William Priest, Noted Wall Street Savant, Steps Down as Head of Epoch

William Priest

Well-known investment sage William Priest is stepping down as chief executive officer at Epoch Investment Partners (assets: $37 billion), which manages money for institutional and other high-end clients.

His departure from the top spot, effective April 1, 2020, is a milestone in a long Wall Street career. Priest has been, and no doubt will continue to be, a commentator on markets and economics. He is a member, for instance, of Barron’s Roundtable, where he and other Wall Streeters express their views on the passing scene. In an appearance this summer, he presented an in-depth case for why globalization has ended.

At Epoch, Priest will stay on as executive chairman and will keep leading the investment team as co-chief investment officer, the New York firm said in a statement. He will stay on as portfolio manager of Epoch’s Global Choice and Global Absolute Return strategies.

Philipp Hensler, Epoch’s president and chief operating officer, will replace Priest as the firm’s CEO. Priest co-founded Epoch in 2004. The firm is a subsidiary of Toronto Dominion Bank.

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“Investing remains my lifelong passion,” Priest said in a statement. “Best practice suggests a separation between the business of investing and the business of the investment business.” His shift, he added. “will allow me to focus solely on the former function.”

He was a member of the global executive committee of Credit Suisse Asset Management, chairman and CEO of CSAM Americas, and CEO and portfolio manager of its predecessor firm, BEA Associates, which he co-founded in 1972. He is the author of three books on investing, most recently Winning at Active Management: The Essential Roles of Culture, Philosophy and Technology (with Steven Bleiberg and Michael Welhoelter).

Priest holds the Chartered Financial analyst designation, is a former CPA, and is a graduate of Duke and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Graduate School of Business. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tags: Epoch Investment Partners, Philipp Hensler, William Priest

The $156.4 billion Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS) returned 3.2% for the second quarter, and 6.4% for the 12 months ending June 30, missing its benchmark returns of 3.4% and 6.7% respectively.

However, the system also reported three-, five-, and 10-year returns of 9.5%, 6.7%, and 9.9% respectively, which beat its benchmark’s returns of 8.8%, 6.4%, and 9.3% over the same time periods.

“Global equities continued to rally off a strong first quarter with optimistic trade talks and a looming US rate cute helping boost returns,” TRS CIO Jerry Albright wrote in a report that was presented at a Sept. 19 meeting of TRS’ investment management committee. “The US nominal yield curve shifted downwards over the quarter with yields falling across all maturities, resulting in the strong returns shown for the stable value and risk parity components.”

Private equity ,returned 10.7% for the year ended June 30, however, this was below the private equity benchmark return of 11.9%. Public equity returned 3.5% during the same time period, below its benchmark return of 4.5%. Directional hedge funds returned 2.1%, beating thebenchmark by a full percentage point.

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For the 12 months ended June 30, the top-performing asset class for the system’s stable value portfolio weretreasuries, which returned 12.7% and beat thebenchmark return of 12.3%. Absolute return strategies earned 6.8% for the 12 months ended June 30, easily surpassing theirbenchmark’s return of 4.6%. Stable value hedge funds returned 2.2%, just beating its benchmark return of 2.1%.

Tags: Pension, Returns, Texas, Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS)