Morgan Stanley Hires Former CalPERS CIO

Morgan Stanley’s investment management unit has hired Ted Eliopoulos, the former chief investment officer of California Public Employees’ Retirement System, as vice chairman and head of strategic partnerships in New York, according to an internal memo.

Eliopoulos will help the unit to “deepen partnerships” with its most important clients and serve as a senior adviser to CIOs, said Dan Simkowitz, the head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, in the memo, sent Thursday. Eliopoulos will report to Simkowitz.

CalPERS, the largest U.S. pension fund,announced in Maythat Eliopoulos would leave at the end of the year to be closer to his family in New York. In his new role at Morgan Stanley, he will co-chair the group’s sustainable investing council and join investment committees in its private businesses, according to the memo.

“Over his 11 plus years at CalPERS, Ted was responsible for an investment portfolio of approximately $350 billion including both public and private assets,” Simkowitz said in the memo. The “deep expertise” that Eliopoulos has in alternatives, ESG, and portfolio construction will help Morgan Stanley deliver “differentiated value” to its clients, he said.

The bank's investment management unit oversees $471 billion of assets globally, according to itswebsite.

While institutional investors have been adopting environmental, social and governance criteria into the manager selection process, ESG has not been as popular as alternative strategies such as private equity.

[IIDeep Dive:CalPERS Names Ben Meng CIO]

In May, CalPERS said thatprivate equityhas been the fund's highest-returning asset class for the past 20 years, with a 10.6 percent annual gain. The pension fund announced in September that it hired Ben Meng, the deputy CIO of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in Beijing, to replace Eliopoulos.