Texas TRS interim CIO appointed permanently to post

Texas TRS interim CIO appointed permanently to post 2017-07-13 Andrew Hedlund The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has promoted within its ranks to replace departed chief investment officer Britt Harris, PERE 's sister publication, Private Debt Investor , reported Thursday. The Austin, Te

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has promoted within its ranks to replace departed chief investment officer Britt Harris, PERE's sister publication, Private Debt Investor, reported Thursday.

The Austin, Texas-based retirement plan, which manages more than $140 billion, said it has appointed interim CIO Jerry Albright to the position full-time. He joined TRS in 1994 and most recently held the positions of TRS Investment Division’s chief operating officer and director of investments. He has also served as chairman of the TRS Internal Investment Committee and as the director of TRICOT London, which is TRS’s first overseas outpost.

“Jerry has gained an international reputation as someone who understands the quickly changing landscape of the investment industry and how to stay ahead of the curve,” TRS Board Member and Investment Committee chairman Joe Colonnetta said in the statement.

Harris stepped down in June after more than a decade at TRS to become chief executive officer and CIO at University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company, the endowment program for the UT and UT A&M university systems. He will start his position August 1.

In TRS's most recent real estate commitments, the pension system  wrote a $230 million check to Principal Real Estate Investors, the Des Moines, Iowa-based subsidiary of Principal Global Investors, for Strategic Real Estate Equity Fund II, an opportunistic, US-focused vehicle. TRS also earmarked €89.7 million to CBRE Europe Value Partners II, the latest European-focused vehicle from Los Angeles-based CBRE Global Investors.

The pension system managed $18.6 billion in real assets as of June 30, 2016, according to its most recent financial report. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, the asset class produced a net return of 11.7 percent, below its 12.6 percent benchmark.