Gary Draghi

Gary B. Draghi served as Chief Investment Officer for the City of Hartford's Office of the Treasurer, where he oversaw the Municipal Employees' Retirement Fund (MERF) — the largest municipal pension fund in Connecticut, established in 1947 — along with the city's OPEB Trust and Deferred Compensation Plans. He held the CIO role for roughly 13 years and spent about 18 years total in the Treasurer's Office. He succeeded Gary Carter, who left the system in 2011, and Draghi has publicly credited Carter as a mentor throughout his career. He is a University of Connecticut graduate.

As CIO, Draghi worked under successive elected City Treasurers (including Adam Cloud and Carmen I. Sierra) to design and implement what he described as "efficient, risk-aware portfolios." He built out an internal investment team, working closely with Deputy CIO P. Wayne Moore and Senior Portfolio Manager J. Sean Antoine. Under his stewardship the fund grew to roughly $1.1 billion in assets by mid-2024 and delivered strong results — Draghi has cited "top-decile risk-adjusted returns" for the pension, OPEB, and deferred-compensation programs, and MERF posted a 9.9% return in fiscal year 2024.

Draghi announced his retirement in July 2024, effective July 24, 2024. Rather than exiting entirely, he transitioned into an independent investment-consulting capacity, continuing to advise the Treasurer's Office. He also sits on the Investment Advisory Board of the University of Connecticut's Student Managed Fund, where he is listed as CIO of the City of Hartford MERF.

• Operates as an institutional allocator, not a direct/seed investor: capital is deployed through external managers across public and private markets (equities, fixed income, private equity, venture, private credit/distressed debt, and real estate).
• Risk-adjusted return over raw return — repeatedly frames the goal as "efficient, risk-aware portfolios" producing "top-decile risk-adjusted returns."
• Manager diversity is a stated priority. In his own words on retirement, he stressed "the importance of engaging diverse investment managers," and the fund has been noted for allocating to emerging, minority-, and women-owned managers.
• Blended alternatives approach: the MERF program (as continued under Treasurer Sierra) mixes direct real estate with venture and distressed-debt commitments, reflecting the diversified, multi-asset construction Draghi championed.
• Long-horizon, liability-driven mandate: as a pension CIO, decisions are governed by the fund's actuarial obligations to Hartford's municipal retirees and overseen by the City of Hartford Pension Commission.