Chris Spencer, executive director of the State Board of Administration of Florida, speaks to FSU College of Business students at a recent Charles A. Bruning Distinguished Speaker Series event.
Photo by Mike Baggett/College of Business Click to enlarge

Manhattan? Meh.

Tallahassee? Now you’re talking!

So suggested Florida State University alumnus Chris Spencer, executive director of the State Board of Administration of Florida, in a recent appeal for business students to consider launching their careers at the Tallahassee-based SBA. Among its considerable responsibilities, the agency invests the proceeds of the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan, which ranks among the five largest public pension funds in the United States and the 20 largest in the world.

“This will sound like a recruitment pitch because it is,” Spencer told students interested in investment management. Unlike in New York, he said, Tallahassee residents generally don’t have to deal with the hassle of snow, except for a freak winter storm in early February. 
“And you do not want to work for an investment firm in Manhattan straight out of college,” he added. “Come work for us for a little while and then go to Manhattan.”

Spencer made his comments – and his pitch – as the featured guest in the College of Business Charles A. Bruning Distinguished Speaker Series. Speaking to an overflow crowd in the Starry Conference Room, he highlighted the SBA's strong ties to FSU. 

Spencer said FSU graduates comprise many of the agency’s more than 200 employees. He also noted that the SBA has hired 19 interns from FSU over the last three years, and it hosted 78 FSU business students for training events in 2024 alone.

“We invest on every continent except Antarctica,” Spencer said. “We may even have investments that touch Antarctica, for all I know . We are involved everywhere around the world in all kinds of structures and capacities.”

Beyond managing the pension fund, which boasts assets of more than $200 billion, the SBA administers the Florida Retirement System Investment Plan, manages the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and runs the Florida PRIME government investment pool. It also invests the proceeds of more than 25 other funds, as directed by the Florida Legislature.

Spencer, a St. Petersburg native, holds FSU bachelor's degrees in economics, international affairs and political science, with minors in French and business, and emphasized that he took an unconventional path to the SBA. After graduating from FSU in 2009, he worked on political campaigns and in various roles in the public and private sectors, including five years in the Florida Senate. He became an economic policy advisor for Gov. Ron DeSantis in November 2018, then the governor’s director of policy and budget three months later.

Last March, DeSantis nominated Spencer to lead the SBA, where Spencer started work last summer.

“This job is intellectually stimulating, something I really enjoy,” he said.

Drawing from his experience engaging with major institutional investment firms, banks and private equity funds, Spencer offered students comprehensive professional advice, including:

Ditch your ego

“Embrace humility as soon as you get out of here,” Spencer said, referring to FSU. “When you walk into a big investment fund or a real estate firm, you are going to have to go in there in and do hard work, and humility will get you a long way.”

Uphold your integrity

“Know what is true and stick with what is true,” Spencer said. “You're going to get a lot of pressure over your professional careers from your superiors or even some of your peers to try to get a ‘yes’ from you on a lot of things to avoid conflict.” That includes decisions about trivial things and risky ventures. “Know what your truth is and know where your line is. Stick to that line, and live by that line,” he said.

Keep learning

“Read and always be a lifetime learner, and never give up on that,” Spencer said. “To go back to the humility aspect, have an open mind and constantly be ready to receive new information and adapt to that, and then put the work in so that you can know what your truth is.”

Embrace the office experience

“If you were walking into an interview, whether it's at an investment fund or a bank or a real estate fund, and among the first questions you ask is, ‘What's the expectation of in office versus working from home?’ -- you're starting off in the wrong direction,” Spencer said.

“If you're on a Teams meeting with Bali as your background and wearing a spring blazer and Gamma shorts , you’re never going to get to know your bosses better, and when your bosses are making recommendations on who should be promoted, they're more likely to support people with whom they interact on a regular basis.” 

Spencer added: “The sooner that you can have that work ethic, know what your truth is and are showing up and being present, the sooner you will be setting yourself up for significant success.”