Having accrued more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry, Carina E. Coleman is an expert in the field of institutional asset management. She currently serves as the director of pension and trust investments for Sempra Energy. She oversees approximately $10 billion in retirement and welfare benefit assets across Sempra Energy’s qualified and non-qualified plans and manages approximately $1 billion of nuclear decommissioning trust assets. Her responsibilities include developing investment policy, asset allocation and the selection of investment managers. During her tenure at Sempra, Ms. Coleman has been able to achieve top decile investment returns over multiple rolling time periods against a universe of corporate defined benefit plans. Her most notable achievement to date was developing investment policy statements that include de-risking schemes for the various plans that she manages.
Prior to joining Sempra, Ms. Coleman worked in the investments group of the Walt Disney Company’s Corporate Treasury Division between 2004 and 2009, during which time she managed various asset classes of the company’s defined benefit pension plan. During the early stages of her career, she gained valuable expertise as a research associate for Bradford & Marzec, a fixed income asset management firm, during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Ms. Coleman earned a Master of Business Administration in finance from the Wharton School of Business, and a Bachelor of Arts in economics and German studies from the University of California Los Angeles. She also holds a Master of Arts in international studies from the University of Pennsylvania Lauder Institute and is a CFA charter holder.
Ms. Coleman believes in the importance of serving the community in which she lives. She currently serves as vice president of the board of administration and chair of the investment committee for the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System (SDCERS), and is a member of the finance council and the investment committee for the Diocese of San Diego. She is also the co-chair of the local diversity and inclusion council for Sempra Energy HQ. In previous years, she served on the finance advisory committee for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Ms. Coleman is also active in the broader investment community through participation in various industry conferences and events.
Ms. Coleman feels an immense sense of gratitude for the opportunity her parents provided her through funding her undergraduate education. She is among the first in her family to attend a four-year university. She attributes her success to the work ethic her parents instilled in her at a young age. Ms. Coleman is very passionate about her work as a fiduciary of retirement plan assets and is an outspoken advocate for diversity and inclusion. Looking ahead, she hopes to pass on the knowledge she has gained in her area of expertise to others.
