Texas TRS fleshes out top ranks after appointing new CIO

The Teachers’ Retirement System of Texas has shuffled the deck on its investment staff after it named Jerry Albright, a veteran of the Austin-based pension fund, its chief investment officer earlier this summer.

The pension announced on Friday it has named Jase Auby as its deputy CIO, a position in which he will have jurisdiction over the private and public market allocation categories. In addition, Katy Hoffman will serve as chairperson of the TRS Internal Investment Committee.

Auby and Hoffman are also long-time members of the TRS staff, according to their bios on the pension fund’s website. Auby joined in 2009 and was most recently on the management and risk management committees. Hoffman joined in 2004 as an investment-grade credit analyst and most recently managed the long-oriented equity, hedge fund and opportunistic credit portfolios.

Eric Lang will continue as director for external private markets, a position where he oversees investments in real assets; private equity; and energy and natural resources.

In addition, Sylvia Bell and James Nield have assumed the positions of chief operating officer and chief risk officer, while Dale West will now oversee the global public markets investment category.

“These promotions are well-deserved because each member of my new executive team has demonstrated cutting edge innovation and expertise in his or her field,” Albright said.

Former TRS CIO Britt Harris stepped down in June after more than a decade to become CIO and chief executive officer at University of Texas Investment Management Company, the endowment programme for the UT and UT A&M university systems. Albright, who assumed the TRS CIO duties on an interim basis, was named to that position permanently in July.