Activist Pension Funds Carrying A Big Stick

They’ve ousted directors, changed corporate governance rules, and in at least one case – the Timken Company – broken up an old and some argue eminently successful company. Mega-pension fund shareholders like Calpars and Calstrs have changed the corporate governance game in the past few years.“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” says Anne Simpson, director of corporate governance at Calpars, the California Public Employees’ Pension Fund, which is the largest pension fund in the United States. Among the companies that have been at the receiving end of the pension fund stick, in addition to Timken, are JPMorgan Chase, Occidental Petroleum, Chesapeake Energy, Nabors Industries and Massey Energy, and Apple.