The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) has appointed Ted Eliopoulos as its new Chief Investment Officer (CIO). A chief investment officer is a board-level executive responsible for managing and monitoring investments.
Calpers oversees more than $300 billion of retirement benefits and investments of over 1.6 million people.
Ted will succeed Joe Dear, who passed away in February, as the Chief Investment Officer of the largest public pension fund in America.
Eliopoulos was previously the fund’s senior investment officer for its Real Assets division. From 2002 to 2006 he served as California State Treasurer’s Office as Deputy Treasurer and then Chief Deputy Treasurer.
He has historically had a more conservative strategy when it comes to making investment decisions for the company.
Calpers suffered a lot during the Great Recession of 2008, losing about 30% of its wealth.
Calpers decided to stop investing in hedge funds
Recently Calpers said that it will not be investing in hedge funds. The company liquidated its $4 billion investment across 24 hedge funds because of the complexity, risks, and costs associated with them.
This was a decision that Eliopoulos recommended the company to take. He commented that investing in hedge funds “doesn’t merit a continued role.”
Ted Eliopoulos said:
“Hedge funds are certainly a viable strategy for some, but at the end of the day, when judged against their complexity, cost and the lack of ability to scale at Calpers’ size.”