James Andrus is Investment Manager for the Board Governance and Sustainability at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). This post is based on Mr. Andrus’ testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets Hearing on Climate Change and Social Responsibility.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify at today’s hearing. My name is James Andrus, and I am an Investment Manager for the Board Governance and Sustainability program for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (“CalPERS”). I am pleased to appear before you today on behalf of CalPERS. We applaud and support the Subcommittee’s focus on building a sustainable and competitive economy.
I will provide an overview of CalPERS, discuss our governing principles, and discuss critical areas in which more disclosures by public issuers are necessary: climate risk, charitable and political expenditures, human capital management, and board diversity. My testimony discusses how a system that ensures effective, accountable and transparent corporate governance is critical to capital formation with the objective of achieving the best returns and value for shareowners over the long-term. Ultimately, CalPERS’s primary responsibility is to our beneficiaries, so our long- term investment returns are central to our views on what information we need to make the right investment choices.
CalPERS
CalPERS is the largest public pension fund in the United States (“U.S.”), with approximately $450 billion in global assets and equity holdings in over 10,000 public companies globally. CalPERS is a fiduciary that provides nearly $25.8 billion annually in retirement benefits to more than 2 million members. Delivering investment returns is our investment office’s number one job. Nearly 55 cents of every dollar paid in those benefits comes from investment returns. Moreover, achieving good investment returns helps us avoid increasing the contributions required from California’s communities. Increasing contributions takes away budget resources otherwise available for those communities to provide public services. This means that our members depend upon safety and soundness in the capital markets for their retirement security. For these reasons, we are focused on sustainability issues that drive risk and return to our portfolio.