Hiromichi Mizuno will join Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, as executive managing director and chief investment officer on Jan. 5, a statement from the pension fund said.
The appointment was announced Thursday in Japan in a statement from Takahiro Mitani, president of the ¥127.3 trillion ($1.08 trillion) pension fund.
Mr. Mizuno, currently a partner at private equity secondary market money manager Coller Capital in London, will become GPIF's first chief investment officer.
Jeremy Coller, chief investment officer at Coller Capital, said in a statement that “it's an honor for Hiro Mizuno to be appointed as chief investment officer of the world's largest pension fund. Hiro has been a good partner to us for over a decade as we have grown Coller Capital into a global investment platform, and I'm sure he will make a similarly strong contribution to GPIF.”
Mr. Mizuno's appointment to GPIF comes as a health ministry group debates changes to the pension fund's governance, after a separate government panel called on it to move beyond a system in which decision-making power lies with the president.
The pension fund overhauled its asset mix on Oct. 31, pledging to shift $182 billion into stocks as unprecedented quantitative easing by the Bank of Japan risks eroding the value of its bond-heavy portfolio.
Mr. Mitani could not be reached by press time, and a call to Mr. Mizuno was referred to a company spokeswoman who provided Coller Capital's statement.
Bloomberg contributed to this story.
