By David G. Barry
Alaska
Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) has
filled one of the biggest holes on its investment team.
The $76.3 billion sovereign wealth fund announced that Allen Waldrop
will become its new director of private equity. He succeeds Steve Moseley,
who left earlier this summer to become a managing director with Wafra Inc.
Moseley was in the role for eight years.
Waldrop joins from Grafine, where he was a managing director. Founded by
Elizabeth Weymouth, Grafine is a boutique alternative asset management firm.
Previously, he was global head of client operations, alternatives, at Mercer
Investments.
In a prepared statement, Marcus Frampton, APFC’s chief investment
officer, said, “I feel incredibly fortunate to be in a position to work with
Allen in the next phase of APFC’s private equity program. I expect that all
Alaskans will benefit tremendously from the experience and judgment he brings
to the fund.”
Currently, APFC has $15.5 billion, or nearly 20% of the Total Permanent Fund,
allocated to private equity. During his time running the program, Moseley was
credited with expanding the portfolio to include more direct investing and
co-investments.
As of May 31, APFC’s private equity program had generated a return of 25.76%
over the past year and 28.58% over the past five years.
Head of private equity is one of eight positions on the investment side that
APFC has been seeking to fill. All told, the fund had 19 positions to fill as
of late September. In an effort to lower those numbers, APFC received approval
from its board to submit a request to the legislature to increase its
operations allocation from $22.6 million to $25.7 million. Of the more than $3
million increase, $2.4 million would go towards a 6% merit increase and $1.1
million for expanded incentive compensation.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, APFC posted a negative 1.32% return, which
underperformed
its total return benchmark objective of Consumer Price Index
(CPI) +5%.
Waldrop’s appointment comes on the heels of acting state Revenue Commissioner Deven
Mitchell being chosen as APFC’s new chief executive officer.