What 10 years at CalPERS and New Jersey taught me about building private markets
by Niraj Agarwal
For a decade, my job was to lead large-scale private markets programs for two of the country’s largest public pensions — first at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), then for the State of New Jersey. Before that, I sat on the sell side, leading transactions that institutions like these eventually bought. I learned and did a lot during that time, with one key learning as 2025 came around: Institutions such as pensions, endowments and sovereign funds have driven private markets for almost as long as private markets have been around, and the playbook we built was ...
