CalPERS Hires Shari Slate as Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

January 5, 2026

Communications & Stakeholder Relations
Office of Public Affairs
(916) 795-3991 - newsroom@calpers.ca.gov

Sacramento, Calif. – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced Monday that it has hired Shari Slate as its new Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer.

Slate, a Sacramento area resident, has spent nearly two decades helping large companies work toward a purpose-driven culture that considers the needs and experiences of all employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Most recently, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at CVS Health, whose businesses include not only CVS drugstores but also pharmacy benefits management and Aetna health insurance.

Prior to joining CVS, Slate was Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Officer and Senior Vice President at Silicon Valley giant Cisco Systems Inc., where she helped launch the Office of Inclusion and Collaboration in 2015.

During Slate’s tenure at Cisco, she helped the company build a pipeline of talent across the full spectrum of diversity. Fortune Magazine recognized Cisco as No. 1 of the “World’s 25 Best Places to Work” in 2019 and 2020 and Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For® in the U.S. for three consecutive years: 2021, 2022, and 2023.

At CalPERS, Slate will drive the ongoing effort to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organization and beyond with suppliers, contractors, and investment partners. She will be a member of the Executive Team and report directly to CEO Marcie Frost.

“Shari brings the kind of leadership this moment calls for – connecting diversity, inclusion, and equity to trust, governance and our core values,” Frost said. “She will help CalPERS continue to lead with our purpose, which is to deliver the best outcomes for the millions of people who depend on us for their retirement and health care benefits.”

Slate said she joined CalPERS because of “its clarity of purpose and the responsibility it carries.”

“CalPERS shows up for people at one of the most important moments of their lives, when work ends and trust matters most,” she said. “I hope to ensure that CalPERS works for all the people it was built to serve – beginning with our people and extending to every member who depends on this system.”

A graduate of Mills College, Slate began her career in sales and was an award-winning manager for Xerox Corp. before being hired at Sun Microsystems as one of the youngest diversity officers at a Fortune 500 company.

She has served on numerous boards and councils, including the California State University Foundation Board of Governors and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Systemic Inequalities and Social Cohesion.

Slate represented Cisco on the Business Roundtable’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group after 181 CEOs redefined the purpose of a corporation to serve all stakeholders. She contributed to shaping the group’s view of DEI not as a standalone goal, but the connective tissue linking employee well-being, business performance, customer trust, supplier inclusion, and community impact.

About CalPERS

For more than nine decades, CalPERS has built retirement and health security for state, school, and public agency members who invest their lifework in public service. Our pension fund serves nearly 2.4 million members in the CalPERS retirement system and administers benefits for more than 1.5 million members and their families in our health program, making us the largest defined-benefit public pension in the U.S.