Stephenson has been part of the CalPERS team since 2010. He’s held a number of positions beginning with the Pension System Resumption Customer Acceptance Testing technical team, as a lead technical engineer for myCalPERS architecture, and as a supervisor over the Application Engineering and Support team. In 2017, he moved from the Enterprise Solutions Development Division to become the chief of Data Center Systems Management within the Technology Infrastructure Services Division; and, two years later, promoted to Data Center chief. During that time, Stephenson was responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the most critical and highly sensitive Data Center operations and interdepartmental infrastructure projects. In 2021 he became the chief technology officer leading the Customer Technologies Support team, Data Center, and part of the Information Technology Services Branch leadership team. He also took on additional responsibility as the interim CIO before being named permanently to the position.
Prior to joining state service, for more than 10 years Stephenson worked for a multi-national consulting firm with employees around the world. He handled multiple customers, predominantly in the North American financial services industry, managing production operations and application development for many applications using the onsite offshore model. He’s played many roles, including application development and maintenance, project management, and operations support.
Stephenson graduated from the University of Madras, India, with a Bachelor of Engineering in mechanical engineering. He went on to earn a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in information technology management and finance (minor) at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India.
Stephenson is an active leader in many civic organizations. He’s the immediate past president of the Asian Pacific State Employees Association and also a board member of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Greater Sacramento chapter.

Ashish Jain is the chief technology officer of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the largest educator-only pension fund in the world​​​​​. CalSTRS administers a hybrid retirement system, consisting of a traditional defined benefit, cash balance and defined contribution plans, as well as disability and survivor benefits. CalSTRS serves more than 949,000 members and benefit recipients. CalSTRS administers retirement benefits for California’s public-school educators in grades kindergarten through community college.
As CTO, Jain is responsible for the vision, strategic direction, policy development and management of the Technology Services Branch. The branch divisions include: Enterprise IT Governance, Enterprise IT Solutions & Innovation, IT Infrastructure & Operations, Project Management Program and Pension Solution—one of CalSTRS’ enterprise transforming projects.
Prior to joining CalSTRS, Jain served as the deputy chief information officer at California Correctional Health Care Services, which provides health care services to around 130,000 inmates throughout California’s 35 correctional institutions. Jain was responsible for the enterprise health care systems architecture; clinical application development, implementation, and operations; IT governance, policy management, and enterprise-wide strategic IT planning.
Jain has almost 25 years of experience in senior Information Technology leadership positions in both the private and public sectors. In his more than 15 years serving the State of California, he has held technical leadership positions with various state agencies including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the Department of General Services.
Educated in India, Jain holds a Bachelor of Science in physics, chemistry and mathematics from Agra University and a Master of Science in computer applications from the Institute of Basic Science.