The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the United States with total assets under management of over $556 billion, has hired Mascha Canio, the head of credit and insurance-linked investments at PGGM, to lead its debt investment portfolio.
Canio will take on the role of Head of Private Debt at CalPERS and brings the pension decades of experience in managing investments across a range of asset classes.
In her most recent role, Canio spent nine years working as the Head of Credit and Insurance-linked investments at Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM.
Recall that PGGM is the largest end-investor in the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market, with numerous different allocations and access points established over the years to access reinsurance and ILS market returns.
In her role at PGGM, Canio managed the insurance and reinsurance linked investment team at PGGM, with oversight for its significant ILS portfolio allocations.
In total she had over $17 billion of assets under her management, across credit opportunities and ILS investments.
The PGGM ILS investment portfolio was last reported to be around $8.7 billion in size, as of the end of 2024, making the investor the largest single allocator to the ILS marketplace.
“Mascha will bring a wealth of talent and experience to her new role,” explained CalPERS Chief Investment Officer Stephen Gilmore. “She’s spent a career working to improve returns for pension funds, and managed portfolios across different asset classes. These experiences and her keen understanding of credit markets will allow us to build on the success of our private debt program.”
In her time at PGM, who Canio joined in 2006 (the year it began managing an ILS allocation for PFZW, the Dutch pension fund for the care and healthcare sector), she has been responsible for infrastructure, private equity, and insurance-linked investments, always with credit risk sharing also under her watch. In addition, Canio’s financial expertise was also leveraged to help financially troubled segments of the Netherland’s economy during the 2008 financial crisis, the announcement explains.
Prior to joining PGGM, Canio served as head of Europe at Octagon Credit Investors, a U.S.-based corporate credit investment advising firm and she began her career in 1991 at Shell Pension Fund in the Netherlands, becoming a senior member of the fixed income team.
Canio also sits on the board of the International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers (IACPM).
She will join CalPERS in October, taking over the private debt investment responsibilities at the giant pension from its Head of Private Equity Anton Orlich who has had interim responsibility for the asset class for the past year.
At this time CalPERS is not understood to have any meaningful ILS allocation. But with the experience of Canio in managing the ILS investing team at PGGM coming onboard in October, while she may be leading private debt, it also seems possible insurance-linked investments could gain a higher profile at the giant US pension fund.
