Japan’s 169 trillion yen ($1.5 trillion) pension fund has a new chief investment officer.
Eiji Ueda, an almost 30-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, started his new role as CIO of the Government Pension Investment Fund April 1, according to the pension fund’s website.
He replaces Hiromichi Mizuno, who had led the giant Japanese pension fund since 2015.
Ueda worked at Goldman Sachs in various divisions from April 1991 until December 2019, according to his bio on GPIF’s website. He was named co-head of Goldman Sach’s Asian securities division in January 2012.
He takes over GPIF at what is sure to be tumultuous time for the world’s largest pension fund. As of the end of last year, the pension fund had just over half of its portfolio invested in equities, including a 24.8 percent allocation to Japanese stocks and a 27.6 percent allocation to foreign equities.
GPIF has not yet reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2020, but the Nikkei 225 index, which tracks Japanese stocks, is down 23.63 percent year-to-date.
Ueda’s term as CIO is expected to last until at least March 31, 2022, according to GPIF’s website.
