Greg Williamson joined Amoco Corp., a predecessor company to BP America, in 1991. The MBA graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management honors program gained the experience he would need to manage a complex pension portfolio through his earlier work in investment banking, proprietary trading and strategic planning at firms like Northern Finance and O’Connor & Associates. Named to the CIO role at BP America in 2008, Williamson, now 52, until recently oversaw $8 billion each in defined benefit and defined contribution plans, plus $2 billion in assets that include the BP Foundation’s. Williamson, who on May 1 started a new job as CIO of the American Red Cross in Washington, leaves the BP fund with a 40 percent allocation to fixed income and 60 percent in equities (one third of it in private equity). Although BP as a matter of policy does not invest in hedge funds or real assets, “the investment office was a first mover in a portable-alpha philosophy, seeking effective alpha wherever it exists and using derivatives [if necessary] to introduce the desired beta allocation,” Williamson explains. BP’s pension plan has a five-year annualized return of 13.52 percent through December 31, 2014.
The 2015 U.S. Investment Management AwardsClick to View Profile
