Leading a $55 Billion Pension Fund with Purpose
Angela Miller-May today oversees more than $55 billion as Chief Investment Officer of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF). She manages the retirement security of over 440,000 members across Illinois. Since taking on the role in 2021, she has steered the fund through challenges with strong results.
After a downturn in 2022, IMRF rebounded with a 13.22% net return in 2023. In 2024, the fund posted a 9.2% net return, growing from $52.1 billion to $54.9 billion. As of March 31, 2025, IMRF’s market value reached $55.2 billion, maintaining a funded status of 96.4%. These numbers highlight her steady leadership through market ups and downs.
From Mississippi Roots to Chicago Dreams
Angela’s story begins with her grandmother, Beatrice Miller, who worked as a sharecropper in Mississippi. Beatrice was forced to leave school after the sixth grade but carried a powerful dream for her family. She vowed that her grandchildren would get the education she was denied.
In 1968, during the Great Migration, Beatrice moved her five children to Chicago. There, her daughter Jeannette gave birth to Angela, the first grandchild. Jeannette worked at the U.S. Postal Service, while Beatrice helped raise Angela. Angela recalls her grandmother’s promise clearly: “She vowed that I would be the first to graduate from college. I was her job.”
Education and a Shift Toward Finance
Angela first studied medicine at Northwestern University. During her time volunteering in a pediatric ward, she realized she was too emotionally connected to continue in that path. She then switched to economics, drawn to math and finance.
Her first step into the professional world was as a bank teller. She thrived in banking, quickly moving up to manage more than 55 people at a major financial institution. Yet the 2008 financial crisis tested her resolve, forcing her to deliver painful layoffs. That experience pushed her to reflect and eventually pursue an MBA.
Rising Through Pension Fund Leadership
Armed with new skills, Angela joined the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund in 2010 as an operations analyst. She rose steadily through the ranks, becoming portfolio manager, director of investments, and later CIO.
Colleagues praised her deep knowledge of day-to-day operations and her thoughtful decision-making style. “She is very, very diligent, measured,” said former CEO Chuck Burbridge. “When she does answer the question, it’ll be a good answer.”
Her expertise caught the attention of IMRF, which appointed her as CIO in 2021. Since then, she has built a reputation as both a strategist and a thought leader in institutional investing.
Championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Angela is among the few African American women CIOs leading a major U.S. public pension fund. She has used her platform to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in the finance world. At IMRF, she has partnered with 81 women-, minority-, and disability-owned firms that now manage $13.66 billion of the portfolio.
Beyond IMRF, she serves on advisory boards including the Private Equity Women Investor Network, NASP Africa Institutional Investors Advisory Council, First Women’s Bank, and Women Investment Professionals. Her leadership has been recognized with honors such as Pensions & Investments’ 2023 Most Influential Women in Institutional Investing and the Markets Group 2023 DEI Leadership Award.
A Legacy of Resilience and Leadership
From her grandmother’s fight for education to her own rise through finance, Angela’s journey reflects resilience and purpose. She carries forward her family’s legacy while shaping the financial future of hundreds of thousands of people.
“She has continued to be in the spotlight as a thought leader on investments,” Burbridge noted. “That’s really Angela taking IMRF to another level.”
Angela Miller-May’s path from sharecropper’s grandchild to CIO of a $55 billion pension fund shows what vision, hard work, and determination can achieve.
