Treasury hires private equity leader to manage pension funds

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The state Treasury Department’s Division of Investment announced this week it hired Dana Johns as head of private equity, effective immediately.

Johns, who was most recently a member of the Private Equity team at the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, is an experienced private markets investor and leader in the public pension and institutional investor community.

The Treasury says that Johns bring more than 20 years of experience investing and managing multibillion-dollar global portfolios of institutional alternative investment assets, with a long-term track record for selecting and managing strong performing private equity fund portfolios.

“We are very happy to welcome Dana as our new Head of Private Equity,” Shoaib Khan, chief investment officer and director of the Division of Investment, said in a press release. “Her demonstrated success in managing institutional investments in the private market will help us further our fiduciary duty to the pension members we serve.”

Johns is board chair of the Private Equity Women Investor Network and a member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council, Academy for Institutional Investors Editorial Committee, AIF Women’s Leadership Steering Committee, and the SEO Alternative Investments Limited Partner Advisory Council.

Two areas of commitment for Johns are initiatives focused on the advancement of private markets investing and creating pathways to inclusion for underrepresented talent in private equity.

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