The Retirement Board selected CastleArk Management, LLC, to manage a new allocation of $150 million in small cap growth domestic equities for the County Employees’ and Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Cook County on May 7, 2014. 

Three finalist firms interviewed with the Investment Committee.  Finalists were evaluated on the basis of investment strategy performance, experience with public pension funds, managed historical volatility within the strategy, complementary characteristics with the Fund’s existing SMID exposure, and competitive fee structure.  

The mandate is the first active exposure to the small cap growth strategy as approved in the plan restructuring in 2011, and was considered simultaneously with other strategies being evaluated.  Domestic equities account for 25% of the Fund’s target asset allocation.  Funding will come from the Russell small cap growth ETF passive portfolio.