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Deals and People February 6, 2001
CalPERS' Mark Anson on Asset Allocation, Part 1
Few plan sponsors have been as vocal, or as visible,
in their commitment to private equity investments as the $170
billion California Public Employees Retirement System
(CalPERS), the nation's largest public pension system.
Recently PLANSPONSOR's Editor-in-Chief and CEO Charles Ruffel
sat down with Mark Anson, CalPERS' Senior Investment Officer
for Global Equity, to discuss the current environment and
prospects for the future.
Reported by PS
PART I: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
In the first of our exclusive four-part series, Anson sets the record straight on CalPERS’ strategy on hedge fund investment.
Prior reports of an $11 billion allocation were a misrepresentation and misreporting of the facts. So instead of being seen as a positive development – which indeed it is – somehow it has been represented as a ‘pullback.’ Nothing could be further from the truth.
More recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that CalPERS has been turned down by several leading hedge funds and, as a consequence, has been seeking a strategic partner to find such funds. Indeed, we are now looking for such a strategic partner, which I will address shortly, but the idea that we are being ‘turned down’ by hedge funds is a fabrication. We were outraged by that story when it ran. In fact, one of the reasons we are looking for this strategic partner is to act as a gatekeeper for the flood of hedge funds that have contacted us – more than 400, at last count.