By putting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at the heart of the world’s largest pension fund’s investments, Hiromichi Mizuno (known as Hiro) not only rocked the world of traditional pension finance but also had a profound impact on the cause of socially responsible investing.

During his tenure as the Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Japan’s $1.5 trillion Global Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), Mizuno reached the conclusion that the fund had become so big that it essentially owns the whole investable universe, so it should focus on making the market better for society.

Mizuno led the GPIF from January 2015 until March 2020, but left in March of this year and joined Tesla’s board of directors and audit committee effective April 23. In his first interview since leaving the GPIF, he talks about his crusade for ESG investing.

Jill Baker: As Executive Managing Director and CIO of GPIF, the largest pension fund in the world, with roughly $1.5 trillion in assets, you were an early advocate of ESG among the large asset owners. What are you proudest of, in terms of biggest accomplishments?

Hiromichi Mizuno: When I joined GPIF almost 6 years ago, the first thing I did was to think about what really matters for GPIF’s long-term performance, given GPIF’s 100-year fund life, 20-30 year investment time horizon, and its significant size. At that time, GPIF’s globally diversified portfolio owned about 8% of the Japanese public equity market and close to 1% of the global market.

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