The former chief investment officer for the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico has found a new job in the private sector.
Dominic Garcia, who had been New Mexico PERA’s CIO since 2017, has joined CBRE Global Investors as its chief pension investment strategist, according to an announcement expected to be released Tuesday afternoon.
The role is a new one. In it, Garcia will work on helping pensions invest in infrastructure.
“Pension funds are increasingly interested in infrastructure due to the predictability of cash flows and non-cyclical characteristics of the assets,” said Stephen Dowd, CIO of private infrastructure strategies at CBRE Global Investors. “We are excited to leverage Dominic’s investment expertise to help deliver these solutions to our investors.”
CBRE Global Investors managed $124.5 billion in assets as of March 31, with a focus on real assets.
New Mexico PERA said on May 14 that Garcia would be stepping down. Since then, Kristin Varela, the pension fund’s deputy CIO, has stepped into the role of interim CIO.
A New Mexico native, Garcia began his career at New Mexico PERA, first as an analyst for the legislative finance committee, then as a deputy CIO. He became deputy CIO at age 24, Institutional Investor previously reported.
In 2008, he was recruited by David Villa to join the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, where he spent nearly a decade as a senior alpha manager and served on the investment committee. He returned to New Mexico PERA in 2017, after the former CIO, Jonathan Grabel, left to lead the Los Angeles County retirement system.
According to CBRE, at PERA, Garcia created a risk-based approach to portfolio management. As of December 31, New Mexico PERA had $16.4 billion in assets under management.
