# Transcript

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BOB BURTON
Welcome once again to Insight, a programme designed to keep you up-to-date on CalPERS issues. Each year, chief executive officers of organisations from around the world are gathered for a unique opportunity to share their vision. They're brought together by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy with the goal of promoting corporate progress on societal challenges while at the same time driving business performance.
CalPERS CEO, Ann Stausboll, recently took part in that New York City roundtable. And she's here to fill us in on what was shared at the event. Ann, welcome back to Insight.
ANN STAUSBOLL
Thank you, Bob.
BOB BURTON
The organisers of the roundtable tended to position you as a CEO who encourages long-term thinking. Why is long-term thinking so important to CalPERS?
ANN STAUSBOLL
Well, CalPERS, our mission is to provide pension and health benefits for a million and a half members and their families. I think of CalPERS as a perpetuity. We have long-term obligations for many generations to come. So we think long-term in everything that we do.
Our actuaries think out 50 to 60 years. If you think of a career as about 30 years and then retirement as 25 to 30 years, that's 50 to 60 years. Our investors think long-term. They think in terms of a market cycle, which is 5 to 10 years.
So long-term thinking is ingrained in everything we do. Sustainability is at the heart of our pension and health programmes. It's at the heart of our investment portfolio. And it's at the heart of the companies that we invest in.
On the health side, we also care very deeply about wellness. We think that healthy communities are part of sustainability. And then sustainability is part of our own internal operations.
Our workforce has values around wellness, balance, environmental issues, and sustainability. So it's really ingrained in everything that we do.
BOB BURTON
Including, of course, our investment perspective. So when you reach out proactively and you engage companies that we may invest in from an environmental or societal or government standpoint, what do we say in those conversations? And what do we expect to happen as a result?
ANN STAUSBOLL
So those engagements are really guided by one of our investment beliefs that the board adopted last August. And one of those beliefs is that long-term value creation requires attention to three forms of capital, financial capital of course, human capital, your labour force, your supply chains, and then physical capital, which includes environmental issues, attention to our precious, natural resources.
So when we talk to companies, we want to make sure that their boards are paying attention to those global very important issues and that they are having oversight over those issues. So we ask boards and the companies that we meet with, for example, does your board have a committee on sustainability? Is sustainability something you talk about in your risk management committee?
Do you hold your CEO and your executives accountable for sustainability? Is executive compensation tied to those important sustainability issues? So those are the types of things that we talk about with companies.
BOB BURTON: Those are really your role in sustainability.
ANN STAUSBOLL
Yes.
BOB BURTON
Along with your theoretical approach to how to pursue sustainability, for example, comes your personal approach as a chief executive officer. How would you describe your personal approach?
ANN STAUSBOLL
I have a lot of conviction and passion around these issues. I feel it's really important to share that internally with our own workforce as well as those we work with outside of CalPERS. I really want every employee who works here at CalPERS to understand how important our work is and how everything that we do at CalPERS really ties to providing these long-term benefits for our members.
BOB BURTON
Well, now I'd like to do a little distraction and a little show and tell. You had a unique opportunity at the stock exchange recently during your trip to New York. Tell us all about that.
ANN STAUSBOLL
Well, it was a wonderful opportunity. I got to ring the closing bell at the stock exchange earlier this week.
BOB BURTON
What was going through your mind as you were standing up there on that balcony?
ANN STAUSBOLL
It was a little nerve-wracking, Bob. The bell gets rung at 4 o'clock. And I didn't get my instructions until 3:57.
BOB BURTON
Pressure.
ANN STAUSBOLL
A little pressure, yes. An interesting thing is we all call it ringing the bell but it turns out that it's really ringing a buzzer or oppressing a buzzer.
BOB BURTON
Ah-ha. Well, you looked pretty excited up there like you were having a great time.
ANN STAUSBOLL
It was a great time. And it was really an honour to be able to do that on behalf of this great institution.
BOB BURTON
Well, it's always an honour to have you back here for our little Insight chats. Thank you again, Ann, for being here.
ANN STAUSBOLL
Thanks, Bob.
BOB BURTON
You've been watching Insight, conversations with CalPERS leaders. Our guest today was Ann Stausboll, CalPERS chief executive officer. Join us again soon for more Insight.

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