CalPERS Appoints New Investment Officer for Diversity

March 18, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has named Tim Legesse its new Investment Officer for Diversity.

Legesse will be responsible for reaching out to new and emerging money managers, acting as a point of contact for investment professionals seeking to do business with the nation’s largest public pension fund, according to a CalPERS announcement. He also will work across CalPERS five asset classes on diversity initiatives and programs, while keeping the financial community informed about the fund’s policies.      

Legesse reports to CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Joseph A. Dear.      

Previously, Legesse founded Starline Capital Advisors LLC, a research and consulting services firm focused on niche private market investment strategies. Prior to that, he was a senior investment officer at the Lumina Foundation for Education Inc. in Indianapolis, and an investment officer focused on alternative investments with the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund.       

Legesse also worked as a real estate acquisitions officer for the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and a financial analyst for Morgan Stanley in New York. He has a bachelor of science degree in finance from St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., and received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was awarded a Robert Toigo Foundation fellowship.      

CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund with approximately $206 billion in assets, provides retirement benefits to more than 1.6 million State, public school, and local public agency employees, retirees, and their families, and health benefits to nearly 1.3 million members.

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