Steven A. Kandarian
Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer 
MetLife, Inc.

Steven A. Kandarian, age 56, is executive vice president and chief investment officer of MetLife, Inc.  He joined the company in April 2005.  As CIO, Kandarian is responsible for MetLife’s investment department and the company’s more than $325 billion general account portfolio.

Since joining MetLife, Kandarian has overseen a number of initiatives and strategies that have benefited and further diversified MetLife’s investment portfolio, enhanced the company’s focus on effective risk management and contributed to MetLife’s bottom line.  This includes the diversification of MetLife’s alternative investment portfolio to reduce its exposure to leveraged buyout funds by adding new asset sectors.  In addition, Kandarian strengthened the investment department’s risk management structure with a dedicated, focused effort.  At the same time, under Kandarian’s leadership, MetLife has diversified its real estate equity portfolio in part through the late 2006 sale of Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town.

Prior to joining MetLife, Kandarian was the executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) from 2001 to 2004 where he was responsible for operations that involved assets of over $35 billion and benefit obligations to some 934,000 workers and retirees in more than 3,200 pension plans.  He made the public case for comprehensive reform of the pension funding rules to put the defined benefit system and the PBGC on a sound financial footing.  In addition, under Kandarian’s leadership, the PBGC adopted a new investment policy ensuring that, going forward, its assets be structured to better match liability durations. 

Before joining the PBGC, Kandarian was founder and managing partner of Orion Partners, LP, where he managed a private equity fund specializing in venture capital and corporate acquisitions for eight years.  From 1990 to 1993, he served as president and founder of Eagle Capital Holdings, where he formed a private merchant bank to sponsor equity investments in small and mid-sized businesses.  Prior to establishing Eagle Capital Holdings, from 1984 to 1990, he was managing director of Lee Capital Holdings, a private equity firm based in Boston. 

Previously, he held positions in corporate merger and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts at State Street Bank and Trust and LCB Holdings, Inc.  Prior to joining LCB, Kandarian was an investment banker with Houston-based Rotan Mosle, Inc., where he had responsibility for a broad range of projects, including initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and private placements.

Kandarian currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Reinsurance Group of America and previously served on the board of trustees for MassMutual Corporate Investors, MassMutual Participation Investors and MassMutual Premier Funds.  He received a B.A. from Clark University, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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