Craig Husting

Craig Husting is the Chief Investment Officer of PSRS/PEERS — the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri — where he has served since January 1999. He directs the management of the Systems' investment portfolio, which has grown to roughly $45 billion (from about $19 billion when he arrived) on behalf of more than 230,000 Missouri educators, school employees, and beneficiaries. He holds the combined title of Assistant Executive Director, Investments and Chief Investment Officer.

Husting began his career in finance in 1989 with Ernst & Young's national cash-management consulting practice. He later served as Deputy Treasurer for the Johnson County, Kansas government, and then as Director of Investments and Deposit Programs for the Missouri State Treasurer's Office, where he managed all aspects of the state's roughly $3.5 billion investment portfolio before joining PSRS/PEERS.

He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a Bachelor of Arts from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

Over his tenure, Husting has led a substantial diversification of the fund. When he started, PSRS/PEERS held a conservative allocation of roughly 55% stocks / 45% bonds managed by about 12 managers; today the portfolio spans six to seven asset classes. He built out the Systems' real estate (first investment 2004), private equity (first investment 2003), private credit/direct lending (launched 2019), and hedge fund portfolios, and has grown an in-house private-markets team to about ten professionals. In November 2025 he won a national Industry Innovation Award from *Chief Investment Officer (CIO/ai-cio.com)* in the category of public defined-benefit plans with more than $25 billion in assets, and he was named to CIO's 2022 list of top pension officers.

• Diversify, limit downside, and build meaningful GP relationships — Husting cites these as his three core principles, emphasizing "taking risks" while managing them strategically.
• Push into private markets to hit the return target. PSRS/PEERS raised its private-markets allocation to ~40% (from 35%), split across private equity (~21%), real estate (~11%), and private credit, describing the program as essential to achieving the fund's ~7.3% assumed return.
• Cut fees through co-investment and direct lending. "Combined, we expect these programmes to save over $1 billion in fees over the next ten years." PE co-investment is ~15% of the private-equity book, targeted to grow to ~25% long-term.
• Direct lending as a less-crowded, lower-risk sleeve. Initiated in 2019, the direct-lending program targets first-lien, unlevered debt of PE-backed companies at high-single-digit / ~10%+ floating-rate returns "without management fees or carried interest," positioned as shorter-duration and lower-risk than private equity.
• Defensive private real estate. After moving away from REITs post-2008 and reducing leverage, the fund now favors industrial, senior housing, student housing, and data-center property types.
• Delegated, disciplined process. Manager decisions are made by staff (not the board directly); recommendations go to an Investment Committee of Husting, the executive director, and the fund's consultant, requiring three sign-offs to proceed.