About

Michael Ijeh is an Assistant Professor of Practice and the Director of the Investment Management Program within the Finance Department. His role includes being the Portfolio Manager for the $4 million Student-Managed Investment Fund (SMIF), which is a portfolio where students pitch which stocks go into the portfolio at the end of each semester. He is also the faculty advisor to the Investment Management Association (IMA), a student organization that provides its members with opportunities to explore the various investment-related career paths, provide projects and case competitions to put on their resumes, and assist in preparing for interviews for internships and full-time positions.

Prior to joining the Rawls College of Business in 2025, Professor Ijeh spent nearly a decade as an institutional investor with the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) of Texas, a $220 billion pension fund for state public school employees. Within this role, Michael worked within a 10-person team to allocate over $50 billion to over 70 long-oriented and hedge fund managers of various investment strategies. In his time at TRS, Michael became the subject matter expert on the team for early-stage hedge funds, machine learning quantitative funds, pre-IPO funds, and stock pickers with a quality growth investment style.

Professor Ijeh primarily pulls from his experience as an institutional investor in the courses he teaches, although his other experiences in the finance services industry that came prior to TRS (Goldman Sachs, Raymond James & Associates, and Marcum LLP) also play a role. Michael is also still engaged in the institutional investing community, as he holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation and is the author of the “Allocator’s Edge” email newsletter.

Professor Ijeh is a graduate in Finance from Texas Tech University, where he was part of the Honors College, the Scovell Business Leaders Program, the Student Management Investment Fund, the Finance Association, the Business Valuation Club, the McLane Teammates Reading Program, and the Black Graduate School Association, as well as conducted academic research in economics. Professor Ijeh is also a graduate of George Mason University, earning a Master of Arts in Economics part-time while working at TRS.