By Muskan Arora
Oregon State Treasury has appointed Tad Fergusson as director of private markets investments, effective July 28.
In his new role, Fergusson will oversee Oregon’s private markets investments on behalf of Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) and other state trust funds. He will report to Rex Kim, the pension fund’s chief investment officer.
“Private market investments are an important part of Oregon’s portfolio,” said Elizabeth Steiner, Oregon State Treasurer, in a news release. “Tad brings his experience and expertise to Treasury at a time when global economic uncertainty makes our investment decisions more complex. I welcome Tad to Treasury and look forward to working with him.”
Prior to joining the state treasury, Fergusson served as a managing principal at Meketa Investment Group for six years, where he advised one of the largest pension plans on private equity, private credit, and real assets investments.
Before taking on his role at Meketa, he worked for more than two decades at Pension Consulting Alliance, which was acquired by Meketa in 2019. During his tenure at the company, he led private equity consulting efforts and guided strategy for major public pension plans.
Historically, private markets have been one of the best-performing asset classes for OPERF, according to the news release. It noted roughly 26% of the portfolio is currently allocated to private equity. Over the last 10 years, private equity investments have returned 12.69%, the highest rate of return for any asset class within the retirement fund’s portfolio.
