ILPA welcomes new LP directors

The Institutional Limited Partners Association has elected some new directors to its governing board, including Raquel Chmielewski of the Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company and Richard Hall of the Teachers Retirement System of Texas.

ILPA members voted on the directors at the industry trade organisation’s annual meeting in October. ILPA’s membership votes on directors every year to rotating two-year terms.

This year, four new directors were elected: Chmielewski, a member of the private markets team at Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company; Mark Fehrs Haukohl, president of family office The Vero Group; Richard Hall, senior director of private markets at the Teachers Retirement System of Texas; Brad Woolworth, head of private markets and real assets for the Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement, and Jennifer Kerr, a senior principal at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The new directors will serve on at least one committee, based on their skills and interests, and help shape the focus for the organisation for the next year. Kerr, for example, has already assumed the role of chairperson of the education committee.

“We meet at least four times a year to discuss how ILPA can help strengthen the asset class … from an LP perspective,” said Kathy Jeramaz-Larson, the organisation's executive director. “I have a very busy set of directors.”

Potential ILPA board members can be self-nominated or recommended by a peer, according to Jeramaz-Larson. The candidates go through a review with an independent nominating committee, which includes no board members. The candidates are then interviewed and eventually the nominating committee recommends candidates, she said.

The board presents the nominees to the full membership, which votes on new members, she said.

Directors receive no compensation, and generally those who volunteer are interested in specific aspects of the industry on which ILPA focuses, Jeramaz-Larson said.

ILPA tries to get a mix of LP representation on the board to include individuals from various geographies and private and public pensions, foundations, endowments, family offices and other types of organisations.

“We want to be a group to represent all institutional investors globally, in order to do that we have to have members from all groups,” she said.

General discussions at ILPA’s annual meeting this year included the return potential of the emerging markets and a lot of focus about best practices, especially ways to keep improving communications between LPs and GPs, Jeramaz-Larson said.

“How do GPs and LPs increase their communication … the last couple years there’s been very positive momentum in that direction, and how do we keep it [going]?” she said.

Returning directors include Tim Recker, of the University of California Regents, who is chairman of the board; Jim Pittman, of PSP Investments, who is vice chairman; Vanessa Indriolo, of Fifth Third Bankcorp; Mike Mazzola, of MetLife; Jesus Arguelles, of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System; Anja Eriksson of SAMPENSION; Lindel Eakman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company; Robert Van Schaik of Shell Asset Management Company and Jeremy Kranz, of GIC  Special Investment.