It was 2008, and Michael G. Trotsky was grilling a chief executive about quarterly earnings. He asked about the tax benefits of a Philippines assembly plant, and wanted to know more about a new contract: 'Can you give any more details into a design cycle testing product launch?' That was Trotsky the semiconductor specialist, according to a transcript of the call. And it says a lot about the approach of the engineer-turned-hedge fund manager who took over this month as chief of the state's $41 billion pension fund, responsible for more than 290,000 current and retired employees. 'I've always been a stock market junkie,' Trotsky said in an interview last week. 'I'm a nuts-and-bolts investment guy.' Indeed, Trotsky, 47, is more numbers and deep-in-the weeds investment wonk than political creature, which makes him a different breed from most of his predecessors at the state's Pension Reserves Investment Management board. That's what the directors were looking for, according to Alexander Aikens, a board member who was on the search committee that selected Trotsky. The state pension fund, like many large funds, stumbled badly amid the financial crisis of 2008, falling nearly 24 percent, or $13 billion. After that experience, Aikens said, the board wanted 'somebody who really did understand the investment business, the investment process. Somebody we really could hold accountable for financial performance.' At the time of that high-tech earnings call, Trotsky was running about $78 million for PAR Capital Management, an elite Boston hedge fund that stays below the radar most of the time. It was the peak of his private-sector investing experience, a few stops after the Intel Corp. engineer broke into the investment business in the early 1990s. He ran a $1 billion stock fund at Independence Investment Associates in Boston and later joined the hedge fund Greenberg-Summit Partners. The question is, can Trotsky do better than the pension directors who came before him? His main goal, he said, is to improve investment performance. The fund's annualized return of 9.4 percent since inception is healthy. But the fund fell out of the top quartile of pension funds amid the financial crisis, and Trotsky wants to get back among the most competitive funds. 'I want to see us move up the ranks,' he said. He wants to bring to the pension fund a more comprehensive approach to evaluating risk. He hopes to introduce quantitative tools, or computer models, to better gauge where the total fund might be overexposed, beyond specific asset categories. An avid sailing racer who likes to run every day (the new job has put a crimp in the latter) and fix his own computer, Trotsky ticks off his past successes and says he loves to learn new things. At PAR Capital, he lost 16 percent on his slice of the portfolio in 2004, then beat his benchmarks dramatically in the next three years, with returns ranging from 8 percent to 20 percent. What Trotsky lacks is the political resume his predecessor, Michael Travaglini, brought to the job, Aikens said. Trotsky has had a taste of Beacon Hill since 2009, when he made the leap to government work, running a $350 million fund to cover health benefits for retired state employees. He will be much more in the spotlight now, however. He'll have a new chairman of the fund in January, when Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill steps down and the next treasurer is elected. And amid these shifting political winds, Trotsky will be in charge of a much larger pot of money than he has overseen before. Larry Greenberg, Trotsky's boss at Greenberg-Summit, believes he is up to the task. 'He comes from a very apolitical standpoint, and I think that's what you need in that job,' he said. 'Over his 20-plus years in the investment business, he's really grown into that role, and he's ready.' Although earning far less than he is accustomed to, Trotsky will have one of the biggest paychecks in Massachusetts state government: $245,000, plus bonus potential. He is a registered Democrat in Belmont and has made one political contribution, according to public records - $500 in 2009 to Worcester state Representative Vincent A. Pedone, a Democrat and Trotsky's cousin. Trotsky would not say whether he thinks the fund could have been managed better during the downturn. He did say that some of the areas that fared poorly then are coming back strongly now. The fund posted a 12.8 percent gain for the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared to 13.1 percent for the average large public fund, according to the Trust Universe Comparison Service, with private equity and fixed income doing particularly well. Trotsky says his market outlook is cautious, but he seems to relish the challenge ahead. His office is still bare, but for a red balloon his 7-year-old son gave him on his recent birthday. And he says he has some ideas he wants to run by his 25-member staff and the pension board. 'Everything is up for review,' he said. 