SACRAMENTO—The nation's largest defined-benefit public pension, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, has named Paul Mouchakkaa as its senior investment officer for real assets. Mouchakkaa takes over the position on March 2, succeeding Ted Eliopoulos, who was appointed CalPERS' CIO this past September, in turn succeeding the late Joe Dear.

As SIO of real assets, the Los Angeles-based Mouchakkaa will manage a 60-member professional staff, with responsibility for implementing and managing investment strategy and policy for the pension fund's $29.6-billion portfolio in real assets worldwide. He will also contribute as a member of the investment office's senior management team in developing CalPERS overall investment strategy. 

Mouchakkaa will join CalPERS from Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, where currently he serves as managing director, a position he assumed in November 2011. Before his current position he was managing director at Pension Consulting Alliance and also did a stint at CalPERs, serving as a portfolio manager in its real estate group.

“Paul is a talented and experienced real estate professional, and we're thrilled to have him on our team,” Eliopoulos says. "He has a proven track record of success and I'm confident that will continue at CalPERS.”

CalPERS' real assets arm is made up of the real estate, infrastructure and forestland programs. Largest of these is real estate, which holds more than $25 billion in retail, office, industrial and other property assets. This past October,  CalPERS said it planned to increase its commercial real estate allocation by 27% over the next year, upsizing its exposure by as much as $7 billion.