O’Brien will join as managing director, head of private equity and serve as a member of the staff investment committee. He previously led technology and consumer direct private equity investments for C$452 billion ($329.2 billion) Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Montreal. O’Brien also held prior roles including at the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners and Carlyle Group.
Deshpande will join as managing director, head of direct investments and serve as a member of the staff investment committee. He was previously a managing director and management committee member of Redesign Health. And prior to that, held roles at firms including Soros Fund Management, Luminus Management and JLL Partners.
Stankovic will join as director of private equity. She was previously on the private equity team at Searchlight Capital Partners in London. She held previous roles at BC Partners and in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division.
All three will be based in Austin. O’Brien and Deshpande have started in their roles and Stankovic will begin in the fall, Kim confirmed to Pensions & Investments.
TMRS invests on behalf of employees in 938 Texas cities. For the year ended March 31, the pension fund returned 11.6% net of fees.
Private debt accounts for 11.8% of assets and private equity accounts for 11.5%, as of March 31. The target for both asset classes is 13%, according to an investment document.
