Managing Director & Head of Special Opportunities, Teacher Retirement System of Texas’
Ashley Baum leads Special Opportunities for the Investment Division of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (“TRS”), an over $190 billion dollar pension plan serving the educators of Texas. Special Opportunities is a 7-person cross-asset team she founded in 2013 to opportunistically deploy capital in areas the Trust might otherwise miss. Her team partners internally and with external hedge fund, public equity and credit relationships; approximately one-third of the portfolio is available for single-name or thematic co-investment. She also serves on the Management Committee for the Investment Division.
Ashley joined TRS in October 2007 in External Private Markets, focusing on private equity, real estate, and special situation/credit investments. Ms. Baum served in the Investment Management Executive Division from 2010 to 2013 as Chief of Staff to then-CIO Britt Harris. She also led TRS’ 2014 Strategic Asset Allocation Study.
Before joining TRS, she worked in Transaction Services for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ashley began her career in accounting policy at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”). Ms. Baum graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Business Honors and an MPA in Accounting.
She is a CFA charterholder and holds her CPA license in Texas. Ashley has been named as to Next Gen (2018) and Forty Under Forty (2017) by Chief Investment Officer, a Public Plan Rising Star (2016) by Institutional Investor, and a John W. Koza Leadership Fellows (2010) by the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA).