The Cook County Pension Fund has landed a new chief investment officer roughly a year after director of investments Fernando Vinzons departed from the fund.
Uwe Schillhorn, who most recently served as a program director for the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance, announced via LinkedIn on Tuesday that he had joined the fund.
The Chicago-based pension plan manages over $14 billion across two distinct retirement systems: the County Employees’ and Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County and the Forest Preserve District Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County.
As CIO, Schillhorn will be tasked with implementing Cook County’s new asset allocation policy, which includes added investments into private debt and infrastructure, two areas for which the fund previously did not have dedicated allocations.
At EMIA, Schillhorn’s work involved advocating for sustainability and good governance in emerging markets. Prior to joining the organization, where he worked for a year and a half, Schillhorn spent six years as the chief investment officer for Latin America at Principal Financial Group.
At Principal, a multi-faceted investment firm, Schillhorn managed investments for three mutual fund and wealth management businesses, three pension funds, and an insurance portfolio.
Schillhorn began his career in Germany as a portfolio analyst and trader at Deutsche Postbank. He then covered Latin America as a portfolio manager at Swiss Bank before joining UBS Global Asset Management, where he headed up the emerging markets fixed income and global bond business for 16 years.
At UBS, Schillhorn grew the emerging market debt business’ assets under management from $2 billion to $16 billion.
Cook County’s former director of investments, Vinzons, left for the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund in July 2022.
