# Newburyport Retirement Board

Newburyport Retirement Board is a Pension Fund based in Newburyport, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Pension Fund
- **Headquarters:** Newburyport, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** 16 Unicorn Street, Newburyport, MA 01950, United States
- **Assets under management:** $130M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** newburyportretirement.org
- **LinkedIn:** http://newburyportretirement.org/

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

The Newburyport Retirement Board is a contributory retirement system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, providing pension benefits, deferred allowances, and death and disability coverage to employees of the City of Newburyport, the Newburyport Housing Authority, and select school department positions. Jeffrey Cutter serves as chairman, with John Moak as vice chairman and Elena Kothman as executive director. The board is sponsored by the City of Newburyport, which provides annual appropriations. The fund’s investment posture departs from a plain-vanilla municipal allocation through its commitment to a global timberland portfolio. The board operates within the Massachusetts contributory retirement system framework, and key decision-makers participate in the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems (MACRS), a professional network that facilitates peer exchange on manager selection and governance. The board’s small professional footprint is characteristic of local municipal systems: five board members and an executive director oversee operations from an office at 16 Unicorn Street in Newburyport. Board members bring operational backgrounds — John Moak is a retired town administrator and Joseph Spaulding is a firefighter — rather than institutional asset-management careers. This composition places a premium on the board’s external relationships and the guidance it accesses through MACRS, where Chairman Cutter holds an executive board seat. Structurally, the Newburyport Retirement Board is distinct from a typical corporate pension committee because its liability stream is tied to a single municipality’s workforce rather than a diversified corporate balance sheet. Its governance model — an elected and appointed board overseeing a small, dedicated staff — makes the fund more responsive to local fiscal conditions than a pooled state vehicle. The timberland allocation, while modest in absolute dollars, introduces a long-duration, inflation-responsive asset that few funds of similar size pursue directly.

## Sectors

- Timberland

## People

- Jeffrey Cutter — Chairperson
- John Moak — Vice Chairman
- Elena Kothman — Executive Director
- Joseph Spaulding — Board Member
- Amy Sarro — Board Member
- Larry Giunta — Board Member

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at the Newburyport Retirement Board?

The five-member board — chaired by Jeffrey Cutter, with John Moak as vice chairman — oversees investment decisions, supported by Executive Director Elena Kothman. Board members are drawn from municipal and public-safety roles rather than institutional finance, which means the board relies heavily on its professional network and external guidance through the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems, where Cutter also serves on the executive board.

### How is the Newburyport Retirement Board governed?

The board operates as a contributory retirement system under Massachusetts state law, sponsored by the City of Newburyport. A five-member board sets policy and investment direction, with an executive director managing day-to-day operations from the office at 16 Unicorn Street. Board composition mixes elected and appointed members, with the city providing annual appropriations to help fund benefits.

### How does the board engage with other Massachusetts public pension systems?

The board participates actively in the Massachusetts Association of Contributory Retirement Systems (MACRS), the commonwealth’s professional network for local pension funds. Chairman Jeffrey Cutter holds an MACRS executive board seat, giving the Newburyport system a direct line to peer benchmarking, manager due-diligence practices, and governance standards shared across similar-sized municipal plans.

## Related profiles

- [Juniata College Endowment](https://altss.com/profile/juniata-college-endowment)
- [Raikes Foundation](https://altss.com/profile/raikes-foundation)

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/newburyport-retirement-board

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