press releases

Calstrs clean technology advisory board convenes first meeting

 

  • Sacramento – The California State Teachers’ Retirement System broke new ground in
  • the arena of environmental investing this week with the convening of its first-ever Clean
  • Technology Advisory Board.
  •  
  • The role of the advisory board will be to provide CalSTRS staff with an independent
  • view of the different strategies within the various segments of the clean (or environmentally
  • friendly) technology industry. The goal is to help CalSTRS develop clean technology investment
  • strategies that provide risk-adjusted returns commensurate with the existing CalSTRS
  • Alternative Investment Program. The advisory board will not be making recommendations on
  • specific investments.
  •  
  • The group consists of seven members outside of CalSTRS staff, representing the fields of
  • science, engineering, policy and business. The members include:
  •  
  • • Roy Doumani, board member and Chief Operations Officer of the California
  • Nanosystems Institute
  • • Bob Epstein, entrepreneur, engineer and co-founder of four information technology
  • companies (Sybase, GetActive Software, Zight and Britton-Lee)
  • • Leo Gerard of United Steelworkers of America and the Apollo Alliance, a coalition
  • within the labor, environmental, business, urban and faith communities in support of
  • good jobs and energy independence
  • • Peter Liu, Principal of LM Investments and co-founder and Vice-Chair of the China-
  • U.S. Energy Efficiency Alliance
  • • Keith Raab, co-founder, President and CEO of the Cleantech Venture Network, a
  • grouping of member investors managing more than $3 billion in clean technology
  • investment assets
  • • Russell Pullan, head of Venture Capital and Fund Investments for The Carbon Trust,
  • a London-based private, limited company that invests government funds in new,
  • clean energy and low-carbon technologies
  • • Glenn Yago, Director of Capital Studies at the Milken Institute
  • Winston Hickox of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System also attended as
  • an observer.
  •  
  • The first meeting, held Monday at the CalSTRS office in Sacramento, featured discussion
  • of each member’s viewpoints on clean technology and energy investment opportunities. The
  • group agreed that the clean technology investment area should be approached in a proactive
  • manner, and that the creation of the advisory board was timely.
  •  
  • According to Real Desrochers, Director of Alternative Investments for CalSTRS, “We
  • are very fortunate to have the expertise of this exemplary advisory panel available to CalSTRS.
  • Clean technology, including clean energy, is a rapidly growing sector of our economy. With the
  • guidance of this group, CalSTRS will be able to reap the rewards of being in a leadership
  • position as new technologies – such as nanotechnology – fulfill their promises to provide
  • innovations in energy, pollution abatement and cleanup, and medicine.
  •  
  • “We can help jumpstart the future of California and the world, and we can do it while
  • earning strong returns for our beneficiaries.”
  •  
  • The Clean Technology Advisory Board is expected to meet approximately three times a
  • year. The next meeting, to be held in March 2005 in San Francisco, will include a discussion of
  • unrecognized opportunities within the clean technology industry. During the interim, members
  • will be interacting further to develop the advisory board objectives.
  •  
  • CalSTRS is the third-largest public pension fund in the United States, with a current
  • market value of $115 billion. It provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to
  • California’s public school educators from kindergarten through community college, serving
  • more than 735,000 members and their families. For more information, visit the CalSTRS Web
  • site at www.calstrs.com.