The Bee is reporting today that CalPERS’ chief investment officer Russell Read is calling it quits. We’ve mentioned Mr. Read here before, less than two years ago in fact, when he first took the job.
Why such a short tenure? Well, it’s not due to Mr. Read’s investing acumen, which led the country’s largest pension fund to achieve higher than average gains in an iffy market. No. It’s instead the pull of Mother Earth on Mr. Read’s heartstrings. According to the Bee, Mr. Read says that he’s leaving “to pursue my long-standing interests in environmental and clean technology investing.”
In other words, if you’ve got a Series 7 license and PhD in biology, Mr. Read might be looking for your particular skill set. Time to dust off that resume.
The Sac Rag 
Maybe he knows its time to get out while you can, and leave with a +19% next to his name, since that won’t be happening again in FI 2008.
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Again, this is why the proposed salary caps on traders & fund management at PERS are a bad idea. None of them stick around long; they can all get paid far more in private industry. Why not let the public profit from their skill as well, by paying them a competitive wage?
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And just to muddy the waters more, Bloomberg is reporting that CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro may be stepping down as well. Sounds like not all is well in the land of public pensions.
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