LPs

Quick exit: Head of Texas Teachers’ emerging manager program departs

-
  • Hines ran emerging managers since last year
  • Sylvia Bell is interim head of emerging managers
  • Emerging manager program has committed over $2 bln

Cheryl Lynette Hines, who joined the Teacher Retirement System of Texas last year to run its emerging manager investment program, has left TRS, a spokeswoman for the pension system confirmed.

Hines left to pursue other opportunities, the system said in a statement from late November.

Hines declined to comment. She joined TRS in December 2014. Prior to Texas Teachers, she worked at Oppenheimer & Co from 2000 to 2013 in asset allocation and portfolio construction for institutional and individual investors, her LinkedIn profile said.

TRS named Sylvia Bell as interim director of the emerging manager program in November, according to the statement. Bell joined TRS in 2010 and worked as managing director of investment operations. She took on the emerging manager role in addition to her other responsibilities, the system said.

Prior to joining TRS, Bell worked at JP Morgan as a client advisor from 2003 to 2010, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Texas Teachers’ emerging manager program was established in 2005. It defines emerging managers as any manager with under $2 billion in assets under management, Hines told Buyouts in an interview earlier this year.

“The result is that we see a wide variety of managers and we are able to invest across many different asset classes,” Hines said. “We will invest in first-time funds but also second- and third-time funds.”

The system has committed more than $2 billion to emerging managers across private equity, real estate, public equities and hedge funds. That is up from around $950 million committed to emerging manager private equity and real estate as of 2010, according to the TRS website.

The program committed more than $760 million to 52 minority- or women-owned businesses since inception, the system said.

Several private equity funds have “graduated” from TRS’s emerging manager program into its regular portfolio, including Crestview Partners, Roark Capital Group, Vista Equity Partners and Wayzata Investment Partners.

Action Item: Contact Sylvia Bell at sylvia.bell@trs.texas.gov