TMRS Appoints 3 New Private Market Leaders

Philip Hunter O’Brien

The Texas Municipal Retirement System announced on Monday the hires of three new senior staff members to its private markets teams, some of the first senior hires made by CIO Yup Kim since his appointment in December 2023.

Philip Hunter O’Brien was named managing director and head of private equity. O’Brien previously led direct private investments in technology at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, based in New York. He previously led the North American private investment practice for the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Amol Deshpande

Amol Deshpande was appointed as managing director and head of direct investments and will serve as a member of the fund’s staff investment committee. Prior to TMRS, Deshpande was a managing director at Redesign Health and held roles at Soros Fund Management, Luminus Management and JLL. He earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics, economics and finance from Northwestern University.

Isidora Stankovic

Isidora Stankovic will join TMRS as director of private equity. Prior to TMRS, she was on the private equity team at London-based Searchlight Capital Partners. She was also a private equity associate at BC Partners and an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Yale University.

“I am incredibly excited to partner with Philip, Amol and Isidora to strengthen our global partner relationships, amplify our direct investment capabilities and take the private markets program to new heights on behalf of TMRS’ many members, retirees, and beneficiaries,” said Kim in a statement.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

TMRS managed $40.486 billion in assets, as of March 31, and allocates $4.6 billion to private equity, approximately 11.5% of the fund. The fund manages the investments for more than 210,000 beneficiaries.

Over the past one, three, five and 10 years through March 31, TMRS has returned an annualized 11.62%, 6.05%, 7.19% and 6.38%, respectively.