CalPERS Says CEO Will Leave This Month

CalPERS, the nation’s biggest pension fund, said Monday that Chief Executive James Burton would leave this month to lead the World Gold Council in London.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System had announced in May that Burton would step down by the end of the year, but a spokesman for the fund said the actual departure came a bit sooner than expected.

“He has gotten a job and it will take him some time to relocate,” said CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco, who added that the pension fund probably would name an interim CEO on Aug. 21.

CalPERS, which has experienced a number of high-profile resignations in the last year, also said it is on schedule to identify Burton’s permanent successor within the next two months.

Burton, whose career spans 27 years with the state of California, will step down Aug. 23 to take the CEO post at the World Gold Council, the London-based association of the world’s leading gold mining companies, CalPERS said.

Under Burton, the pension fund grew from $78 billion in 1994 to its current value of some $140 billion, CalPERS said.

But last August, CalPERS reported that the total value of its assets for the fiscal year ended June 30 slid 7.2% from a year earlier to $156 billion--marking the fund’s worst overall return since 1984.

Burton joined CalPERS in 1992 as assistant executive officer for investment operations.