Highmark Pension Plan

Highmark Pension Plan

Highmark Pension Plan operates as the captive retirement fund for employees of Highmark Health, the Pittsburgh-based integrated delivery and insurance system. The plan is managed by a small internal treasury team led by Kevin Marpoe, Director of Investment Management - Treasury Services, within a parent organization that ranks as the fifth largest Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated entity in the country. Allocation spans public equities, fixed income, and private market exposures, though specific commitments remain undisclosed. The plan's investment function draws on Highmark Health's broader financial resources, which include direct holdings in commercial real estate such as Fifth Avenue Place in downtown Pittsburgh and AHN Strategic Real Estate Projects across Western Pennsylvania. The parent's operational presence across Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, and New York gives the pension team a regional economic lens that shapes its manager selection and risk posture. Kevin Marpoe oversees treasury and pension investment management, while Highmark Health's leadership includes David Holmberg as President and CEO and Karen Hanlon as President and COO — who also serves on the board of Federated Hermes, a $750B+ Pittsburgh-based asset manager. The pension plan does not operate separate offices; investment functions run from the Highmark Health headquarters in Pittsburgh. Unlike state or municipal plans subject to public records and board politics, Highmark's pension trust sits inside a private nonprofit health insurer — an architecture that gives the investment team latitude to operate with less disclosure and fewer political constraints than its public peers. This corporate-inside-a-nonprofit structure differentiates the plan's governance profile from both Taft-Hartley and public fund comparables.