Britt Harris on Rebuilding UTIMCO

Britt Harris'德克萨斯大学投资管理有限公司（UTIMCO）未来的愿景是“总结”之一。

“Total alignment is our rallying theme for 2018,” Harris says. This is his expectation within the company, on the board, and among both the fund’s clients and its global investment management structure.

哈里斯于6月份加入捐赠总监兼首席执行官的院长，一直致力于通过新员工改变UTIMCO的内部结构，并通过鼓励他的员工进行团队合作。他正在追求这种增长，防止他预计未来两到四年的经济衰退。

哈里斯接管了UTIMCO，在德克萨斯州德克萨斯州教师退休系统的CIO之后，在营业资本和养老资产中管理420亿美元的纽科。

他的招聘遵循伊莫特的相对岩石的时期。捐赠的前首席执行官和CIO，Bruce Zimmerman于2016年10月突然停下了三周后突然下滑。Mark Warner是前高级董事总经理和自然资源负责人和新兴市场投资，直到哈里斯乘坐临时CIO。

At Texas Teachers, Harris’ team introduced a revolutionary fee structure in which the investor receives either 70 percent of performance over a hurdle rate or pays a 1 percent management fee. Harris and his colleagues proposed the 1-or-30 structure to 23 of the fund’s managers, and he says 17 accepted. UTIMCO has been successful implementing a similar fee structure, he adds.

According to Erik Knutzen, Neuberger Berman Group’s multi-asset class CIO, Harris has been able to shift things in the asset management industry. The two men worked together during Harris’ Texas Teachers years.

“He has been a pioneer in changing the relationships between asset managers and asset owners,” Knutzen says by phone. “He will continue to drive improvement in that critical area.”

自加入UTIMCO以来，哈里斯已经提出了一些关键的员工任命。其中包括哈佛管理公司的新副CIO Rich Hall，以前私募股权酋长，并在最近举行的Jamison Capital Partners最近董事总经理斯科特斯塔顿。两者都在2018年初雇用。更多的新雇员可能会来。作为哈里斯笔记，很多中级和初级职位都仍然开放。

In addition to hiring, Harris plans to focus on building up the existing team.

“The most common practice in investment management is not teamwork, but silos,” Harris argues. “That is highly suboptimal — it’s not aligned, and it hinders long-term results.” He plans to foster teamwork through his total alignment strategy, which encourages everyone involved with UTIMCO to operate on the same page.

“Britt gets the most out of his managers, and as part of that process he makes his managers better,” Knutzen says. “He made me a better investor.”

Harris plans to create “significant, precise action plans” for each department at UTIMCO, which he believes will ensure that everyone is working together for the same outcome. And he vows to vet these plans personally before they are implemented.

UTIMCO’s returns had been roughly on par with its policy performance benchmark, but lagged a 60 percent stock, 40 percent bond benchmark by about 400 to 600 basis points. The fund returned 3.9 percent over one year, 6.3 percent over three years, and 6.2 percent over five years, according to the 2016 annual report.

UTIMCO’s returns have been strong over the years. Since 2010, according to Harris, the size of its endowments has doubled, while in 2017 alone the endowments grew by $6 billion.

但他不希望事情永远是utimco的玫瑰色。“我们现在彻底享受这个繁荣的周期，”他承认。“We’re very pleased with the performance of the portfolio, but we also know that Mr. Market is a beast and at some point — probably within the next two to four years — we’ll have at least a regular drawdown in the market.”

With that in mind, UTIMCO has stopped adding to its private equity portfolio.

Another way he plans to weather a downturn: energy assets. The endowment’s upstream energy-related investments returned roughly 27 percent in 2017 for UTIMCO.

UTIMCO独特地定位投资能源部门。根据哈里斯的说法，捐赠者拥有200万英亩的二手盆地，生产石油和天然气。哈里斯说，乌米科每年从这些持有人收到大约10亿美元。他认为，能源价格已触底。

哈里斯正在努力建立一个专业的组织，以“优化管理”的盆地属性。UTIMCO还在评估其相关的能源投资，以确定其投资组合中是否存在任何类型的冗余。

As for newer technologies, like Bitcoin and blockchain? Harris believes that there will eventually be a use for cryptocurrencies, but he isn’t rushing to get UTIMCO invested. “There will be electronic currencies, but they won’t replace the almighty dollar. There’s a long road ahead for cryptocurrencies.”

He compares their rise to the discovery of oil in the mid-1800s. “Everyone used it as kerosene,” Harris says. “There were massive bankruptcies and wealth. Then finally you had John Rockefeller.”

比特币和区块链仍然需要他们的洛克菲勒。

“今天我们没有加密货币，但是在早期讨论一些我们的风险投资合作伙伴，了解更多有关这一领域的信息，并确定何时 - 以及何时 - 在长期机构投资者的加密市场是否成熟，”哈里斯说。亚博赞助欧冠

Beyond this, he plans to keep UTIMCO’s portfolio allocations steady.

“我们非常开心的地方,”他说。“We’re just making sure that we have everyone focused on the fact that this is not the time to get greedy. This is the time to get wise.”