The worst job in investing has finally been filled (for now)

One day after April Fools’, the $495bn California Public Employees’ Retirement System has announced that another sucker has decided to subject themselves to what might be the worst job in the entire global investment industry. Willingly.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has selected Stephen Gilmore, a senior investment leader with extensive experience in public and private financial institutions and across cultures and geographies, as the pension fund’s chief investment officer.

His appointment is expected to become effective in July.

Gilmore, an internationally recognized investment leader whose career has spanned 40 years, comes to CalPERS after more than five years as the chief investment officer of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZ Super Fund), a sovereign wealth fund owned by the New Zealand government and valued at more than $73 billion (NZD).

“Stephen has worked in very public roles during his career for organizations where transparency and resiliency are essential,” said CalPERS Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost. “He brings not only a wealth of investing knowledge to the job, but he also has the temperament to understand the needs of our members and public sector employers who depend on CalPERS to be a steady, long-term partner.”

Gilmore was chief investment strategist of the Future Fund, Australia’s sovereign wealth fund. There, he oversaw efforts such as portfolio strategy, portfolio overlays, and investment risk. He has also held senior international positions with AIG Financial Products and Morgan Stanley, as well as assignments with the International Monetary Fund and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

On one hand, leading one of the world’s biggest pension plans should be incredibly desirable. You’re doing a vital job on behalf of over 2mn current and future retirees, and managing sums of money so vast it would make Croesus weep with envy. Fee-hungry Wall Streeters will fete you, and journalists treat your pronouncements as newsworthy in themselves.

But Calpers has become a poisoned chalice. There are always a lot of different interests to manage at the top of a pension plan, but the psychodrama between the board, plan members, the investment staff, the media, and local, regional and national politicians has been quite something to behold over the years. One former Calpers CIO outright laughed (hollowly) when FTAV once asked what the job was like.

So Gilmore — the fifth Calpers CIO in the past decade! — has quite the job ahead of him, which he obliquely nodded to in the pension plan’s statement:

“I’m grateful to CalPERS’ leaders for the trust they’ve put in me to help shape the pension fund’s next chapter,” Gilmore said. “There are high expectations, and rightly so, when it comes to fulfilling the promises made in serving those who serve California.”

Lets hope it’s a longer chapter than those written by his predecessors. Joe Dear (2009-14) was taken by cancer, but judging by the reigns of Ted Eliopoulos (2014-18) Ben Meng (2019-20) and Nicole Musicco (2022-23), it seems the average length of a Calpers CIO stint is getting closer to one year.