Nicole

So I think the best way I'd articulate it is I really have always just been very mission-driven.

I'm very inspired by the notion of being able to invest and then knowing that it's bettering or giving folks a retirement with dignity, if you will.

And I think that's just because I spent almost 17 years at Ontario Teachers.

And so when this opportunity came along to join really the largest pension in the U.S., but also one that's been quite storied and extremely complex, I really got excited just about the idea of being able to bring that toolkit of experience that I had sitting in what I think is still one of the most innovative pensions.

certainly for its time.

And I can touch on that a little bit later, what made it so innovative.

But coming from the learning I had from the very earliest days of my career at Ontario Teachers and being able to bring some of that Canadian style of governance and total portfolio approach, if you will, I thought, you know, what a great time in my career to do that.

So I went, I jumped in, you know, fee first, super excited to take that on.

To step back, the current CIO, Stephen Gilmore, is formally and officially moving the board to a TPA approach.

I would say I tackled it a little bit differently.

Again, I arrived in the middle of COVID.

There was really no one in the halls just yet.

California was still allowing state workers to work from home for the most part.

And so

I really started with a big listening tour.

I know that phrase gets used a lot, but I genuinely just walked the halls for the first 90 days, not 100 days.

My very first board meeting was minutes after I arrived.

And so I said, you know, at my June board meeting, let me walk you through my observations.

And so I think...

Trying to take this, you know, classic listening tour approach really helped me to kind of identify.