Mascha Canio

Mascha Canio serves as the managing investment director of private debt and assumed the role in October 2025.

The program she oversees primarily invests in privately negotiated, non-traded debt-like instruments typically issued to companies. In addition, the Private Debt Program provides other types of financing for the real economy.

Canio is a leader in the private debt industry and has decades of experience managing a variety of asset types on behalf of pension systems. She joined CalPERS after nine years as head of credit and insurance-linked investments at Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM, where she managed assets valued at approximately $17 billion. While at PGGM, she developed a high-performing private credit strategy that has earned international recognition.

In other senior positions at PGGM, Canio managed credit risk sharing as well as infrastructure, private equity, and insurance-linked investments. Her financial expertise was also tapped to shore up financially troubled segments of the Netherland’s economy during the 2008 financial crisis.

Before PGGM, Canio served as head of Europe at Octagon Credit Investors, a U.S.-based manager of collateralized loan obligations. She set up the firm’s European office after it decided to expand into Europe, and managed investments in the European market for leveraged bank loans and high-yield bonds.

Her career began in 1991 at Shell Pension Fund in the Netherlands where she quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior member of the fixed income team. In her role as a fund manager, Canio actively managed a portfolio in government debt, corporate bonds, and emerging markets debt.

Canio earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Nijenrode Business University in the Netherlands.