New Mexico to hire real assets investment officer

The state’s $15bn oil and gas endowment has established a 10% real return allocation, which could include investments in timber and infrastructure, and has begun to look for an investment officer to direct the real return group.

The New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC), which manages the state's $15 billion oil and gas endowment, is seeking an investment officer and an analyst for a newly-created real return allocation, according to a job posting on its website.

SIC is seeking a director for the Real Return Group, who will be a member of the investment committee and will implement the real return portfolio strategy. SIC approved a 10 percent real return allocation at a July 26 meeting, contingent on finding the appropriate staff to make investment decisions, a spokesperson for SIC said.
 
The director will be responsible for “monitoring the universe of institutional quality managers” in areas including real assets – which encompass timber, energy, agriculture and infrastructure investments – inflation-linked securities, hedge fund strategies and real estate investments.

Whilst the real return allocation includes infrastructure investments, SIC does not have a specific percentage allotted to the infrastructure subset.