Highlights proven public finance experience and creative leadership style of new appointee

BOSTON — Today Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg appointed Ruth Ellen Fitch, an innovative leader of complex organizations with a 20-year career in public finance, to serve on the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board, the nine-member board that oversees the state’s $60 billion pension fund. Fitch will be sworn in this afternoon and participate in the upcoming board meeting on Tuesday.

“I'm proud to appoint such a distinguished and innovative community leader to serve the Commonwealth," said Treasurer Deborah Goldberg. "Ruth Ellen brings a diverse range of financial management experience to PRIM and a deep appreciation for public service. Massachusetts retirees and taxpayers will be well served by her creative and detail-oriented leadership style as we strive to maximize our investment gains at PRIM.”

Ruth Ellen Fitch is a graduate of Harvard Law School who spent her legal career specializing in public finance. She practiced law for more than 20 years at Palmer & Dodge LLP, where she became the first Black woman partner at a large Boston law firm. Her practice included public law and financing transactions and she served as Bond Counsel to the City of Boston as well as many cities, towns and other public bodies in New England. She also served as President and CEO at The Dimock Center for nine years, retiring in 2013. Before attending law school, Fitch was Director of the METCO program in the Brookline Public Schools and taught Black literature at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In addition to her law degree, she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University. She received the Pinnacle Award for achievement in the legal profession from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts Award, the Charles Hamilton Houston Public Service Award from the Harvard Black Law Students Association, and the Distinguished Alumna Award from Girls’ Latin School/Boston Latin Academy, where she has been a commencement speaker.

The PRIM Board is charged with the general supervision of the Pension Reserves Investment Trust (PRIT) Fund, created by legislation to accumulate assets through investment earnings and other revenue sources in order to assist the Commonwealth in reducing its unfunded pension liability, and likewise to assist local participating retirement systems in meeting their pension obligations. The PRIT Fund is a pooled investment fund that invests the assets of the Massachusetts Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement Systems, and the assets of county,authority, district and municipal retirement systems that choose to invest in the PRIT Fund. The nine-member PRIM Board acts as trustee for each retirement system that invests assets in the PRIT Fund.

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