Home ListingOctober 28, 2015

CalPERS Hunts New Chief Risk Officer

The US’ biggest pension is searching for a new risk chief, Sweden’s AP3 has appointed one, and a <em>Power 100</em> member has added an advisory role to his CV.

Reported by Featured Author

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has begun its search for a new chief risk officer (CRO), following the exit of Larry Jensen last year.

Based in the $286 billion pension’s Sacramento, California headquarters, the successful applicant will work closely with Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Eason, and have oversight for CalPERS’ risk policies, procedures, and systems.

“As the key facilitator to achieving the organization’s risk-focused business objectives, the CRO is responsible for assessing the organization’s capabilities and awareness to more successfully manage and improve its ability to monitor, manage, and report on identified risk initiatives,” the job advert states.

The new CRO will be in charge of a “large team” managing all aspects of risk, in its investment strategy and other areas of the business. The position is “critical to CalPERS’ strategic objective to become a risk-intelligent organization”, the advert says, with the aim of enabling the pension to “make well-informed decisions at all organizational levels”.

The advert states a wage bracket equivalent to between $107,820 and $128,436 a year.

Previous CRO Jensen moved to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System in July last year to lead its audit services after 19 years with CalPERS.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s AP3 has appointed Lars Sundberg as chief portfolio risk manager. He joins from DNB, where he worked for 13 years as an investment manager. He reports to the CIO, currently Kerim Kaskal until the end of this month.

AP3’s Chief Risk Officer Mattias Bylund featured in CIO’s Forty Under Forty list earlier this year.

Elsewhere in Europe, Mark Fawcett, CIO of the UK’s National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), has joined the investment committee of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) to help boost the £49 billion ($75 billion) fund’s defined contribution (DC) offering.

Fawcett, ranked #99 on CIO’s latest Power 100 list of the most influential asset owners, will take up his new role from November 1. He has been CIO at NEST since 2010 and has overseen the construction and expansion of the UK’s leading auto-enrolment pension.

USS CIO Roger Gray ranked #64 on the Power 100.

“USS has the size and scale to set up a really strong DC offering for its members and I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues helping to advise the USS trustees on this and other matters,” Fawcett said.