He made it to the Chief Investment Officer seat that many knew he
would.
On January 15, 2024, Yup Kim will replace Dave Hunter, who
announced his retirement in early November and who will be leaving the $37.4 billion
Texas Municipal Retirement System in January.
Four years ago, Yup Kim’s name buzzed
in CIO circles. Many knew that he was of the ilk that would soon make it to the
CIO seat. An intellectual, Kim speaks six languages, chairs Milken’s Institute
of Rising Allocators, is a Yale grad with a BA in economics, and a term member
at the Council of Foreign Relations, not to mention a lecturer at Yale and
Harvard Business School. He had started
his career at Citigroup’s Hong Kong office working on trade and finance project
financing deals for the likes of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
At the time, he was a senior portfolio
manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC) for four years, and had
spent two years in Private Equity at Deutsche Bank. He left Alaska to be Investment Director and Head of Investments for Private
Equity at the largest pension plan in the United States, the California Public
Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
In announcing the news, TMRS Executive
Director David Wescoe said through a press release, “TMRS and its
Members are extremely fortunate to have Yup Kim join our leadership team. He is
one of the most respected public pension plan investors in the country. At
CalPERS, Yup partners with a team of 30 investment professionals who manage
almost $60 billion in global private equity assets. When CalPERS hired Yup in
2020, they said he was ‘a thought leader in the industry with a unique
combination of strategic insight, investing acumen, and management experience.’
I couldn’t agree more.”
During Kim’s tenure at
APFC, an investment fund General Partner described APFC as having “the ultimate
model of having a small team of very thoughtful people leveraging their GP
network constructively to generate some really interesting deal flow, executing
on it and delivering good returns…not many people execute and execute well.”
Prior to APFC, Kim served as a member of Deutsche Bank Private Equity’s global
investment committee and held roles at Performance Equity, Silver Point
Capital, and Citigroup.
Commenting on joining TMRS, Kim said, “I am honored to partner
with David and the exceptional investment team at TMRS to strengthen its global
investment presence and partnerships in support of TMRS’ many members,
retirees, and beneficiaries.”
By Christine Giordano
