Nicole Musicco

Nicole Musicco is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Square Nine Capital, a private credit firm founded in 2025 with Peter Ma. Square Nine says she co-heads the firm's Investment Committee, develops and executes overall investment strategy, leads business operations and infrastructure buildout, and heads fundraising, investor relations, and investor onboarding.

Before Square Nine, Musicco was Chief Investment Officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). She joined CalPERS in March 2022 and served until fall 2023, overseeing total-fund investment and operating strategy for a portfolio described by CalPERS and Square Nine as roughly $500 billion and an investment office of more than 300 to nearly 400 professionals.

Prior to CalPERS, Musicco was a Partner at RedBird Capital Partners, where she led the firm's Canadian investment business. Earlier, she managed the private markets investment program at Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), covering private equity, infrastructure, and real estate.

Musicco spent 16 years at Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. Her roles included leadership of the public equity team, oversight of the private equity fund and co-investment program, leadership of private equity healthcare investing, and launch of OTPP's Asia investment business in Hong Kong. She holds a B.Sc. in Kinesiology from Western University and HBA and MBA degrees from Western's Ivey School of Business.

• Square Nine specializes in bespoke credit investments intended to optimize capital structures for middle-market companies.
• The firm focuses on overlooked middle-market credit opportunities and says it provides structured capital solutions where standard private-credit terms and structures do not fit a company's needs.
• Square Nine's stated approach prioritizes "tailored solutions" and "enduring value through a partnership approach."
• The firm invests in middle-market public or private companies, provides debt investments at or near the top of the capital structure, uses highly tailored structures, and works with both sponsored and unsponsored businesses.
• Square Nine's negative screen is explicit: it does not pursue control equity investments, loan-to-own investments, non-corporate counterparties, opportunities reliant on market timing or binary outcomes, or structures that lack alignment.
• In April 2026, Square Nine and Liberty Mutual Investments described the firm's focus as senior secured loans and structured capital solutions for U.S. middle-market companies in complex situations, typically outside a traditional leveraged-buyout framework.