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This ex-mechanic Marine turned finance chief oversees investment of $70 billion for Pa. teachers

Chief investment officer Benjamin Cotton is executing plans to shift PSERS away from private investments toward stocks and bonds.

Benjamin Cotton took over as chief investment officer of PSERS, the Pennsylvania school pension system, in early 2023. A Gulf War veteran, he took finance courses and met his wife at the U.S. base in Okinawa, became an auditor at Ford, and helped turn around a UAW health plan after the 2008 financial crisis. A committee of PSERS trustees picked Cotton to head the system's 63-person investment staff and implement their revised investment policy, with a larger role for public stocks and bonds, after disappointing results from their earlier focus on private equity, hedge funds and direct investments
Benjamin Cotton took over as chief investment officer of PSERS, the Pennsylvania school pension system, in early 2023. A Gulf War veteran, he took finance courses and met his wife at the U.S. base in Okinawa, became an auditor at Ford, and helped turn around a UAW health plan after the 2008 financial crisis. A committee of PSERS trustees picked Cotton to head the system's 63-person investment staff and implement their revised investment policy, with a larger role for public stocks and bonds, after disappointing results from their earlier focus on private equity, hedge funds and direct investmentsRead morePSERS