Teachers' Pension CIO to enter 1-yr extended term

The Teachers' Pension in South Korea has extended the term of its Chief Investment Officer Lee Kyu-hong by one year until the end of September 2022, after posting double-digit investment returns under his leadership.

Lee's two-year term as CIO was slated to expire this Thursday.

The retirement fund for private school teachers and employees in South Korea achieved its highest return in a decade of 11.15% in 2019. In the following year, it logged an 11.49% return with investment gains of 2.14 trillion won, which marked its largest-ever annual investment proceeds.

In the first half of this year, the 23 trillion won ($20 billion) pension fund posted an average return of 8.22%, led by double-digit returns from equities makrets.

"After this contract renewal, we expect to generate stable and excellent returns this year, too, " its Chief Executive Ju Myung-hyun said in a statement on Monday. 

"In particular, I hope he would pay attention to ESG (environmental, social and governance) and socially responsible investments as well."

Prior to joining Teachers' Pension, Lee had led the South Korean operations of Singapore-based Ascendas-Singbridge as CEO for six months until December 2018.
 
He had also worked as CIO of both NH-Amundi Asset Management in Korea and Eastspring Investment in Korea, part of UK Prudential plc, between 2004 and early 2018.

He studied business administration at Yonsei University and earned an MBA from New York University.

Last July, South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) extended CIO Ahn Hyo-joon's term by one year for the second time, after the world's third-largest pension scheme reaped its strongest returns in 2019 and 2020.

Write to Jae-fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.