Illinois Universities Pension Hires Search Firm to Find New Executive Director

NOW HIRINGWilliam Mabe, executive director of the State University Retirement System of Illinois (SURS), announced in September that he would be retiring on March 31.

SURS has now hired an executive search firm, the Hollins Group, to find his replacement before Mabe’s retirement date.

From the Associated Press:

The State Universities Retirement System has hired a search firm to help it find a new director.

The executive committee of the SURS board of trustees voted this month to hire The Hollins Group of Chicago.

Executive Director William Mabe (MAYB’) plans to retire in March.

Derrick Buckingham will serve as lead consultant. He is senior vice president and managing director for The Hollins Group.

In a September interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Mabe talked about the reasons behind his retirement:

Mabe, 67, said in an interview…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.”

SURS has 227,000 members.

 

Photo by Nathan Stephens via Flickr CC License