Emerging & Diverse Manager Program
For more than 30 years, CalPERS has developed and implemented emerging manager programs and invested with emerging and diverse managers.
Our objective for investing in emerging manager programs is to:
- Generate appropriate, risk-adjusted investment returns by identifying early-stage funds with strong potential for success.
- Access unique investment opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked.
- Cultivate the next generation of external investment management talent.
Private Equity Emerging & Diverse Manager Fund Commitment
In 2023, CalPERS announced a $1 billion commitment to identify and support the next generation of investor entrepreneurs in private markets. Our commitment represents the next evolutionary step in our emerging and diverse manager strategy in Private Equity. We want to establish an ecosystem that helps emerging and diverse firms mitigate risk, unlock alpha, accelerate growth, and provide risk-adjusted returns. We’ll directly invest in investment entrepreneurs to create meaningful relationships with high-performing, next generation managers with a strong potential for success.
Through the Emerging Manager Program, we hire advisors who construct portfolios of smaller asset management firms for us. If you're an emerging manager and would like to submit an investment proposal, you may reach out to one of the emerging manager advisors below.
| Advisor | Advisor Contact Information |
|---|---|
| GCM Elevate |
|
| TPG Next |
|
To develop a definition for diverse managers, staff identified four core demographics (i.e., gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other) as diversity identifiers. The CalPERS Board approved the following diverse manager definitions based on the total percentage of firm ownership, or fund economics:
- Substantially diverse: A firm that is 25% to 50% owned by women and/or ethnic minority group members, and/or a person of the LGBTQ+ community, or where diverse teams receive 25% to 50% of the fund’s carried interest.
- Majority diverse: A firm that is over 50% owned by women and/or ethnic minority group members, and/or a person of the LGBTQ+ community, or where diverse teams receive more than 50% of the fund’s carried interest.
Minority group members include United States citizens and permanent residents who are African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander, or other, based EEO-1 US Census classifications.
Persons of the LGBTQ+ community include people who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, queer, and more.
California law prohibits state agencies from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public contracting. Therefore, we may not grant preferential treatment to emerging or diverse managers based on the above characteristics.
Women and minority managers are more likely to be emerging managers; as a result, an ancillary benefit of our emerging manager strategies may be the increased diversification of our external fund managers.
We generally define emerging managers as newly formed or relatively small firms. Each CalPERS asset class has emerging manager definitions based on assets under management (AUM), length of track record, and/or the specific fund’s size when applicable.
Fund of fund advisors have traditionally operated our Emerging Manager Programs. These advisors act as an extension of staff and manage the sourcing, selecting, diligence, and commitment processes for us. However, our investments with emerging and diverse managers are not limited to dedicated emerging manager programs. We’re committed to equal access and opportunity for all investment managers, who may submit an investment proposal to CalPERS at any time.
Below are the definitions for emerging managers based on asset class. The qualification thresholds vary across asset classes for reasons related to the nature of the respective asset classes (e.g., private vs public).
For private assets (private debt, private equity, and real assets,) the emerging manager definition is based on a fund size equal to or less than $2 billion dollars, and length of track record as follows, for:
- Private debt - first, second, or third institutional fund
- Private equity - first, second, or third institutional fund
- Real assets - first, second, or third institutional fund or separate account
Public assets include global equity and global fixed income. The emerging manager definition for these assets is based on AUM totaling less than or equal to $5 billion dollars.