For Immediate Release

Contact: Public Information Officer Eva Goltermann, (217) 753-0968

May 22, 2007

TRS Appoints Senior Investment Officers

SPRINGFIELD, IL-The $39.7 billion Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS) has selected Lamar Villere, CFA, to serve as its senior alternative investments officer and Scottie Bevill to serve as senior investment officer for global bonds/real return. Villere will oversee both the private equity and absolute return portfolios for TRS, while Bevill will continue supervision of the System’s fixed income portfolio and real return investments.
           
Villere has worked as the domestic equities investment officer at TRS since 2005. Previously, he served as vice president and equity analyst at Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. and as a financial analyst at both HCFP Brenner Securities and at Deutsche Asset Management. Villere holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Villere is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Bevill has served in various capacities during his 15-year tenure at TRS, most recently as the fixed income investment officer. He also oversees aspects of the emerging manager program and minority-owned investment manager and broker programs at TRS. Bevill earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, and a Master of Science in Economics from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“TRS is pleased to redeploy Lamar and Scottie’s high-caliber skill sets in the alternative investment arena. Our members will be well served by their investment expertise and strong work ethic,” said Chief Investment Officer of the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois Stan Rupnik.

As part of its overall asset allocation, The TRS Board of Trustees voted in December 2006 to add a 2.5 percent allocation to absolute return strategies and a 10.0 percent allocation to real return. TRS provides retirement, disability, and death benefits to teachers and administrators employed at Illinois public elementary and secondary schools located outside the city of Chicago. TRS serves 326,000 members and annuitants.

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