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TIFF formalizes secondaries desk with two senior hires after deploying **$3.8bn** into GP-led deals since 2021, signaling a shift from liquidity tool to primary alpha source.
$38 billion
Canadian institutional allocator after it deployed roughly
$3.8 billion
into GP-led continuation vehicles and LP portfolio sales between…
$6.2 billion
in private credit secondaries
64%
of total secondaries volume
TIFF Investment Management appointed Andrew Murray as Managing Director, Head of Secondary Investing, and Stephen Grau as Executive Director, Secondary Investing. The hires formalize a secondaries capability inside the $38 billion Canadian institutional allocator after it deployed roughly $3.8 billion into GP-led continuation vehicles and LP portfolio sales between 2021 and 2023. Murray joins from Northleaf Capital Partners, where he spent eleven years structuring secondaries transactions across North American and European sponsors. Grau comes from Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, the Credit Suisse spin-out that manages $6.2 billion in private credit secondaries.
TIFF has been an LP in global private equity since 1992, but its secondaries allocation sat inside the broader alternatives sleeve until this month. The decision to create a standalone desk reflects two structural shifts: GP-led deals now represent 64% of total secondaries volume, up from 38% in 2019, and hold periods in buyout funds stretched to 6.4 years in 2023, the longest since Preqin began tracking the metric in 2006. TIFF's endowment and foundation clients want liquidity optionality without sacrificing exposure to compounding assets, and GP-led deals—where a sponsor moves a portfolio company into a new fund vehicle—deliver that exact profile. The firm disclosed in March that it participated in nineteen continuation vehicles last year, eleven of them in technology and healthcare.
The timing aligns with a broader re-rating of secondaries as a primary allocation vehicle, not a portfolio management tool. Coller Capital, Lexington Partners, and Ardian collectively raised $47 billion for secondaries funds in the twelve months ending March 2024, the largest annual vintage on record. Allocators now use secondaries to access mature private companies without the J-curve, to rebalance vintage-year exposures, and to buy into oversubscribed GPs through LP stake sales. TIFF's move suggests it views secondaries as a separate alpha source, not a liquidity release valve. Murray will report directly to TIFF's Chief Investment Officer and sit on the firm's Investment Committee, a governance structure that gives secondaries equal weight with direct private equity and co-investments.
Operators should watch how TIFF structures its secondaries mandate—whether it pursues LP-led sales, GP-led continuations, or both—and whether it builds a co-investment overlay to follow assets into continuation vehicles. The firm's LP base skews toward Canadian university endowments and healthcare foundations, institutions with long duration liabilities and low distribution needs, which means TIFF can hold secondaries positions for the full remaining fund life rather than flipping them to tertiary buyers. That patient capital profile makes it a credible counterparty for GPs structuring continuation funds around trophy assets. The first deals under Murray's mandate will likely close in Q3 2024, and allocators will parse whether TIFF negotiates fee step-downs or co-investment rights as part of its entry terms.
Murray's Northleaf background matters. Northleaf ran one of the earliest dedicated secondaries platforms inside a Canadian LP-GP hybrid, and its dealflow tilted toward mid-market North American sponsors—the same universe where TIFF has concentrated its direct private equity commitments. That overlap suggests TIFF intends to use secondaries as a portfolio completion tool, filling holes in its vintage-year ladder or adding exposure to sectors where it missed primary fundraises. The firm has not disclosed whether it will raise a dedicated secondaries fund or continue allocating from its general alternatives envelope, but the senior-level hires and governance structure point toward a standalone vehicle within eighteen months.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
Track TIFF's first deals under Murray for pricing benchmarks on GP-led entries, especially fee step-downs and co-investment terms you can replicate.
For the operator
Monitor whether TIFF launches a dedicated secondaries fund by mid-2025; if so, their LP base signals patient capital willing to hold full remaining fund life.
For the house
Flag TIFF as a credible secondaries counterparty for continuation vehicles in mid-market North American sponsors; consider co-investment overlays in their entry deals.
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