The Teacher Retirement System of Texas board will meet Oct. 9 to choose the trustees who will help pick the next person to invest $225 billion of Texas educators’ retirement savings.
Chief Investment Officer Jase Auby told the system on Sept. 21 that he will retire Jan. 31. He said he wanted to give his full attention to his health and his family after a diagnosis of kidney cancer, and that his current outlook is stable. Auby joined the fund in 2009 and has run its investments since December 2019. The system says the board will conduct a nationwide search for a successor, and the Oct. 9 vote is the first visible step: naming a special committee of trustees to take part in the choosing.
The job is a large one by any measure. The system calls its fund the sixth-largest public pension investment fund in the country; it was worth $225.3 billion at the end of August 2025 and pays about 524,000 retirees. Auby reported a 16.5 percent one-year return at the board’s September meeting, and over his tenure the fund returned 9.1 percent a year, 1.3 percentage points above its own benchmark. That is the record a successor inherits as the bar.
The board doing the choosing is itself freshly rearranged. Gov. Greg Abbott named Dan West of Houston as chair on the day the retirement was announced, replacing Robert H. Walls Jr., and appointed Clayton Ripley of Austin to the board. The system’s own trustee page had not caught up when this was written: it listed eight members for a nine-seat board, still carried Walls with a term shown as expiring in 2025, and did not include Ripley.
The only other substantive vote is on special rates for a school district joining TRS-ActiveCare, the health plan the system runs for public school employees, on Jan. 1. Districts normally join at the start of the September plan year; a board rule lets one bridge in on a short-duration plan at rates of its own. The agenda names the district as San Felipe ISD, which matches no Texas district by that exact name in state records. Anyone wanting to speak has to register by email with the board secretary by 5 p.m. Oct. 8. The system re-filed the notice on Oct. 2 with the same agenda.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 8:00 AM, Friday, October 9, 2026. The operative notice is TRD 2026005867, filed October 2 at 1:39 p.m.; it re-notices TRD 2026005851 of October 1, which the feed now carries as revised. The agenda text is unchanged.
- Where
- 4655 Mueller Blvd., 2nd Floor Boardroom, Austin. All or part may be held by telephone or video conference; the presiding officer sits in the boardroom, which stays open to the public.
- Governing body & chair
- Teacher Retirement System of Texas Board of Trustees — nine members, all appointed by the governor: three directly, two from State Board of Education lists, and four from slates nominated by school employees, higher-education employees and retirees. Chair Dan West; Vice Chair Elvis Williams. Executive Director Brian Guthrie.
- Format
- A four-item special meeting: minutes, health plan rates, and the investment-officer search committee. The board may close the meeting for legal advice, real property, personnel and investment matters, and must act in open session.
- Live video
- The open portions are broadcast over the internet from the system’s board meetings page, where a recording is posted afterward. Virtual public comment requires registering by email to publiccomment@trs.texas.gov by 5:00 p.m. October 8.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · board meeting materials
Board members
- Dan West — chair; Houston; term to 2031.
- Elvis Williams — vice chair; Cedar Hill; term to 2027.
- Brittny Allred — Dallas; principal, Luther King Capital Management; term to 2027.
- John Elliott — Austin; partner, Kelly Hart and Hallman; term to 2027.
- Laronda Graf — Queen City; human resources director, Atlanta ISD; 2029.
- Pete Pape — Leander; chief financial officer, Eanes ISD; term to 2031.
- John R. Rutherford — Houston; term to 2029.
- Clayton Ripley — Austin; appointed September 21; term to 2031.
- Robert H. Walls Jr. — San Antonio; still listed, term shown as 2025.
Names, cities and term years are from the system’s trustee page, checked October 2. That page gives an occupation for only some trustees, which is why several entries here carry none; it had not been updated to add Clayton Ripley or to remove Robert H. Walls Jr. after the governor’s September 21 announcement, though it does show West as chair. The Dispatch found no statement from the system or the governor’s office that a seat is vacant, and does not assert one. Board composition is from that page and Government Code §§825.002 and 825.003.