U.S. pension fund Calpers says CEO Anne Stausboll to retire

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) - Anne Stausboll will step down as chief executive at California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund where for seven years she has demanded better governance at companies while pressing investment managers to cut fees.

Calpers said Stausboll, who has been the fund's chief executive officer since 2009, will step down on June 30.

Stausboll, a trained lawyer, took Calpers' top job during a tough time as investment returns had cratered nearly 30 percent during the financial crisis and the fund was battered by a corruption scandal.

Her predecessor, Fred Buenrostro, pleaded guilty in 2014 to accepting kickbacks in return for steering investment dollars to certain private-equity firms.

"She led us through a difficult period, and we have emerged as a more accountable, transparent, and smarter institution," Rob Feckner, president of the pension fund's board, said in a statement.

The fund did not say who will replace her.

On Stausboll's watch, Calpers' assets swelled to $276 billion from $170 billion and she pushed the pension fund to flex its muscle in demanding more diversity in board rooms and working to engage more companies on climate change.

Also in 2014, the fund said it would exit its hedge fund investments, calling them too costly and complicated only a few years after becoming one of the first pensions to push into alternative investments like hedge funds.

Stausboll, 59, was the first woman to lead the 84-year old pension fund which administers benefits for some 1.4 Californians. Before being promoted to the top job she twice served as interim chief investment officer and worked at the pension fund's legal office.

More recently though the fund, like others across the country, struggled to deliver top investment returns as interest rates remained low and weaker stock market returns. For the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2015, Calpers reported a 2.4 percent gain on its investments, far below the 18.4 percent return it posted in 2014.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Cynthia Osterman, Diane Craft)

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