Increasing returns through managing risk at source

The world's largest pension fund, Calpers, has adopted an aggressive approach to corporate governance. Can this policy decrease risk and increase returns in its equity portfolio? Rachel Wolcott speaks to Christy Wood, who runs the fund's corporate governance effort.

The subject of corporate governance has found its way back into the financial papers over the past few years, but the topic is far from being headline news to the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers).

Calpers has been active in the corporate governance arena since the 1980s and today has roughly $2 billion invested in corporate governance strategies. This activist approach to equity investing significantly affects its returns and materially changes the companies’ overall