Anton Orlich has been promoted to deputy chief investment officer for private markets for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the $621 billion pension plan announced.
Orlich confirmed the promotion with Institutional Investor but declined to comment further. He replaces Daniel Booth, who left in October. CalPERS selected Orlich after conducting a national search for Booth’s replacement.
After overhauling the state megaplan’s private equity program, the recipient of II’s award for leadership and vision last year will oversee CalPERS’ alternative investment programs, including private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure. He will report to CIO Stephen Gilmore.
Orlich has been managing investment director of private equity for CalPERS since 2022 (he was also interim managing investment director of private debt from 2024 to 2025). He will continue to lead private equity until a replacement is selected.
When Orlich took over CalPERS’ private equity strategy, the former U.S. Navy intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan focused on manager selection, lower-cost structures, and diversification toward companies in venture, growth, and middle-market buyout.
“Anton’s strong leadership of our private equity effort shows up not only in higher returns, but also through greater engagement and performance among our team members,” Gilmore said.
Under Orlich, private equity has been a top long-term performer for CalPERS, delivering double-digit returns for the five-, 10-, and 20-year annualized returns as of the end of March. His commitments in the 2023 and 2024 vintages helped drive the program’s first top-quartile returns in the plan’s history.
CalPERS has about 20 percent allocated to private equity, 13 percent to real assets, and 4 percent to private debt.
CalPERS has cut fees as a percentage of total private equity assets by 35 percent since 2024. Orlich intends to keep using the investment team’s expertise “to partner with top managers and reduce costs.”
“Investing in private companies gives us the opportunity to earn better returns for our members while diversifying the portfolio to limit risk,” Orlich said in a statement.
Separately, CalPERS also hired CPP Investments veteran Derek Walker as managing investment director for total fund portfolio management. Walker was at CPP Investments, the investment management arm of the Canada Pension Plan, for nearly 18 years. Walker joins CalPERS as it becomes the first plan to formally adopt the total portfolio approach (TPA), which takes a more holistic, less siloed view of portfolio management than the standard strategic allocation approach (SAA).
