Mansco Perry is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Minnesota State Board of Investment. In this position, Mr. Perry is responsible for the investment management of $80 billion, much of which represents one of the nation’s 25 largest pools of public pension fund and retirement assets. As CIO, Mansco provides leadership to the State Board of Investment in strategic planning; effective execution of and compliance with investment and other policies, laws and regulations; and management of investment operations.
The Board of Investment is chaired by the Governor of Minnesota and its members include the State Auditor, Attorney General and Secretary of State. While the primary focus of Perry’s job is oversight of the assets entrusted to the Board, he must be adaptive to the needs and concerns of a wide variety of constituents and interest groups. In addition to ensuring that his board, all of him are constitutionally elected officials, is keep abreast of the organizations operations and performance, Perry works with legislators, retirees, union representatives, and must be attuned to the special interests of various members of the public. Given the value of the assets in his charge, he and his organization get plenty of attention.
Perry says that he is attracted to his job not only because of his interest in investment management, but because the results of his work have a strong impact on the lives of many people. Prior to assuming his position at Minnesota, where he had previously been a member of the staff, Perry served as the Chief Investment Officer at the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System and also at Macalester College. Most see the commonality of running a pension fund and an endowment as the focus on portfolio management. For Perry, he points to the impact that each has on the lives of people. For the two large pension funds that he has run, he points to the hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries who rely on him to ensure that they’ll have retirement income security when they depart the work force. The beneficiaries he serves are teachers, law enforcement workers, fire fighters, and other public employees who provide the many services that allow the average citizen to carry out his or her daily routine
He notes that on a smaller scale, college endowments have an enormous impact on the lives of many young adults. College endowments facilitate many students being able to attend college. In addition to being a primary source of scholarships for students of need, the spending draw from many endowments allow colleges to meet their mission by subsidizing the true cost of running an institution of higher learning. Without the assistance provided by endowments, costs would be higher, institutions would be smaller, or more importantly, many deserving students might be closed out from the opportunity to attend.
Perry has a long history of volunteerism and community service in his adopted home of Minnesota, having served on the board of trustees of Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and the board of directors of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, Catholic Charities, and several other non-profit organizations. In addition to bringing his finance and investment skills to his board responsibilities, he has been an active and engaged investment committee member of several organizations including the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System Investment Advisory Committee and the University of Baltimore Foundation. Perry believes these activities have enabled him to gain a broad perspective and appreciation of the important impact investment management has on many facets of our daily life.
Perry has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a Juris Doctor from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. He has also earned the professional designations of Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, and the Certificate of Investment Performance Measurement.
