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Chicago Park Employees' Annuity & Benefit Fund
Steve Swanson runs a $400M+ defined-benefit plan for Chicago Park District employees, targeting real estate, infrastructure, and opportunistic credit.
Chicago Park Employees' Annuity & Benefit Fund
The Illinois Legislature created the Park Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund in 1919, effective July 1 of that year, to cover employees of Chicago’s three major park systems. The 1934 statutory consolidation that formed the Chicago Park District unified the workforce under a single defined-benefit plan. Today a seven-member Board of Trustees, led by President Edward L. Affolter, governs the fund alongside Executive Director Steve Swanson — the day-to-day investment lead. PEABF pursues a multi-asset-class strategy anchored by substantial real-asset exposure. Real estate holdings span core vehicles like the UBS Trumbull Property Fund, UBS Trumbull Income Fund, and the Principal Enhanced Property Fund, alongside a Fidelity Real Estate Index Fund sleeve. Infrastructure commitments reach globally through relationships with IFM Global Infrastructure and Cohen & Steers Global Infrastructure Fund, and domestically via the Ullico Infrastructure Fund. On the private-credit and opportunistic side, the fund allocates to RMS-managed hedge funds and has historically participated in buyout, co-investment, distressed-debt, and special-situations strategies. The fund operates from a single office at 3500 S. Morgan Street in Chicago. Its governance connects to the broader Illinois public-pension ecosystem through memberships in the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association (IPPFA). The board includes Vice President Matthew Duggan, Secretary Frank C. Hodorowicz, Comptroller Jaime L. McCabe, and trustees Brian Biggane, Cynthia Evangelisti, Joan Coogan, and Jeffrey Shellhorn. PEABF’s architecture as a single-employer, municipality-tied plan for park workers creates a liability profile distinct from the state’s large-scale general employee or teacher retirement systems. The concentration in real assets and infrastructure mirrors a pension-fund orthodoxy that matches long-duration obligations with tangible, income-producing investments — a structural posture that prioritizes cash-flow visibility over return-chasing.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
1919
AUM
$400M – $500M (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Chicago
Corporate office
3500 S. Morgan St. Suite 400, Chicago, IL 60609, United States
Principals
Edward L. Affolter
President of the Board of Trustees
Matthew Duggan
Vice President of the Board of Trustees
Frank C. Hodorowicz
Secretary of the Board of Trustees
Steve Swanson
Executive Director
Altss tracks 5 additional named team members for this firm — including direct investment leads, IR, and operating principals not listed on the public website.
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Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at the Chicago Park Employees' Annuity & Benefit Fund?
The day-to-day investment operations are led by Executive Director Steve Swanson, with oversight from a seven-member Board of Trustees. President Edward L. Affolter heads the board. The fund does not publicly list a dedicated Chief Investment Officer, suggesting Swanson and the board collaborate directly on portfolio allocations.
How does the fund's real-estate-heavy allocation serve its beneficiaries?
The defined-benefit plan owes long-dated pension checks to retired park district employees. Core and core-plus real estate funds like the UBS Trumbull Property Fund and infrastructure vehicles like IFM Global Infrastructure deliver stable, often inflation-linked income streams that align with those predictable liability outflows.
Is the Chicago Park Employees' fund part of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund?
No. PEABF is a standalone, single-employer plan created by state statute specifically for Chicago Park District employees. It operates independently from IMRF and the Chicago city workers' pension funds, though it participates in state-level industry groups like the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association (IPPFA).
What investment stages or structures does the fund prefer?
Based on disclosed holdings, PEABF favors fund commitments over direct operating-company stakes. Its exposure comes via commingled real estate funds, global infrastructure funds, and fund-of-hedge-funds structures. The fund has tagged co-investment, buyout, and distressed debt as strategy interests, indicating it will participate in select direct opportunities alongside GPs.
Does the fund maintain any external club or network affiliations to source deals?
PEABF participates in public-pension networks including the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and IPPFA. These serve more as governance and trustee-education platforms than proprietary deal-sourcing clubs. There is no evidence of membership in invitation-only private investor networks.
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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