“Jude Pérez embodies the rare combination of investment excellence, leadership and humility that defines the very best of our profession. He played a central role in developing LACERA’s total portfolio approach and remains a focal point of our Investment Division, helping shape both our strategy and culture while consistently elevating those around him. Jude is the type of leader who creates opportunities for others, provides thoughtful guidance behind the scenes and measures success by the growth of his teammates as much as his own accomplishments. While this recognition celebrates the industry’s next generation of leaders, Jude is already demonstrating the qualities and impact that many aspire to achieve.”
—Jonathan Grabel, Chief Investment Officer, LACERA
The CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER Editorial Team shared a dozen questions with all our NextGen nominees and asked them each to pick six to answer. Their answers informed our decision to include them as a NextGen. Below are Jude Pérez’s answers.
CIO: How are you dealing with market volatility?
Pérez: One lesson I’ve learned is that volatility itself isn’t usually the biggest challenge. The real challenge is maintaining discipline when markets become noisy and uncertainty rises.
When volatility picks up, I try to stay anchored to the long-term objectives we’re investing toward, rather than short-term headlines. As a public pension, our investment horizon spans decades, which gives us the ability to look through temporary market dislocations if the portfolio is built appropriately.
That doesn’t mean ignoring risk. At LACERA, spend a lot of time thinking about liquidity, portfolio resilience and whether market conditions are challenging assumptions embedded in the portfolio. Some of the best investment opportunities emerge during periods of stress, but only if you’ve prepared for them in advance.
Ultimately, I don’t see volatility as something to avoid. It’s part of investing. The goal isn’t to eliminate it. The goal is to ensure it doesn’t force poor decisions at the wrong time.
CIO: How can allocators insulate portfolios from growing headwinds created bywars and military conflicts, tariffs and trade shock, equity concentration risk, AI-related valuation questions and/or private market illiquidity?
Pérez: I think the biggest mistake allocators can make is trying to predict which risk will matter most next. Markets have a way of surprising us.
Instead, we focus on building portfolios that can withstand a range of outcomes. That means maintaining true diversification, monitoring liquidity carefully and understanding where concentration risks exist beneath the surface.
One area that warrants attention today is the interaction between risks. Geopolitical conflicts, fiscal pressures, inflation concerns, AI-driven market enthusiasm and private market liquidity challenges don’t happen in isolation. They often reinforce one another.
No portfolio can be fully insulated from unexpected events, but thoughtful asset allocation, strong governance and liquidity planning can make a portfolio more resilient.
In my experience, the most successful allocators aren’t the ones who predict every risk correctly. They’re the ones who build portfolios that don’t depend on being right about a single future outcome.
CIO: How are you using AI and large language models in your organization’s investment operation?
Pérez: We’re still in the early stages of understanding the full potential of AI, but it’s already proving valuable as a productivity tool.
Today, we primarily use it to help summarize information, organize research, improve drafting efficiency and reduce time spent on routine administrative tasks. Those may sound like small improvements, but they create more time for the work that matters most: investment analysis, manager evaluation, portfolio construction and strategic decisionmaking.
That said, I view AI as a tool, not a substitute for investment judgment. Institutional investing is ultimately about making decisions under uncertainty, and that responsibility still belongs to people.
What excites me most is the opportunity to help investment professionals process information more effectively. If AI enables teams to spend less time gathering information and more time evaluating it, that can lead to better conversations and, potentially, better decisions.
CIO: What traditional and/or alternative asset classes do you think are most important for institutional portfolios, and why?
Pérez: I’ve become less focused on identifying the “most important” asset class and more focused on understanding the role each asset class plays within the total portfolio.
Public equities remain essential because they provide long-term growth and liquidity. Fixed income continues to play a critical role in liquidity management, diversification and capital preservation. Alternatives can provide valuable diversification and access to opportunities that aren’t available in public markets.
What matters most, however, is how these exposures work together.
A portfolio isn’t simply a collection of investments. It’s an ecosystem of risks, return drivers and liquidity characteristics that need to function across a variety of economic environments.
The strongest institutional portfolios are usually not the ones with the most sophisticated investments. They’re the ones in which each allocation has a clear purpose, and the portfolio remains resilient when conditions inevitably change.
CIO: What investing decision have you made for your organization that you’re most proud of?
Pérez: The decisions I’m most proud of are not necessarily tied to a single investment.
Over time, I’ve come to appreciate that long-term investment success depends as much on governance, process and collaboration as it does on selecting investments or asset classes. Some of the most meaningful work I’ve been involved in has focused on improving how decisions are made across the organization and encouraging a more holistic view of the portfolio.
Those efforts aren’t always visible from the outside, but they can have a lasting impact.
For me, success isn’t about being right on one investment. It’s about helping build an organization that’s capable of making sound decisions consistently over time.
As a public pension investor, we’re ultimately investing on behalf of members whose retirements may be decades away. Contributing to that long-term mission is what gives me the greatest sense of pride.
CIO: What new skills do you think allocators or institutional investment teams need to be leaders in the field in the coming decade?
Pérez: Technical expertise will always be important, but I think the next generation of investment leaders will need a broader skill set.
First, they’ll need to think from a total portfolio perspective. Many of the most important risks today don’t fit neatly within traditional asset-class categories.
Second, they’ll need to be comfortable working with technology, data and AI-enabled tools—not necessarily as programmers, but as informed users who understand both the opportunities and limitations of those technologies.
Just as important are communication and leadership skills. Institutional investors spend a great deal of time building consensus, explaining complex ideas, and helping boards and stakeholders make informed decisions.
Finally, I think curiosity and adaptability will be critical. Markets, technology and investor expectations are evolving rapidly. The professionals who will stand out are those who continue learning and remain open to challenging their own assumptions.
