Marcie Frost

Marcie Frost joined CalPERS as chief executive officer (CEO) in October 2016. She is the ninth CEO and second woman to head America's largest public pension fund.

CalPERS administers a defined benefit retirement system for more than 2 million California public sector workers and their families and is the nation's second-largest purchaser of health care benefits, covering more than 1.5 million lives.

As CEO, Marcie oversees the global investment portfolio, an experienced team of 2,800 professionals, and three lines of business for the fund: pensions, health benefits, and investments.

CalPERS delivers on its fiduciary duty to California’s public employees by maximizing long-term investment returns, identifying global opportunities, leveraging the fund's strength to drive sustainable markets and minimizing the risk in its portfolio.

Under Marcie’s leadership, CalPERS has improved its funded status from 68.3 when she arrived to 79 percent at the end of fiscal year 2024-25. In November 2025, the board voted to make CalPERS the first major public pension fund in the United States to embrace the Total Portfolio approach, which gives the team more flexibility to pick investments based on their potential benefit to the entire portfolio.

The fund also integrated climate change risks into its investment decision making process across all asset classes and launched a $100 billion sustainable investment strategy designed to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of CalPERS’ investments by 50% by the end of 2030.

Marcie also expanded CalPERS stakeholder outreach to ensure all parties are informed and have a voice in decisions and the future of the system. She developed its first Diversity, Equity & Inclusion framework focused on an inclusive culture, talent management, health equity, supplier diversity and partnerships with diverse investment firms and introduced initiatives to improve access to equitable and affordable health care.

Marcie serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Council for Inclusive Capitalism at the Vatican and serves on the United Nations Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance. In addition, she currently serves on several Board of Directors, including at: Ceres, which comprises sustainability leaders with diverse backgrounds in sustainable investing, business, research, policy, law and advocacy; the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute, where global pension and investment leaders discuss issues facing long-term institutional investors in Asia and the Pacific Rim; and the Toigo Foundation, which supports the development of diverse investment leaders.

Prior to joining CalPERS, Marcie spent 30 years as a public servant in Washington state, including 16 years in the pension industry, most recently as executive director of Washington state’s Department of Retirement Systems. She also served on the Washington State Investment Board as an ex-officio voting member for four years and served as its chair until she joined CalPERS, and as chair of the Pension Funding Council, responsible for setting economic assumptions and pension contribution rates for Washington state's pension plans.