Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Innovation Investing Conference
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • 2022 Alternatives Investing Conference
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Print
June 11, 2001 01:00 AM

ONE OF A KIND: GRETA MARSHALL, 63

Innovative: Led CalPERS into international investments, later formed her own company

Barry B. Burr
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Greta E. Marshall, CalPERS' first chief investment officer, is remembered by those who worked with her as an astute asset allocator, an adventurerous traveler and, at times, a whimsical personality.

    Ms. Marshall, 63, died June 3 at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nev., after a battle with cancer. She resided in nearby Incline Village.

    Despite her illness, she maintained her near-irrepressible spirit almost to the end. According to her niece, Pamela Emmerich, she went skiing in British Columbia only six weeks before she died.

    "Greta never let anything stop her," said Kim Ratcliffe, an equity analyst at Peak Financial Management Inc., Wellesley, Mass., who worked with Ms. Marshall twice before.

    Ms. Marshall worked in nearly every type of organization involved in institutional investment management, starting in 1960 as a Wall Street analyst.

    From there, she became director-investments of Deere & Co., Moline, Ill., overseeing the corporation's pension fund investments for 10 years. When she left in 1984, the plan had $1.5 billion in assets, some $1 billion of which was run in-house. From Deere, she was hired by BayBanks of Boston as president of its new BayBanks Investment Management Co. unit.

    From BayBank, she was hired in 1985 as CIO of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, after the state separated it from the California State Teachers' Retirement System. CalPERS then had $25 billion in assets, all run internally.

    Innovative hires

    During Ms. Marshall's tenure, CalPERS hired its first discretionary money managers, including in the first group such innovative firms as Dimensional Fund Advisors Inc. and the Gary P. Brinson-led First Chicago Investment Advisors. She was instrumental in CalPERS' making its first international investments, as well as developing an equity trading system to minimize the potentially costly market impact the big fund could have.

    In 1988, she left CalPERS after declining to renew her contract. She formed her own firm, GEM Advisors Inc., which included The Marshall Plan LP and GEM Trading Services LP.

    The Marshall Plan, her main investment advisory firm, never grew much beyond $70 million in assets under management, according to published data. But its clients included the Illinois State Board of Investments, which hired it to run $20 million in equities.

    According to Ms. Ratcliffe, who was director of research, the Marshall Plan used models to segment equities into large value, large growth, small value and small growth. Ms. Marshall would shift assets completely into whichever segment was most in favor as determined by the models, unless directed by clients to split their funds among other segments.

    Ms. Marshall was an astute investor. While at CalPERS, she shifted some $3 billion out of equities just before the October 1987 market crash and quickly bought back stocks afterward.

    "She had a unique sense of marketing timing, of when to go from one model to another," said Kenneth L. Holmes, director of consultant Peirce Park Group, Wilmington, Del., who knew Ms. Marshall through the institutional investment community.

    Ms. Marshall closed her firms sometime after 1999, as she "needed to spend more time with her health," said Ms. Ratcliffe.

    The ERA IRA

    Ms. Marshall promoted the advancement of women in investing. In 1982, she worked with a small group to promote an idea they called an ERA IRA, an individual retirement account promoted under the banner of the equal rights amendment for women. The group tried to enlist the support of the National Organization for Women, even suggesting paying a fee in return for its endorsement. The idea never got off the drawing board, recalled Mr. Holmes, who worked with her on the project.

    "If you could call a woman a great guy, she was a great guy," he said.

    She was well known and a friend of many people in the money management community. Wayne H. Wagner, president of Plexus Group, Los Angeles, has been a member for 15 years of the ski group she helped form in the 1980s, which comprised Americans and Canadians of various professions. But he said he didn't have the daring for her last trip, which involved Sno-Cat skiing, in which the skiers are transported off trails by Caterpillar-like tractors. She also used to helicopter ski, he said, where skiers are flown to remote mountain locations.

    "She liked extreme sports," Mr. Wagner said,

    "She loved to do adventurous things, " added Mr. Holmes.

    "Her attitude was work hard, play hard," added Ms. Ratcliffe.

    And she was daring on land and sea and in the air.

    She ran in marathons, including the Boston and New York marathons, and was very competitive in playing tennis with friends. In 1986, she trekked in the Himalayas in Nepal with Judy Mares, then assistant treasurer of General Mills Inc., and Marci Avrin, then a pension consultant. She scuba dived, windsurfed and sky dived.

    `Ukelele Lady'

    Ms. Marshall could be whimsical. In 1993, she appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman," picked out of the audience to play "stump the band," and that she did. She suggested to Mr. Letterman that the band try to play "Ukelele Lady." When the band didn't know the tune or lyrics, Ms. Marshall won a $200 gift certificate.

    Most recently, Ms. Marshall had been an adviser to the Association for Investment Management and Research, Charlottesville, Va., on its education program and with the University of Louisville on its MBA program. She got her undergraduate and MBA degrees from the school.

    Aside from her niece, Ms. Marshall is survived by a son, Thomas L. Marshall; a brother, John E. Emmerich; and a nephew, Stephen Emmerich.

    No funeral services are planned. A memorial service is being planned for sometime in July. Her family suggest donations may be sent to Fund for Greta Marshall Memorial, College of Business and Public Administration, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292; or made in her name to PetNetwork, 401 Village Blvd., Incline Village, NV 89451.

    Recommended for You
    Read the print edition of P&I
    Read the print edition of P&I
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    How low is low? Projections say it's not low enough
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    FINRA honors Wharton's Olivia Mitchell with Ketchum Prize
    OCIO, Anchor in Rough Seas
    Sponsored Content: OCIO, Anchor in Rough Seas

    Reader Poll

    May 9, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Are Factors a Thing of the Past?
    Q2 2022 Credit Outlook: Carry On
    Leverage does not equal risk
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    Out of the Shadows: The Revolution in Shadow Accounting
    The pivotal role of fixed income markets in the ESG revolution
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    May 9, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Innovation Investing Conference
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
      • 2022 Alternatives Investing Conference