Randy Baum
Chief Investment Officer
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- Full Name
- Randall Baum (goes by "Randy")
- Title
- Chief Investment Officer, CFA
- Firm
- Denver Employees Retirement Plan (DERP)
- Firm Type
- Public / municipal defined-benefit pension plan (institutional investor) — not an angel group
- Investment Stage
- Institutional multi-asset portfolio management (all asset classes across public and private markets); not seed-stage venture
- Check Size
- N/A — allocates across external managers within a ~$3 billion portfolio rather than writing individual startup checks
- Sector Focus
- Diversified institutional asset allocation (public equities, fixed income, and private/alternative assets) for pension liabilities
- Geographic Focus
- Global institutional markets; organization serves Denver, Colorado
- Location
- Denver, Colorado, USA
Background
Randall "Randy" Baum is the Chief Investment Officer of the Denver Employees Retirement Plan (DERP), a public defined-benefit pension plan that administers retirement, disability, and survivor benefits for employees of the City and County of Denver and other participating Denver-area employers. As CIO he manages all investment-related duties and risk exposures for DERP, working with the Retirement Board and outside advisors to develop and execute strategies to preserve and grow the plan's roughly $3 billion portfolio. He is a CFA charterholder.
Baum has served DERP for 18 years. According to DERP's July 2026 announcement, he plans to retire on October 1, 2026, with Executive Director Heather Darlington crediting him for "18 years of outstanding service." Before DERP, his career centered on institutional and healthcare-sector finance; reported prior roles include Investments Manager (Cash) at Catholic Health Initiatives, and earlier positions associated with US Bank and the Colorado Nonprofit Loan Fund. He earned a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Denver.
His work is that of an institutional pension investor — setting asset allocation, selecting and overseeing external investment managers, and managing portfolio-level risk against long-dated pension liabilities — rather than that of a startup angel or venture investor. There is no public record of Baum making personal angel/seed investments in operating startups.
Investment Thesis & Focus
- Mandate: Steward a ~$3 billion public pension portfolio, "working closely with investment advisors to develop and execute the investment strategies necessary to manage and preserve DERP's portfolio" (DERP leadership page).
- Approach: Institutional, liability-driven, multi-asset investing — diversified across public equities, fixed income, and private/alternative asset classes — rather than direct company-level check-writing.
- Access model: DERP deploys capital primarily through external investment managers and funds, not direct seed rounds. In 2026 the Retirement Board moved to an outsourced CIO (OCIO) model, hiring Cambridge Associates with full discretionary authority to manage the fund going forward.
- Not a fit for founders seeking seed capital: As a public-pension CIO, Baum does not fund early-stage startups directly; the "seed round / angel" framing in the stub is not supported by any source.
Notable Investments
- No named startup or angel deals are on public record for this individual. As a pension-plan CIO, Baum oversees a portfolio invested through institutional managers rather than disclosed direct company stakes; DERP's specific holdings/managers are governed by the Retirement Board and reported at the fund level, not as personal deals.
- If the intended target was a startup angel investor, the correct person is likely a *different* Randall Baum (see the identity note above) — that should be confirmed before treating this as a seed-stage source.
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