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Alaska Retirement Management Board
The Alaska Retirement Management Board was established in 2005 to oversee the investment and actuarial management of the state's public employee retirement...
Alaska Retirement Management Board
The Alaska Retirement Management Board was established in 2005 to oversee the investment and actuarial management of the state's public employee retirement systems, consolidating oversight that had previously been fragmented across multiple boards. The fund serves as the investment vehicle for pension and healthcare trusts covering teachers, public employees, and safety officers. Chair Bob Williams leads a board of trustees that includes the Commissioner of Administration, Paula Vrana, and Chief Pension Officer Mindy Voigt, linking the investment program directly to the actuarial needs of the plans. Hanna's team deploys capital across a deliberately diverse set of structures: public equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and a dedicated absolute-return portfolio that includes allocations to Man Group's Alternative Risk Premia strategy and Fidelity's systematic US equity signals. The real estate sleeve is unusually granular for a public plan this size — it runs separate accounts with UBS (the Midnight Sun Portfolio) and Sentinel, alongside fund commitments to BlackRock's US Core Property Fund and JP Morgan's Strategic Property Fund. The plan also holds direct agricultural exposure through the UBS AgriVest Farmland Portfolio and timberland via Timberland Investment Resources. The board participates in the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, reflecting a governance posture that benchmarks itself against global institutional peers rather than solely domestic public plans. Total assets are estimated at $32.7 billion, deployed from a single office in Juneau — a structural feature that forces the staff to be highly dependent on external managers and consultant relationships for sourcing and due diligence. The board convened actuarial committee meetings in 2024 and 2025 addressing the funded status of the underlying plans, with Vice Chair Sandi Ryan presiding over those discussions. The fund's structural differentiator is its dual mandate: it operates not as a generic public pension but as the consolidated investment office for multiple defined-benefit and defined-contribution trusts, each with distinct liability profiles. This forces the board to run a segmentation strategy — matching a portion of assets to near-term benefit outflows while pushing the remainder into illiquid private markets and absolute-return strategies. No other state retirement system in the Pacific Northwest manages this breadth of plan types under a single board and CIO.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
2005
AUM
$32.7 billion (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Juneau
Corporate office
Juneau, AK, United States
Principals
Bob Williams
Chair
Sandi Ryan
Vice Chair and Chair of the Actuarial Committee
Zachary Hanna
Chief Investment Officer
Mindy Voigt
Chief Pension Officer
Paula Vrana
Commissioner of the Department of Administration and Board Trustee
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at the Alaska Retirement Management Board?
Chief Investment Officer Zachary Hanna leads the investment staff and executes asset allocation and manager selection under the authority of the board. The board itself is chaired by Bob Williams, with Paula Vrana representing the Department of Administration as a trustee. Investment policy and actuarial assumptions are reviewed by a dedicated committee chaired by Vice Chair Sandi Ryan.
How does the board source its investment opportunities?
With a single office in Juneau and a relatively lean staff by large-pension standards, the ARMB relies heavily on external investment consultants and manager relationships for sourcing. Its real estate portfolio, which includes separate accounts with UBS and Sentinel, reflects a preference for customized, negotiated mandates rather than purely open-fund commitments. The board's participation in the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds also provides a peer-network for idea sharing.
What is the board's approach to real assets?
The ARMB maintains one of the more unusual real asset portfolios among US public pensions. It holds direct farmland through the UBS AgriVest Farmland Portfolio, timberland via Timberland Investment Resources, and commercial property through both fund commitments — such as the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund — and separate accounts including the UBS Midnight Sun Portfolio. This mix gives it exposure to both stable income-producing property and the inflation-hedging characteristics of natural resources.
Does the board participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
The ARMB uses both. Its private equity program leans heavily on committed capital to external buyout funds, while the real estate portfolio blends fund investments with direct separate-account relationships. The absolute-return sleeve allocates to external managers such as Man Group for alternative risk premia and Fidelity for systematic equity strategies.
How is the Alaska Retirement Management Board governed?
The board was established by state statute in 2005 and includes trustees drawn from the Department of Administration, the state treasury function, and appointees with actuarial and investment expertise. It oversees not only the pension investment program but also the actuarial assumptions that determine contribution rates, giving it a broader mandate than an investment-only board. The dual pension-and-actuarial authority means funding-ratio considerations directly influence risk tolerance and asset allocation.
What types of retirement plans does the ARMB manage?
The board is responsible for the Alaska Public Employees' Retirement System and the Teachers' Retirement System, among other trusts. These include both defined-benefit and defined-contribution components, along with healthcare trusts for retirees. This multi-plan structure forces the investment team to consider distinct liquidity and duration requirements across the combined pool.
How does the board's location affect its investment operations?
Operating from Juneau places the investment staff far from most major financial centers, which has shaped a model built on remote manager due diligence, heavy consultant reliance, and strong governance documentation. The board has not established satellite offices in the Lower 48, unlike peers such as CalPERS or the Washington State Investment Board — meaning manager meetings typically occur virtually or through planned travel.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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