CalPERS Hires Former SEC Chief of Staff Prashant Yerramalli

Yerramalli to serve as special advisor, future general counsel

September 9, 2025

Communications & Stakeholder Relations
Office of Public Affairs
(916) 795-3991 - [email protected]

Sacramento, Calif. - The California Public Employees' Retirement System today announced that Prashant Yerramalli has been named special advisor to the nation's largest public pension fund. Yerramalli will serve as a key advisor to CalPERS leadership and board while preparing to assume the role of the agency's general counsel upon successfully passing the California Bar Examination.

Yerramalli has decades of public and private legal experience in investment management and finance, including his role as chief of staff for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) where he served as the Chair's lead advisor on strategy, policy enforcement, operations and rulemaking. He joins CalPERS after most recently working as vice president of operations and regulatory affairs for Public.com, an online multi-asset investing platform.

"Prashant brings a wealth of experience in public sector law, corporate governance and fiduciary responsibility to CalPERS," said Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost. "We look forward to his contributions as he transitions into the position of general counsel, where he will play a vital role in helping us fulfill our mission to deliver retirement security to our members."

In his interim role as special advisor, Yerramalli will provide strategic legal guidance and support to CalPERS leadership and Board ensuring continuity in legal services during this transitional period. He will also oversee the fund's Enterprise Compliance, Risk & Governance Office, the Information Security Office, and Equal Employment Opportunity Program.

"I am honored to join CalPERS and contribute to its mission of providing retirement and health security to public employees," said Yerramalli. "I look forward to working with the talented team at CalPERS to address the legal challenges and opportunities ahead, ensuring the fund remains strong and sustainable for generations to come."

Earlier in his career, Yerramalli worked at Brookfield Asset Management, as well as the law firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. He began his career in public service as a law clerk to the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald in the Southern District of New York and served both as an SEC enforcement attorney and counselor to SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson.

He earned a bachelor's degree in public policy from Brown University and juris doctor from Harvard Law School.

Yerramalli and his family will move to California and his appointment as special advisor will take effect October 6, 2025. He will sit for the California Bar Examination in February 2026.

Yerramalli succeeds Matt Jacobs, who retired from CalPERS after serving as general counsel at CalPERS since 2014.

For more than nine decades, CalPERS has built retirement and health security for state, school, and public agency members who invest their lifework in public service. Our pension fund serves more than 2 million members in the CalPERS retirement system, making us the largest defined-benefit public pension in the nation. We also administer health benefits for more than 1.5 million members and their families, making CalPERS the nation's largest purchaser of public employee health services behind the U.S. government.