Institutional investment experts appointed to State Investment Board

BISMARCK, ND – Gov. Doug Burgum has appointed Peter Jahner of Bismarck and Prodosh Simlai of Grand Forks as institutional investment representatives on the North Dakota State Investment Board (SIB).

Jahner, who will serve a three-year term, is the Kirkwood Bank & Trust president, North Dakota Bankers Association board chair, and a North Dakota State Banking Board member. He received a master’s in business administration from the University of North Dakota and a certificate from the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado.

Simlai, who will serve a five-year term, is the economics and finance department chair in the Nistler College of Business and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota. Simlai received his master’s in finance and his doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Simlai is also a member of the SIB’s investment committee.

“The State Investment Board members are the fiduciaries who steer the Retirement and Investment Office towards a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical and legal governance, and financial management policies, as well as making sure the agency has adequate resources to advance its mission,” Retirement and Investment Office (RIO) Executive Director Jan Murtha said.

Passed during the recent legislative session, House Bill 1088 changed SIB’s makeup. In addition to adding institutional investment experts, the legislation replaced the insurance commissioner with the office of management and budget director, reduced the number of Teachers’ Fund for Retirement (TFFR) and Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) board representatives, allowed for the appointment of non-elected PERS board representation, and increased the number of state legislators on the board and made them voting members. Other SIB members include the lieutenant governor who serves as chair, the state treasurer, university and school lands commissioner, and workforce safety and insurance director.

“The new board structure reflects not only the growth of the State Investment Board’s assets under management, it also reflects the evolving complexity of North Dakota’s investment program and the need for fiduciaries with a specific type of industry experience,” Murtha said. In 2010, SIB’s assets under management were about $4 billion. As of June 30, the market value of the investments was more than $19 billion.

In addition to being the oversight board for RIO, the SIB is responsible for the administration of North Dakota’s Legacy Fund, and investment for the PERS and TFFR programs. The board also has contractual investment management relationships with multiple political subdivisions.