Mohan Balachandran, a former senior managing director at Texas Teacher Retirement System, has joined NISA Investment Advisors to lead its new quantitative equity strategy.
Balachandran, who joined the money manager as director, head of quantitative equity on March 31, was previously senior managing director, multiasset strategies group at the $211.6 billion Austin-based pension fund.
Joining him at NISA Investment Advisors, all from his team at TRS Texas, are Kyle Schmidt and Ryan Leary, previously directors at TRS and now both senior investment officers, quantitative equity, and Eddie Pluhar (previously investment manager at TRS) and Peter Ruymgaart (previously senior associate), now both managers, quantitative equity.
David Eichhorn, NISA’s CEO and head of investment strategies, said in a news release that while the firm has previously only grown organically since its founding 30 years ago, “we believe there is a need for additional high-quality quantitative equity capabilities for institutional investors and other asset owners at scale.”
“Today, NISA finds itself in the advantageous position to diversify by integrating an experienced quantitative strategy team, without losing focus on our core business,” Eichhorn said.
NISA also manages investment-grade fixed income, derivative overlay and direct indexing equity strategies.
Jase Auby, CIO at Texas Teacher Retirement System, said in a statement: "I’m proud of the strong team here at TRS. This development is a testament to the quality of the individuals we attract and the caliber of our investment program. We will miss Mohan and his team. Beyond the departing individuals we have a deep bench of quantitative investing talent at TRS, and quant will remain an important part of our strategy."
As of Dec. 31, NISA had $274 billion in physical assets under management and $146 billion in derivative notional value AUM.
