Illinois Pension Board Director to Retire; Search for New Director Begins Soon

William Mabe, executive director of the State University Retirement System of Illinois, has announced that he will retire on March 31.

The System plans to hire a firm to search for and secure a new director by the time Mabe leaves his post.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

William Mabe, executive director of the State University Retirement System, will retire on March 31, and five of the 11 board members’ terms will expire next summer.

[…]

The board expects to hire a search firm at an Oct. 30 meeting to find a new executive director, and intends to choose the new leader by the time Mabe retires, a spokesman said.

Mabe, 67, said in an interview Thursday that he could have stayed on for another three years, but chose to retire now to do other things with his life.

“I’ve been here for five years and I’ve stayed as long as I had planned to stay,” Mabe said. “The pension issue had nothing to do with it. It’s still lingering in the courts, and (the SURS leadership) did the heavy lifting we had to do. … I wanted to retire when that was completed and things were quiet.”

There may be further turnover on the board, as the terms of five more trustees expire in June 2015.