The investment committee of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System approved the pension plan’s 2016 Real Assets Strategic Plan April 18. The five-year plan builds upon the strategic plan established in 2011 to reset the real assets investment program following the global financial crisis: reduce the number of managers, reduce the use of leverage and focus on core investing. Paul Mouchakkaa, managing investment director with CalPERS, recently spoke with Loretta Clodfelter, editor of Institutional Real Estate Americas, about the new strategic plan. A condensed version of their conversation follows.

Can you walk us through some of the key changes involved in the update to CalPERS’ real assets strategic plan?

I think understanding context is helpful. First and foremost, the big-picture strategy for real estate, infrastructure and forestland — all part of real assets — has not significantly c