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The $42B Employees Retirement System of Texas has appointed Amy Cureton as its managing director of real assets, succeeding Bob Sessa.
According to a recent news release, Sessa retired at the end of August and the pension system was able to get Cureton to return to Texas ERS after nearly two years. She had previously served as a portfolio manager for Texas ERS’ private real estate team for more than a decade, leaving in June 2022 to serve as a board member at Christi Center.
“Amy brings more than two decades of investment experience to this role, including almost 16 years of distinguished service with ERS,” said David Veal, chief investment officer, in the news release. “The decision to promote Amy was the culmination of a rigorous month-long process that considered several strong internal candidates for this important leadership position that oversees 16% of retirement trust assets.”
During her time with the ERS’ private real estate team, the program grew from zero to more than $7B in commitments and more than 120 commingled funds, fund of funds, separate accounts and co-investments, stated the release.
Prior to joining the ERS, Cureton was an investment analyst with the USAA Real Estate Co., a sales manager with JP Morgan Chase and an investment specialist with Janus Mutual Funds.
Texas ERS allocates 9.8% of its total portfolio to private real estate and 6.4% to infrastructure against target allocations of 9% and 5%, respectively. Over the past one, three, and five years, the pension plan returned 8.83%, 8.30% and 10.53%, respectively.
