Nicole Musicco steps down as CIO at CalPERS

Nicole Musicco is stepping down as the CIO of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) to focus more on the immediate needs of her family in Toronto.

Musicco joined CalPERS in the spring of 2022 and “brought to her work the vision and the values that we needed, the kind of approach that added real clarity and strength to our investing,” said CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost.

Dan Bienvenue, CalPERS’s deputy CIO, will serve as the interim CIO. Bienvenue joined the CalPERS team in 2004 and has held several leadership positions in the investment office. Before joining CalPERS, he was a principal and senior portfolio manager with Barclays Global Investors, where he led an international equity portfolio management team that oversaw $55 billion in capital.

Musicco is only the second woman to have led CalPERS’ investment operations. In her time at CalPERS, she led efforts to evolve and accelerate programs aimed at private-market investing, including new co-investing opportunities. During her tenure, CalPERS developed its focus on high-value sustainable investing. The pension fund is currently building initiatives around the principles of innovation and resiliency.

Musicco was also a key figure in launching the CalPERS initiative to invest $1 billion in investor entrepreneurship and innovation within the investment industry. The initiative aims to support the next generation of emerging and diverse investor entrepreneurs in private markets and is focused on making catalytic seed investments in small, emerging and diverse private equity firm founders.

“Leading the CalPERS investment office has been an honor, and I am proud of the work my team has done to fulfill the retirement promises made to the 2 million Californians who have spent their lives in public service,” Musicco said. “However, at this time I need to prioritize those who need me the most, my family and children.”

CalPERS has announced that it will soon launch a global search to identify candidates for the chief investment officer position.