Rhonda Smith is the Executive Director of the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System
(HMEPS), a $2.1 billion pension plan for the City’s municipal employees. Rhonda has been with the System since 2008 and began her term as Executive Director in August 2011. Smith provides leadership for the System’s staff in implementing the programs necessary to achieve the mission and goals established by the Board of Trustees which includes managing the System’s investment portfolio.
Rhonda has over twenty years of experience in the financial field. She served as senior auditor for both Deloitte & Touche and Occidental Petroleum. She headed the City of Houston’s franchise section of the Regulatory Affairs Division and assisted in creating the audit team.
After her tenure at the City, Smith became the Chief Financial Officer of the American Red Cross of Greater Houston. Smith then was recruited by the Houston Firefighters’ Relief & Retirement
Fund (HFRRF) as Deputy Director, where she worked until she began her job at HMEPS.
In addition to serving as Executive Director for the Fund, Rhonda was appointed to the Executive Board of the Government Finance Officer Association (GFOA) where she was Chair of the Audit Committee and currently serves as a member of the Nominating Committee. She is also a member of the National Council of Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS), the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) and the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP). Rhonda has also been nominated to serve as Chair of the American Leadership Forum Investment Committee.
Smith has an M.B.A. in Finance and Management from the University of Houston, C. T. Bauer College of Business and a B.S. degree in Accounting from the Ohio State University Fisher School of Business.