THEODORE ELIOPOULOS

Reigning over the $16 billion (€10 billion) real estate portfolio of the largest public pension in the US, Theodore Eliopoulos has a monumental task at hand. But the task seems less monumental in the hands of this real estate veteran, who began his career as a real estate lawyer, and for five years worked at the California State Treasurer, first as deputy treasurer then as chief deputy treasurer. Eliopoulos was hired as senior investment officer for real estate at the $253 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) in 2006. Just over a year following Eliopoulos' appointment, the California pension announced it was increasing its real estate allocation to 10 percent from eight percent, at the same time as increasing its private equity target from six percent to 10 percent. As chief of CalPERS' massive real estate portfolio, Eliopoulos oversees the system's internal real estate staff and external advisors responsible for investing in and managing property investments for the pension. In his previous career, Eliopoulos was California chief deputy treasurer, a role he had from 2005 to the beginning of 2007. At the State Treasurer's Office, Eliopoulos oversaw a $40 million annual budget, responsible also for oversight of the State Treasury's $50 billion pooled money investment account. Before becoming chief deputy treasurer, Eliopoulos was as deputy treasurer from 2002 to 2005 – during which he represented the Treasurer on the investment committee of CalPERS and neighboring CalSTRS, the California State Teachers' Retirement System. Before his illustrious career in public service though, Eliopoulos was president of Actium Development Corporation, a Roseville, California, firm that provided real estate services to Californian companies. He also served as special assistant in the US Department of Energy from 1993 to 1996 and prior to that was an associate attorney in the real estate department for Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles.