A desire to return to his Lone Star State roots brought Brad Gilbert to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in 2006, the same year as its well-known CIO, Thomas Britton (Britt) Harris IV. As a member of the public markets team, Gilbert, 38, helps manage the $124 billion, Austin-based pension plan’s $11 billion in hedge fund investments. In late 2011, TRS increased its capacity to invest in hedge funds to 10 percent from 5 percent of the overall portfolio, giving Gilbert and his colleagues plenty to do. Among their more recent hedge fund investments is a $200 million commitment to both Chicago–based Peak6 Investments and London–based Thélème Partners. After growing up in Angleton, Texas, Gilbert attended the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in finance. He began his career in the insurance industry, in the investment division of Chattanooga, Tennessee–based UnumProvident, in 1998. There Gilbert focused on investment-grade and high-yield corporate credit.
