Thechief investment officer (CIO) is aBoard-levelexecutive, responsible forinvestments within an organization. The CIO's purpose is to understand, manage, and monitor their organization's portfolio ofassets, devise strategies for growth, act as theliaison with investors, andrecognize and avoid serious risks, including those never before encountered,^[1][2][3]the emphasis being a function of the specific industry.Boards will often create an "InvestmentCommittee" responsible foroverall Investment policy, andindependent oversight ofthe specificcorporate governance concerns here.^[4][5]Smaller firms mayoutsource the position^[6] to an "OCIO".

The CIO's function and focus will, as mentioned, differ by organization and business-type.

• The chief investment officer at anAsset Management Firm^[7] is responsible for overallfund- andrisk management. The CIO overseesmanager selection andmonitoring, and tracks aggregate firm-level risks (exposure across funds, as well as, e.g.,reputational risk) ensuring alignment with the firm'srisk appetite and regulatory obligations. She will, relatedly, overseestress testing, and the underlyingeconomic andgeopoliticalscenario generation. The CIO (at aquantitative manager)"signs off", also, remodel validation andbacktesting.
• At aninsurance company (eitherlife or non-life) and/orpension fund, the role is to manage and coordinate investment,liquidity-,interest rate- andasset and liability management in order to optimizeinvestment performance within the firm'srisk appetite, typically in conjunction with theactuarial team. Chief investment officers atendowments and foundations similarly consider the liabilities of the organization, with an added focuson liquidity andalternative assets.^[8]
• Withincorporates more generally,^[9][10][11] the CIO is responsible for the firm's portfolio oflong term assets andcorporate investments, with the role, further, overlapping (or being subsumed within) several areas. Thus, the CIO will consult to thecorporate finance team,assessing capital investment opportunities andrelated funding considerations. Similarly, the CIO will work withtreasury to decide which products and terms are favorable from a funding perspective,and in the management of (long-term) liquidity andcash-flow. Finally, re the corporatepension fund, the CIO's role is similar to the above, although the end-goal is not profit, butmatching the organization's pension assets with its pension liabilities.^[12]

CIOs^[11][9][7]often have up to ten^[13]prior yearsprofessional experience within their industry. At investment firms, the CIO often will have been a large "buy side" manager; pension and Insurance CIOs filled theInvestment Actuary role; corporate CIOs wereTreasury-,Financial- orCorporate Finance Managers. Correspondingly, the CIO will hold^[1] the relevantprofessional credential, and thus, respectively, may be aCAIA /CFA Charterholder,Qualified Actuary, orProfessional Accountant.Theireducational background is usually a Bachelors (sometimes Masters)in finance,in economics orin accounting.In many cases, the CIO will also earn anMBA,^[13][1]gaining the corporate,strategic andoperations perspectives, complementary to the role.

• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Risk Officer
• CIO also refers:
  • Chief Information Officer
  • Chief Innovation Officer

• Finance occupations
• Corporate executives
• Management occupations
• Investment management
• Risk management in business

• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• Articles with short description
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