By Bo Tefu | California Black Media
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced it has hired Shari Slate as its new chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, adding a veteran corporate executive to its leadership team as the pension system continues efforts to embed DEI across its operations.
Slate, a Sacramento-area resident, brings nearly two decades of experience leading diversity and inclusion strategies at major national companies. She most recently served as senior vice president and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at CVS Health, whose businesses include retail pharmacies, pharmacy benefits management and Aetna health insurance.
In her new role, Slate will lead CalPERS’ work to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the organization and across relationships with suppliers, contractors and investment partners. She will serve on the CalPERS executive team and report directly to Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost.
“Shari brings the kind of leadership this moment calls for, connecting diversity, inclusion, and equity to trust, governance and our core values,” Frost said. “She will help CalPERS continue to lead with our purpose, which is to deliver the best outcomes for the millions of people who depend on us for their retirement and health care benefits.”
Before joining CVS Health, Slate was chief inclusion and collaboration officer and senior vice president at Cisco Systems Inc., where she helped launch the Office of Inclusion and Collaboration in 2015. During her tenure, Cisco built a broad pipeline of diverse talent and received multiple workplace honors, including being named No. 1 on Fortune Magazine’s “World’s 25 Best Places to Work” list in 2019 and 2020 and earning spots on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in the U.S. from 2021 through 2023.
Slate said CalPERS’ mission drew her to the role.
“CalPERS shows up for people at one of the most important moments of their lives, when work ends and trust matters most,” she said. “I hope to ensure that CalPERS works for all the people it was built to serve, beginning with our people and extending to every member who depends on this system.”
A graduate of Mills College, Slate began her career at Xerox Corp. before becoming one of the youngest diversity officers at a Fortune 500 company while at Sun Microsystems. She has served on several boards and councils, including the California State University Foundation Board of Governors and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Systemic Inequalities and Social Cohesion.
CalPERS is the largest defined-benefit public pension system in the United States, serving nearly 2.4 million retirement members and administering health benefits for more than 1.5 million members and their families.
