TIFF Investment Management appointed Andrew Murray as Managing Director and Head of Secondary Investing, alongside Stephen Grau as Executive Vice President for the same vertical. The $26 billion AUM manager, which serves endowments and foundations, had previously run secondaries work through its broader alternatives team without dedicated C-suite ownership.

Murray joins from a structured secondaries background. Grau steps into execution. The timing follows eighteen months of secondary fund volume compressing—Jefferies reported $108 billion in global secondaries transaction volume for 2024, down from $134 billion in 2022. TIFF is adding leadership as pricing stabilizes and LP liquidity demand remains elevated. The firm manages capital for over 300 institutional clients, most with sub-$500 million allocations and limited in-house alternatives teams.

The appointments matter for two reasons. First, endowments and foundations are structural net buyers in secondaries markets when pricing dislocates—they have patience, low redemption risk, and accounting flexibility. TIFF building a dedicated secondaries capability suggests the firm sees sustained LP selling ahead, likely from corporate pension plans and insurance allocators facing regulatory capital pressure. Second, the move signals TIFF is rotating from primary fund commitments toward opportunistic secondary purchases. That shift typically precedes vintage-year concerns—if TIFF expects primary fund performance to compress over the next 24 months, secondaries offer entry at steeper discounts without 10-year commitment horizons.

Worth noting: TIFF operates as a flat-fee manager, not a traditional 2-and-20 fund. Its incentive structure aligns with buying dislocated assets when peers are selling, not chasing momentum. The firm has historically underweighted venture and growth equity in favor of buyout and credit. Adding secondaries leadership now positions TIFF to acquire LP stakes in overallocated venture portfolios at 70-80% of NAV, a trade that requires separate underwriting infrastructure and relationship capital with GPs managing those portfolios.

Operators should track whether TIFF launches a dedicated secondaries fund vehicle or runs the strategy through its existing alternatives sleeve. If the former, expect a $500 million to $1 billion raise targeting university endowments with $2 billion to $10 billion in total assets. Those institutions typically lack the staff to manage secondary purchases themselves but have boards that approve secondary allocations faster than primary fund commitments. Watch for TIFF's secondaries activity in the Q2 2025 pension and endowment disclosure cycle—purchases in distressed venture or European buyout stakes would confirm the thesis. Also watch competitor responses: Cambridge Associates, Investure, and Prime Buchholz all compete for the same client base and may accelerate their own secondaries buildouts.

TIFF has now hired into secondaries leadership while Blackstone reported record secondaries fundraising and Hamilton Lane expanded its evergreen secondaries vehicle. The supply side is organizing.