The $60B Texas Permanent School Fund has appointed Chris Eckerman as vice president of direct and co-investments, a key senior hire as the fund advances a 2026 strategic plan to build a lower-cost, more consolidated portfolio.
Eckerman, who joined the fund on December 15, brings deep co-investment experience honed over more than a decade at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), where he served as head of co-investments and senior investment officer for private equity direct investments.
The move signals a broader shift at the School Fund. Under its 2026 strategic plan, the board aims to streamline its portfolio by consolidating fund-of-fund positions and outsourcing passive mandates in public equities and fixed income, a pivot toward “fewer but more strategic” relationships aimed at capturing co-investment deal flow with minimal fees and carry, said Robert Borden, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, at the board of director’s December 4 meeting.
“Our first blush of this is what we’re seeing… our returns are right about average to our peers overlooking back at a seven-year window,” Borden said at the meeting. “But our costs are higher, so that would indicate historically, we’re not really getting what we pay for.”
In his new role, Eckerman will be charged with elevating direct and co-investment deployment across asset classes, leveraging his track record of sourcing and executing significant private equity and private credit co-investments.
At SWIB, where he was a senior portfolio manager and head of private equity co-investments, his team sourced and executed roughly $3B in co-investments across the U.S. and Europe, according to his professional profile with the Institutional Limited Partners Association, reflecting his role in shaping SWIB’s expanding co-investment footprint in its alternative portfolio.
In discussing co-investment strategy on a SWIB podcast in 2024, Eckerman highlighted the importance of prioritizing managers with strong track records, capable teams and attractive risk-adjusted return profiles, along with clear sector theses—a philosophy likely to inform his work in Texas.
Before his tenure at SWIB, Eckerman was director at Covera Ventures (formerly Hunt Ventures), an early-stage technology venture capital firm formed in 2009, where he led origination and execution across venture and growth equity investments. Outside his investment roles, he also served on the board of Any Baby Can, a nonprofit supporting children with special needs.
