Debriefing 2020: Portfolio Tools and Tactics for the Years Ahead

After UTC’s recent merger with Raytheon, Robin Diamonte is responsible for overseeing Raytheon’s $100+ billion in global retirement assets, including its $50 billion domestic pension plans; $10 billion foreign and non-qualified pension plans; and $40 billion defined contribution (DC) plan. Having joined the firm as CIO in 2004, she also serves on RTX’s Finance Leadership Team and is an executive sponsor for RTX’s Finance Inclusion Forum.

In 2013, Diamonte was appointed by President Barack Obama and served as a member and chair of the Advisory Committee for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for six years. She is also an independent director of Morningstar Inc. and serves on the board for the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA), representing more than 100 of the country’s largest private sector retirement funds on fiduciary and investment issues in Washington. Diamonte holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering and an master’s in finance from the University of New Haven.

Chief Investment Officer Matt Clark heads the South Dakota Retirement System, the most well-funded state plan in the United States. Under Clark’s leadership, the $12.5 billion pension that is 100.1% funded has ranked in the top 1% in performance over the past 30 years. He has been involved with South Dakota’s pension programs for 37 years, managing or leading the launch of several internally managed investment programs including fixed income, domestic equity, merger arbitrage, convertible arbitrage, international equity, and relative valuation asset allocation. He was named deputy investment officer in 2000.
During March’s COVID-19 crash, Clark’s team followed predetermined triggers for its portfolio that was holding a 30% cash allocation, deploying hundreds of millions of dollars into index funds.

Christine Giordano has been managing editor of ai-CIO.com (Chief Investment Officer’s digital news site) since 2016. The ai-CIO brand was honored with the prestigious Best Media Brand award in 2016, 2018, and 2019 in the Jesse H. Neal Awards.
A career journalist, prior to joining the company, Giordano wrote in-depth news for daily newspapers and as a staff writer for The New York Times Company, winning the team NYT Chairman’s Award, the Florida Bar’s Grand Prize award, and various first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a fellow of both the National Press Foundation and the American Institute for Economic Research.