Joe Dear, the former head of the Washington State Investment Board and past Chief of Staff for Washington State Governor Gary Locke, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. Dear most recently served as Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension fund.
In his role at both CALPERS and the WSIB, Dear allocated billions of dollars to some of the top venture capital and private equity firms. He also was responsible for the organizations’ investments in bonds, mortgage backed securities, real estate, hedge funds and other asset classes.
He was born in Washington D.C. and attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia. After college Dear worked in a number of roles in government, serving as Director of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and as Assistant Secretary of Labor at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Clinton Administration.
Dear joined CALPERS in 2009, helping to reposition the organization. It now manages $283 billion in assets, managing the health and retirement benefits on behalf of 3,064 public school, agency and state employers. The fund returned 16.2 percent last year, which according to Bloomberg was the biggest return in 11 years.
Here’s the full statement from CALPERS on Dear’s passing:
It is with tremendous sadness that CalPERS announces the passing of Joseph A. Dear, our Chief Investment Officer. Joe had been battling prostate cancer and had recently taken a leave from running the CalPERS Investment Office. Words cannot express the loss that the CalPERS family feels at this time. Joe was an invaluable member of the CalPERS Executive Team, an incredible leader of the Investment Office and a good friend to all those who knew and worked closely with him. We will miss Joe, his passion for excellence in performance and his sharp wit and humor. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to Joe’s wife, Anne Sheehan, and his children, Annie and Ben.
Joe was born in 1951 in Washington, D.C., but fell in love with the Pacific Northwest during his time at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. It was there he cultivated his passion for both the Cascade Mountains and for making government work better through innovative public policy and sheer force of will.
A dedicated public servant, Joe worked at the highest levels of state and federal government service. He was hired by the CalPERS Board of Administration in 2009 when the financial industry was suffering from the global meltdown which led to the Great Recession and a loss of one fourth of CalPERS assets in its portfolio. Joe guided the largest public pension fund portfolio in the nation to recoup all of its financial losses and reach new heights of more than $283 billion in assets.
During the past five years Joe has built a strong team of professionals who will continue to deliver the necessary investment results in order to provide the retirement benefits of those CalPERS members who serve Californians every day of their careers. Ted Eliopoulos will continue as the Acting Chief Investment Officer until the CalPERS Board of Administration makes any announcements about a search for a new Chief Investment Officer.
Details on services are pending. There will be services in Sacramento, CA, and Olympia, WA. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be directed to the Joseph A. Dear Memorial Scholarship Endowment at The Evergreen State College Foundation.
