Yup Kim
Yup Kim, CIO of the Texas Municipal Retirement System, has left his role after two years, Kim announced on Tuesday.
Tom Masthay, who has been deputy CIO of TMRS since 2022, will take over as CIO. Masthay joined TMRS in 2015, previously serving as director of private equity and director of real assets.
“As I close my chapter with TMRS, I am deeply grateful. Serving as Chief Investment Officer has been the highlight of my career—truly the calling of a lifetime,” Kim wrote in a LinkedIn post. “As TMRS enters a new chapter with new leadership, after thoughtful reflection, I believe this is the right moment to step aside and allow the organization to fully shape and implement its vision.”
Tom Masthay
Kim did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment. A spokesperson for TMRS also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TMRS manages retirement assets and benefits for more than 260,000 municipal employees across 940 cities and municipalities in Texas. The fund has a funding ratio of 90% and annualized returns of 12.1%, 7.15% and 8% over the past one, five and 10 years, respectively, as of December 31, 2024.
As CIO, Kim oversaw an expansion of the fund’s private markets program, including the launch of a $3 billion co-investment program and a $15 billion thematic private markets investing program.
Kim was named a winner in the public defined contribution category in CIO’s 2025 Industry Innovation Awards. According to the application, Kim oversaw a simplification of the fund’s asset allocation structure, reducing nine asset class buckets to five and simplifying TMRS’ asset allocation benchmarks to improve its agility and focus.
Kim was also named to CIO’s 40 Under 40 list in 2017, when he was a senior portfolio manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. Masthay, who was TMRS’ director of real assets at the time, was also named to the 40 Under 40 list the same year.
Kim was hired at TMRS in 2023, joining from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, where he was an investment director of risk, research, analytics and performance within the fund’s private equity program. He has also held private markets investing roles at Deutsche Bank and Performance Equity.
“While I am proud of the Fund’s improved returns, what matters most was the team we built together,” Kim wrote on LinkedIn. “What a privilege it is to do something hard, with people you respect, on something that truly matters. With Tom Masthay’s leadership, I am fully confident the Fund’s best years are ahead.”
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