The California Public Employees' Retirement System, a public pension fund with approximately $229 billion in assets, has appointed CalPERS executive Larry Jensen as chief risk officer, a new position created to improve the pension fund's overall risk management program.

As chief risk officer, Jensen will serve as an independent adviser and consultant to the Board's Ad Hoc Risk Committee. He will oversee risk intelligence gathering to support decision-making and help evaluate executives' risk management performance. He reports to Steve Kessler, deputy executive officer for operations; CEO Anne Stausboll; and the CalPERS board.

Jensen has been interim chief risk officer since Oct. 1, 2010, when he was appointed to head the new Office of Enterprise Risk Management and to independently assess risk for CalPERS. He oversees four primary functions: enterprise risk management; enterprise compliance; enterprise privacy and security; and business continuity/disaster recovery.

Prior to his interim appointment last year, Jensen served as the assistant executive officer for the administrative services branch since January 2010. He joined the CalPERS Office of Audit Services in June 1995 and became chief auditor in 2002.