CalPERS chief investment officer on leave for cancer treatment

Joe Dear was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year and began treatment, which CalPERS announced in June. Dear had returned to work full-time last month.

Ted Eliopoulos, senior investment officer for real assets, will serve as acting chief investment officer, CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco said.

Eliopoulos served in the same capacity at the biggest U.S. public pension fund during Dear’s previous absence for treatment.

Dear joined CalPERS as its chief investment officer in March 2009 after the value of its assets had dropped to about $165 billion.

Dear previously served as executive director of the Washington State Investment Board.

Jim Christie is a reporter for Reuters News in San Francisco