The $53.5 billion Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) of the state of Illinois has increased its emerging manager program from $750 million to $1 billion.
Illinois TRS said the move is part of a reimagining of the 15-year-old program and follows the system’s efforts to increase diversity among its investment managers.
The EMP is currently composed of 17 relationships, with the retirement system’s commitment totaling $724 million. In the past five years, the total percentage of assets in the TRS portfolio managed by minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) has increased by 17.9 percent, resulting in the need to increase the size of the EMP. Overall, TRS’s commitments to MWBEs, including EMP allocations, total $12.6 billion, representing 23.4 percent of the system’s total portfolio.
“The objective of the EMP always has been to invest in promising, developing asset managers and to create meaningful, long-term relationships,” said Stan Rupn
