CalSTRS CIO criticizes Facebook; pension fund owns stock in company
CalSTRS owned around 4.1 million shares of Facebook stock as of Dec. 31; CalPERS held 5.6 million shares.
(Bloomberg) –The California State Teachers’ Retirement System Chief Investment Officer Christopher Ailman has a new investment — personally at least — and it’s in the campaign to #DeleteFacebook. The executive tweeted his support last night, claiming he removed his account due to the “offensive” lack of oversight and poor management at Facebook Inc.
Ailman’s tweet comes just after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a media briefing Wednesday that its crises, including #DeleteFacebook, are not meaningfully affecting the business.
The Menlo Park, California -based social network company is embroiled in a scandal in which the data of up to 87 million users may have been compromised in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Shares have declined 15 percent since mid-March, when news first broke of the situation. Ailman’s tweet marks the first time an investing figure of this stature has voiced participation in the #DeleteFacebook movement.
This isn’t the first time Ailman has been critical of Facebook. In 2014, he pushed the company to bring more women on to its Board of Directors, saying there were “too many ugly white guys on boards.”
CalSTRS owned approximately 4.1 million shares of Facebook as of Dec. 31. “We are an active shareowner,” Michelle Mussuto, a spokeswoman for CalSTRS, said in comment to Bloomberg News.
And California Public Employees’ Retirement System held 5.6 million shares, collectively making California the 33rd biggest holder of the stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Even though Ailman deleted his account, CalSTRS appears to have no such problems with Facebook. It still maintains a page on the social network.
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