Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry Stephen Gilmore – CalPERS' Total Portfolio Approach (EP.486)
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Feb 9, 2026 
Stephen Gilmore, CalPERS Chief Investment Officer and former sovereign fund CIO, discusses the Total Portfolio Approach and how it reshapes portfolio construction. He explains moving from siloed asset targets to a reference portfolio, risk-equivalent comparisons across assets, funding new investments by selling combinations of equities and bonds, governance shifts, data and systems needs, and how scale shapes active risk and manager access.
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A Nonlinear Career Built Cross-Asset Views
- Stephen walked through his varied career from central banking to derivatives desks, IMF, and sovereign funds.
- Those diverse roles shaped his cross-asset understanding and approach to portfolio construction.
Lessons From AIGFP During The Crisis
- Stephen Gilmore described his time at AIGFP during the financial crisis and the role of liquidity stress.
- He learned that even brilliant teams can fail and that anticipating liquidity shocks is vital.
Build Whole-Portfolio Data Systems
- Prioritize whole-of-portfolio data systems over many asset-class-specific tools to enable integrated decision-making.
- Simplify and aggregate analytics so leaders can view the portfolio in a common language.