January 22, 2021
For more Information Contact
Steve Esack
Press Secretary
Public School Employees' Retirement System
Phone: 717-720-4770
e-mail: stesack@pa.gov
PSERS Hires Chief Audit Officer to Expand the Agency’s Governance, Risk & Compliance Functions
HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) hired a new chief audit officer to strengthen its internal risk and compliance team that is tasked with keeping abreast of increasingly complex regulations and fast-moving investment markets.
Mei Gentry, a certified public accountant and certified auditor, started her new position with PSERS on Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Ms. Gentry, a Mechanicsburg resident, earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Hawaii in 1998, a master’s degree in accounting from Liberty University in 2011, and master’s in business administration from Lindenwood University in 2016. She has been a certified public accountant since 2000, certified internal auditor since 2015, certified information system auditor since 2018, and certified information security manager since 2019.
Ms. Gentry has more than two decades of experience working in the private and public sectors in Missouri and Pennsylvania. For the last 15 years, Ms. Gentry worked in the corporate offices of Foot Locker, an international company headquartered in New York City. At Foot Locker, she rose through the ranks, overseeing inventory and sales control systems for more than 3,000 retail stores before becoming director of internal controls and director of information technology security compliance.
“Many highly qualified candidates applied for this position, but Mei’s wealth of experience, particularly her private-sector resume, put her above the rest and earned her the position,” said PSERS Executive Director Glen Grell. “Her extensive accounting and auditing experience will greatly enhance PSERS auditing operations. I am confident that she will build upon PSERS efforts to improve internal controls, and risk and compliance efforts. Filling this position was a top priority to expand our audit and compliance capability and I am pleased to welcome Mei to PSERS Executive Team.”
At PSERS, Ms. Gentry will oversee PSERS’ Internal Audit Office which performs systematic reviews of the various activities of PSERS, testing for compliance with applicable laws, policies, and procedures and makes recommendations on the improvement of the System’s internal control system. She also will work closely with PSERS Investment Office’s Operations and Risk unit.
About the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System
PSERS, founded in 1917, began operations in 1919 to oversee a statewide defined benefit pension plan for public school employees. PSERS' role expanded upon the passage of Act 5 of 2017 to include oversight of two new hybrid options consisting of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) components and a stand-alone DC plan. As of Sept. 30, 2020, PSERS had net assets of approximately $60 billion and a membership of about 256,000 active, 240,000 retired school employees and 26,000 vested inactive members.