SC State Employees Association 

SCSEA State Seal

             

      WHERE MEMBERSHIP COUNTS 

                          

                January 5, 2017

The SCSEA Retiree Committee is hosting a forum with the leadership of the South Carolina Investment Commission on January 20, 2017. The forum will be held at the SCSEA Office Auditorium located at 421 Zimalcrest Drive, Columbia, SC 29210 starting  promptly at 12:00 noon. Lunch will be catered by Crisp Catering.

 

The Question and Answer portion of the forum will be moderated by SCSEA Parliamentarian Harrison Reardon. The RSIC panel will include RSIC Chief Executive Officer Mike Hitchcock, Chair Rebecca Gunnlaugsson, Chief Investment Officer Geoffrey Berg and Vice-Chairman Ron Wilder.

 

Active and retired state employees are encouraged to attend and participate. The cost for the luncheon will be $5.00 and you must RSVP by Tuesday, January 17, 2017 for lunch. Please RSVP to SCSEA Office Manager, OunJanice McClam a (803) 765-0680 or by email at [email protected].

 

This is an opportunity for state employees and retirees to openly conversate with the professionals who invest the assests of the South Carolina Retirement System. Don't miss this opportunity.
SCSEA RETIREE COMMITTEE
Muriel Anderson, Chair
Mary Wells, Vice-Chair
Florist Bowman, Secretary       
Bobbie Adkins
Jim Manning
Victory Washington
Fordyce Mason
Bill Creech
Janice Miyasaki
Robbie DeFreese
Shedrick Murphy
Johnny Dewese
Patricia Padgett
Dean Flansburg
Jean Parker
Rosalind Funk
Dot Phipps
Rickie Harrison
Harrison Rearden
Richard Sigwald
Joette Scarborough
Camilla Hooper
Sadie Wannamaker
Michael Hitchcock, Chief Executive Officer­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
Michael Hitchcock is the RSIC Chief Executive Officer. The RSIC manages and invests the assets for the South Carolina Retirement System, a $29 billion defined benefit pension plan serving approximately 500,000 participants.  
Prior to joining the RSIC, Mr. Hitchcock served as Chief Counsel and Assistant Clerk of the South Carolina Senate. In this role, he served as Deputy Administrator of the agency and also directed the Office of Senate Research which provides legislative drafting, research, and legal services to all forty-six members of the State Senate.
Mr. Hitchcock earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Carolina and his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina, School of Law. He has served in the South Carolina National Guard since 2000, earning the rank of Major in the Judge Advocate General Corps.  

Rebecca Gunnlaugsson­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Ph.D., Chair
Dr. Rebecca Gunnlaugsson is an economist specializing in public finance and labor economics. Dr. Gunnlaugsson has additional experience in business consulting concentrated on strategic planning, project management, and firm-wide technology implementation.
Dr. Gunnlaugsson's experience includes that as a senior information technology consultant for Accenture where her clients included state governments, state universities, hospitals, and large national corporations. She also has served as Director of the Division of Research at The South Carolina Department of Commerce where she oversaw federally funded Labor Market Information programs and initiated publication of monthly S.C. Economic Outlook, including development of the South Carolina leading economic index. At the Department of Commerce she directed research teams conducting empirical analyses of economic issues impacting South Carolina and organized and implemented comprehensive research of the state's tax structure, detailing relationships between taxation and economic activity and identifying approaches for optimization of long-term statewide economic growth.
Dr. Gunnlaugsson also has worked for the Investment Commission where she directed projects analyzing and formulating long-term financial investment operational system needs; oversaw policy development for manager on-boarding, reporting, communication, fee validation, and portfolio valuation; and developed needs assessments for operational infrastructure, data management, risk analysis, custody services, hedge fund administration, and alternative investment portfolio management.
Dr. Gunnlaugsson currently works as the business manager at Southeastern ENT Allergy & Sleep Disorders Institute and serves on its board of directors. She received her bachelor's and master's Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Ron Wilder, Ph.D., Vice-Chair ­­­­­­­­­
Ron Wilder is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, where he conducted research and taught courses in microeconomics, managerial economics, industrial organization, government and business, and health economics. He earned a BA and MA in economics at Rice University, and a Ph.D. in economics at Vanderbilt University.
During his 36 year career at USC, he taught economics at the undergraduate and graduate level, directed many Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations, and taught managerial economics in the MBA programs, including the televised PMBA. His administrative assignments included service as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 1987 until 2002. He published a number of articles in economics journals, including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Health Economics, as well as several monographs. He carried out consulting assignments in areas such as antitrust policy, public utility regulation and valuation of economic losses. His current research interests include health economics, regulation, and financial economics.
The Treasurer is also the custodian of these funds. The Treasurer is the Vice Chairman of the South Carolina Education Authority. The Treasurer is also the custodian of the funds.
Mr. Loftis is an avid outdoorsman. He enjoys spending time hiking, fly fishing, rock climbing, hunting, and clearing his land. His love of travel has taken him all over the world and led him to establish his philanthropic organization to help people in less developed countries.
­­ Geoffrey Berg, Chief Investment Officer
Geoff is the Chief Investment Officer for the RSIC.  In this capacity, he has oversight responsibility for all assets of the pension fund.  Mr. Berg joined the RSIC in July 2008 and has since held a number of Director positions overseeing various asset classes.  Prior to serving as Acting Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Berg was Managing Director and Chair of the Internal Investment Committee.  Prior to joining the RSIC, he worked in mergers and acquisitions for a Fortune 1000 company.
Mr. Berg earned a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from the University of Iowa.  He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Society of South Carolina.