Most employees of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board will receive incentive bonuses this year totaling $13.3 million. David Villa, SWIB’s chief investment officer, will get a bonus of more than $660,000, bringing his income to more than $1 million this year. Two other executives are receiving bonuses of more than $500,000. They are among 143 of 152 employees who will see bonuses ranging from $1,245 to Villa’s $660,378.
The state employees are being rewarded for making successful investment decisions for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). The bonuses are largely based on income generated for WRS over a five-year period. That figure topped benchmark-earning goals by $2.65 billion, according to a report in the Wisconsin State Journal. WRS, which manages funds for more than 570,000 current and retired public employees, is the ninth-largest public employee pension fund in the country, and in 2012 and 2013, Morningstar called it the strongest funded state pension system in the nation.
