Rip Mecherle

Rip Mecherle is the Chief Investment Officer of The University of Tennessee System, a role he has held since joining the university in August 2011. He manages the invested assets of the university's endowment — reported at roughly $1.4 billion — along with the University's charitable trust (charitable remainder trust) platform, and helps oversee the system's operating cash. Combined, the assets under his oversight approximate $3 billion. The Office of Investments he leads reports up through the UT System Treasurer and CFO within Finance and Administration.

Before UT, Mecherle spent about eleven years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the structured credit and leveraged corporate debt markets, where he ran separately managed accounts, open-end funds, and leveraged closed-end funds. He also spent roughly four years working in the non-profit sector before moving into the endowment world.

On education, Mecherle earned his undergraduate degree(s) from the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University's Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management (program dated 1996–1998, with a concentration in accounting and finance). He is a CFA charterholder.

Reflecting his credit-market roots, Mecherle is a recurring speaker and moderator at institutional-investor gatherings — for example, he has appeared on the speaker faculty of the Academy for Institutional Investors' Spring Investment Academy Forums (2024–2026), frequently in sessions on credit markets.

• Operates as an institutional allocator for a university endowment, not as a direct startup investor; his "deals" are commitments to external managers and funds across asset classes.
• Mandate is long-horizon, diversified portfolio management: the UT Endowment pools endowed gifts into a single commingled, broadly diversified investment vehicle designed to support the university's long-term financial strength.
• Deep personal specialization in structured credit and leveraged corporate debt — the area he ran funds in for over a decade and still speaks on publicly at institutional forums.
• Responsibilities span the endowment, charitable remainder trusts, and system operating cash (~$3B total), implying attention to liquidity, risk, and long-term return objectives across multiple pools.
• Specific check sizes, manager names, and fee terms are not public — UT has invoked a state-law exemption to keep how much it pays investment and hedge-fund managers confidential.