government’s pension fund for civil servants, for redefining the role of a public pension fund in a changing market environment. Under his leadership, KWAP has shifted toward a more active, private-markets-focused model, delivering a record 9.3 percent return in 2024 while tripling private markets exposure as part of a broader strategic overhaul.
More importantly, Hazman has focused on building the capabilities and market structures to support that shift — partnering with global managers, developing local investment talent, and expanding into areas such as climate and early-stage investing. His approach reflects a broader vision of how a public pension fund can combine investment performance with long-term market development, positioning KWAP as a more influential participant in both regional and global capital markets.
Doug Hanly, founder of Next CIO Institute and CIO of Louisiana State Police Retirement System, for investing in people and the industry by expanding access to careers in institutional investment. What stands out most to colleagues about Hanly is how many people are entering the allocator industry because he invested his time in them. Hanly, CIO at Louisiana State Police, founded the Next CIO Institute, which mentors investors into becoming investment chiefs. Hanly also teaches hedge fund investment at LSU. As one allocator says, Hanly “invests his time in people, builds confidence in students, and creates opportunities that open doors into institutional investing.”
Milla Tonkonogy, CIO for General Insurance North America at AIG, for guiding one of the industry’s largest insurance portfolios through a period of significant change. As AIG has reshaped its business and balance sheet, Tonkonogy has had to rethink how capital is allocated across a complex mix of public and private assets, balancing the need for yield with the constraints of a large, liability-driven insurer. Her approach reflects a more forward-looking view of how insurance portfolios can evolve — widening the opportunity set while maintaining discipline around risk and liquidity in a more uncertain market.
Karyn Williams, regional CIO for North America at Zurich Global Investment Management, for helping reshape how insurers approach portfolio construction. Overseeing assets across multiple general and life insurance balance sheets, Williams has long advocated for risk-factor-based frameworks that look beyond traditional asset classes to the underlying drivers of risk and return. More recently, she has focused on integrating artificial intelligence into the insurer’s research and investment processes, Williams' work reflects the broader shift toward more systematic approaches — and highlights how AI, and its responsible use, can shape the future of insurance asset management.
Allocator Team of the Year
Leslie Lenzo and the investment team at Hershey Trust Company, for galvanizing her team and reshaping the investment organization to be more focused, specialized, and aligned around long-term decision-making. Under Lenzo’s leadership, the team has been restructured to separate investment operations from core investment roles, allowing professionals to concentrate on sourcing and strategy. Alongside these changes, Lenzo has prioritized internal development and team cohesion, creating clearer career pathways and a more collaborative culture. The result is a stronger, more durable investment platform where team structure and portfolio strategy reinforce one another.
Nancy Orr and the Mott Foundation investment team, for managing a complex leadership transition while reshaping culture and rebuilding a stock and private equity portfolio. Since stepping into the CIO role in late 2023, Orr has managed through significant turnover at the senior level, recruited new leadership, and worked to integrate a team of managing directors across public and private markets. At the same time, the group has rebuilt key parts of the portfolio and shifted from a siloed structure to a collaborative model. The result is a clear example of how CIO transitions can be managed without disrupting investment decisions.
Carlos Rangel and the team at W.K. Kellogg Foundation, for developing a more disciplined and structured approach to manager selection. Building on earlier work to broaden opportunity in the allocator ecosystem, Rangel’s team has introduced tools such as an “allocator bias scorecard” to improve consistency and reduce subjectivity in evaluating managers. Now, Rangel’s investment staff is continuing that initiative, sponsoring two foundation programs that advocate equity and diversity (Expanding Equity and Racial Equity 2030). As Kellogg’s MD Reggie Sanders said, having more diverse managers can “give you more ways to win.”
May Ng, CIO, and the investment team at The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for building a flexible and evolving investment platform that extends beyond traditional mandates. Ng, who succeeded a stalwart of the industry — CIO Brian O'Neil — in 2023, is a well-respected CIO in her own right, stepping in to lead and develop what peers and managers view as one of the “most thoughtful and innovative investment teams” out there. And, as many nominators noted, she's still early in her career and a professional “to watch.” Ng and her team, which is populated by a number of future rising stars, are focused on developing deeper relationships with managers; one example, and model, is the initial seeding of an emerging hedge fund manager program, which was later brought in-house and expanded to other asset classes.
Voting is open exclusively to institutional asset owners, including staff at retirement systems, endowments, foundations, sovereign funds, central banks, family offices, and consultants. The voting process starts now. Click on the link to make your voice heard. To read about the people up for awards at public plans, endowments/foundations, insurance companies, healthcare systems, and family offices, click here.
All winners will be announced September 17, 2026, at a gala at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. You can register here.
