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Robert “Vince” Smith is retiring from his role as deputy state investment officer and chief investment officer of the $63.4B New Mexico State Investment Council, revealing he had recently received a cancer diagnosis.
Smith reportedly announced the news internally on Sept. 25, according to Private Equity International. He joined the state fund in 2010, eventually turning around its financial viability and brand reputation in the aftermath of an investigation fueled by allegations that people with political connections had influence over which external investment funds or advisors NMSIC would choose.
During his tenure, Smith managed the increase of NMSIC’s assets under management of roughly $49B. In a statement to PEI, Jon Clark, the state’s investment officer, said Smith’s leadership “has always been understated, but he has never backed down from a battle,” noting council and staff are rooting for his recovery.
Prior to joining NMSIC, Smith served as the CIO of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, where he advised the KPERS Board on investment strategy, asset allocation, portfolio construction and other investment matters while managing the day-to-day investment management of the funds.
NMSIC has taken a particular focus on private equity this year, committing up to $235M in investments across venture, growth, and infrastructure strategies. The allocations included a commitment of up to $100M to the J2 Infrastructure Tierra Adentro Fund, a newly launched growth infrastructure vehicle targeting telecommunications, data centers, energy, and quantum investments across New Mexico. Chris Cassidy, the SIC’s director of private equity, noted the fund’s potential to address gaps in New Mexico’s venture ecosystem by bringing additional infrastructure and coaching resources to local founders.
In an interview with Christine Giordano, Markets Group‘s head of content and news and editor in chief, last year. Smith noted the fund had begun beefing up its infrastructure portfolio.
“Our infrastructure is pretty broadly diversified,” said Smith, adding that power and energy, including data centers and wind and solar assets, is a big component, particularly assets that produce cash and have good asset value.
“In power, we’ve got both distribution or transmission and distribution. In the energy space, we do have some traditional energy along with the wind and solar. We don’t have a lot of upstream and traditional space mainly because our inflows are upstream. We’re more midstream and also some MLPs, pipeline-type assets.”
In the first quarter of 2025, growth, buyouts, and venture capital allocations generated net gains of $30.2M, $16.2M, and $12.1M, respectively.
