Timothy Barrett

Tim Barrett is the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Investment Officer for the Texas Tech University System (TTUS), where he leads investment strategy and execution for the System’s $2.0 billion endowment and oversees $1.3 billion in operating assets.  Since joining TTUS in April 2013, he has guided the institution to national acclaim, including recognition as Endowment of the Year and CIO of the Year by CIO in 2024.

Before TTUS, Mr. Barrett served as Director of Pension Investments Worldwide at Eastman Kodak, managing over $16 billion across 77 global plans.  He began his investment career in 1996 with the San Bernardino County Employees’ Retirement Association (SBCERA), ultimately rising to Executive Director and CIO.

A recognized innovator in institutional investing, Mr. Barrett was an early pioneer of portable alpha and derivative overlay strategies at SBCERA—approaches he successfully implemented at Kodak and TTUS.  His work in this area earned him the Edward D. Baker III Award for co-authoring “Dynamic Beta – Getting Paid to Manage Risk.”  Additionally, he and his team were among the first institutional investors to allocate to private credit in the early 2000s, well ahead of widespread adoption.


Mr. Barrett is equally committed to leadership development and talent cultivation.  Over his career, he has mentored five professionals who have gone on to become CIOs at other institutions.  At TTUS, he has established a comprehensive intern program to prepare students for careers in institutional investing.  This includes a distinctive three-year rotational Investment Associate program, which annually selects one graduate intern to work across three investment verticals—credit, private equity and real assets, and public equity, derivatives, and hedge funds—under the mentorship of senior investment officers.