Puneet Kohli
The $382.4 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System on Wednesday named Puneet Kohli as investment director of risk-mitigating strategies. Kohli, who began his role on November 5, succeeds Steve Tong, who retired from the same role after 40 years of service at the West Sacramento, California-based fund.
Kohli will oversee allocations across the risk-mitigating strategy portfolio’s investments and will partner with external managers to build out risk-mitigating strategies alongside CalSTRS’ fixed-income and global equity teams.
The pension fund’s risk-mitigating strategy portfolio aims to protect against equity market downturns of greater than 20% by investing in downside protection and diversifier strategies. The portfolio was created in 2008 after the global financial crisis to preserve the pension fund’s capital and to reduce downside risk and volatility across the total fund portfolio.
“RMS enhances CalSTRS’ resilience through fluctuating financial market cycles and has been a pivotal asset class during several public-market downturns since its inception,” CalSTRS stated.
CalSTRS allocated 7.6% of its assets ($29 billion) to the RMS portfolio, as of September 30, with a policy target of 10%. In July, CalSTRS reported that the RMS portfolio had lost 7.2% against a benchmark performance of negative 4.6% in the 2025 fiscal year, the one-year period ending June 30. That return came in a period that contained significant short-term drawdown after President Donald Trump’s April tariff announcements and subsequent recovery. The RMS portfolio reported five- and 10-year annualized returns of 1.1% and 1.2%, respectively.
“Puneet is an exceptional addition to our already amazing senior investment team,” CalSTRS CIO Scott Chan said in a statement. “His talent will benefit California’s public educators and help us continue to fulfill our mission of securing their financial future.”
Kohli is joining CalSTRS from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he was a senior managing director responsible for leading that fund’s external managers group. He also worked in the fixed income and derivatives group at the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, served as a portfolio manager at the National Bank of Canada, and worked as vice president of global equity derivatives at the Bank of Montreal.
“I am honored to join CalSTRS and lead our risk-mitigating strategies portfolio,” Kohli said in a statement. “I look forward to working alongside our talented team to build on the program’s strong foundation.”
Kohli earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics, statistics and actuarial sciences from the University of Toronto, as well as an MBA in finance and marketing from the Schulich School of Business at York University, also in Ontario.
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