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Marcie Frost

CEO, California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)

Marcie Frost joined CalPERS as chief executive officer (CEO) in October 2016. She is the ninth CEO and second woman to head America's largest public pension fund.


CalPERS administers a defined benefit retirement system for more than 2 million California public sector workers and their families and is the nation's second-largest purchaser of health care benefits, covering more than 1.5 million lives.


As CEO, Marcie oversees a global investment portfolio of $464 billion1, an experienced team of 2,800 professionals, and three lines of business for the fund: pensions, health benefits, and investments.

CalPERS delivers on its fiduciary duty to California’s public employees, by maximizing long-term investment returns, identifying global opportunities, leveraging the fund's strength to drive sustainable markets and minimizing the risk in its portfolio.


Under Marcie’s leadership, CalPERS developed an integrated review of assets and liabilities, known as its Asset Liability Management process, to inform asset allocation decisions and set investment return assumptions to achieve a sound and sustainable fund. The fund also integrated climate change risks into its investment decision making process across all asset classes and launched a $100 billion sustainable investment strategy designed to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of CalPERS’ investments by 50% by the end of 2030.

CalPERS is a founding member of Climate Action 100+, an initiative with 700 signatories and $68 trillion in assets under management, working cooperatively to ensure the world's largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action to address climate change.


Marcie also expanded CalPERS stakeholder outreach to ensure all parties are informed and have a voice in decisions and the future of the system. She developed its first Diversity, Equity & Inclusion framework focused on an inclusive culture, talent management, health equity, supplier diversity and partnerships with diverse investment firms and introduced initiatives to improve access to equitable and affordable health care.


Marcie has also been appointed as a Guardian for the Council for Inclusive Capitalism at the Vatican and serves on the United Nations Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. In addition, she currently serves on several Board of Directors, including at: Ceres, which comprises sustainability leaders with diverse backgrounds in sustainable investing, business, research, policy, law and advocacy; the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute, where global pension and investment leaders discuss issues facing long-term institutional investors in Asia and the Pacific Rim; and the Toigo Foundation, which supports the development of diverse investment leaders.


Prior to joining CalPERS, Marcie spent 30 years as a public servant in Washington state, including 16 years in the pension industry, most recently as executive director of Washington state’s Department of Retirement Systems. She also served on the Washington State Investment Board as an ex-officio voting member for four years and served as its chair until she joined CalPERS, and as chair of the Pension Funding Council, responsible for setting economic assumptions and pension contribution rates for Washington state's pension plans.


Marcie Frost
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