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VRS Board Appoints New IAC Chair and Member
Richmond, VA February 20, 2009 - The Virginia Retirement System (VRS) Board of Trustees appointed Rod Smyth, founding partner and chief investment strategist with the Riverfront Investment Group, to serve a two-year term as the new chairperson of the Investment Advisory Committee. Smyth, a member of the IAC since 2005, succeeds Joe Grills who will remain a member of the IAC.
Smyth has more than 25 years of global investment experience. He has lived in and worked in the securities industry in Asia, Europe and North America. Trained in Japan by Nomura Securities in 1983, he worked as an Asian specialist for Citicorp on Wall Street from 1985 to 1988. He then returned home to Ireland to work for six years as a portfolio manager. In 1995, Smyth moved to Richmond to work for Wachovia Securities and its predecessor firms in various key investment roles. He and three colleagues started the Riverfront Investment Group in 2008.
In other action, the VRS board named Thomas S. Gayner as an IAC member to succeed Stuart A. Sachs, retired president of Sovran Capital Management whose term has ended. Gayner, currently executive vice president with Markel Corporation, brings more than 20 years of investment experience to the committee. He manages an $8 billion investment portfolio and is responsible for institutional investor relations and capital management at Markel Corporation. Previously, he held positions with Davenport and Company of Virginia and Price Waterhouse Coopers.
"The board looks forward to working with Rod and Tom and to receiving their input and prudent advice on the management of VRS investments," said VRS Board Chairperson A. Marshall Acuff, Jr.
