The US’s largest defined benefit public pension fund has promoted Anton Orlich to deputy chief investment officer for private markets and made an external appointment to fill the position of managing investment director for total fund portfolio management.
In his new role, effective immediately, Orlich will oversee private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, and other alternative investment programmes, and will report to Stephen Gilmore, chief investment officer at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers).
He replaces Daniel Booth, who stepped down in October last year.
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Since 2022, Orlich has served as managing investment director of private equity at Calpers and, from 2024 to 2025 was interim managing investment director of private debt. He will continue to lead private equity until a replacement is found.
He has refocused Calpers’ private equity strategy on manager selection, lower-cost structures, and diversification toward companies in venture, growth, and middle-market buyout.
According to Calpers, in the last fiscal year it posted the best private equity performance among large public pension funds in the US. The pension fund has also taken steps to reduce fees as a percentage of total private equity assets by 35 per cent since 2024.
“We’ll continue to leverage the expertise of our investment team to partner with top managers and reduce costs,” Orlich said. “Investing in private companies gives us the opportunity to earn better returns for our members while diversifying the portfolio to limit risk. We greatly appreciate the vision and leadership of our chief executive officer, Marcie Frost, to improve our funded status through private markets, and the important responsibility she has afforded to the private markets team to contribute to the retirement security of those who serve California.”
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Calpers also announced the hiring of Derek Walker, who joins after nearly 18 years in a variety of roles at CPP Investments, which manages assets on behalf of the Canada Pension Plan.
In his new role as managing director for total fund portfolio management, Walker will lead the pension fund’s transition to a total portfolio approach (TPA), which is “a holistic way of evaluating each potential investment strategy for its potential risk and ability to generate income for the pension fund, rather than setting specific allocations for each asset class”.
In November 2025, Calpers became the first large public pension fund in the US to adopt the TPA approach, which will officially launch in July this year.
Walker, whose appointment takes effect in July, will oversee the total fund portfolio management team, and will also report into Gilmore.
“I’m thrilled to announce the promotion of Anton Orlich and the hiring of Derek Walker,” said Frost. “They are among the most creative, experienced, and well-respected leaders in the pension world, and I’m confident they will produce results for our members.”
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