Washington State Investment Board announces two key appointments (August 11, 2003) Olympia - The Washington State Investment Board today announced the appointment of Theresa J. Whitmarsh as WSIB's Deputy Director for Operations and Janet M. Kruzel as a new Investment Officer for Private Equity. The WSIB manages over $51 billion in public employee retirement and trust fund investments. Whitmarsh, who previously served as a Deputy Director for the state's Department of Labor and Industries, will oversee all accounting and budgeting functions at the WSIB. "Theresa Whitmarsh is a strategic, energetic, and visionary leader who will help take the WSIB to the next level as an institutional investor known for accounting accuracy, sound financial information and controls, and state-of-the-art management systems that benefit all of the many people we serve," said WSIB Executive Director Joe Dear. Currently, Whitmarsh is Vice President of Business Development (1996-present) for Solucient, L.L.C., a private sector health care data company based in Evanston, Illinois. Whitmarsh holds a Masters of Business Administration, Technology and Innovation Management degree from Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington. And she is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, with a degree in English Literature. In her tenure at Labor and Industries, from 1990 to 1996, Whitmarsh improved the financial performance of Washington's industrial insurance fund that resulted in a ten percent rate reduction and a $200 million customer rebate. She also introduced significant improvements in agency technology and directed a $100 million biennial operating budget. Janet Kruzel comes to the WSIB from the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) in Topeka, Kansas. Over the past 12 years at KPERS, Kruzel held three different private equity positions, with each promotion adding an increasing level of responsibility and expertise. During the past six years, Kruzel served as an Alternative Investment Officer for KPERS and was responsible for coordinating the purchase of 54 partnership funds and overseeing daily operations of a well diversified, complex private equity portfolio valued at nearly $500 million. "Janet played a key role in developing and improving KPERS’s private equity portfolio, especially its economically targeted investment program, and this will be her main focus at the WSIB,” said Dear. Kruzel received her Masters of Business Administration degree from Emporia State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, Kansas. Kruzel began her new duties at the WSIB, Friday, August 1, 2003. Whitmarsh starts on September 2, 2003.