The chief executive of CalPERS, the nation's biggest pension fund, will leave this month to take over the same post at the World Gold Council in London.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, had announced in May that James Burton would be stepping down by the end of the year. But a spokesman for the fund told the Reuters news agency that 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.
CalPERS said it remains 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 on 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.
But as Reuters notes, the fund reported in August that the total value of its assets for the fiscal year ended June 30 had slid 7.2 percent from a year earlier to $156 billion.
To view the Reuters story, via Yahoo!, click here.
