Kirk Sims is the Head of the Emerging Manager Program at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States. Since its inception in 2005, the TRS Emerging Manager Program has committed $5.9 billion to emerging managers, with an additional $4.6 billion invested directly with program graduates. These graduates have consistently outperformed among a pool of more than 218 emerging managers.

Kirk joined TRS in 2019. Prior to that, he served as Senior Investment Officer for the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, where he oversaw the system’s $750 million Emerging Manager Program, designed to identify and invest in early-stage investment firms across all asset classes.

Earlier in his career, Kirk worked at Prudential Retirement, where he was responsible for a manager-of-managers retirement platform and an open architecture investment platform. He also held various positions in asset management at both large and boutique firms.

Kirk is a CFA charterholder. He holds an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University.