Samford University Pension Plan

Samford University Pension Plan

The Samford University Pension Plan operates as a legacy defined-benefit structure administered from the university's Birmingham campus. Plan membership was capped on January 1, 2013, when the university froze eligibility for all employees hired or rehired after that date. Assets are fully funded by Samford University; employees make no contributions. Vice President for Finance, Business Affairs and Strategy Colin Coyne and President Beck A. Taylor represent the university's executive layer, while the Samford University Retirement Committee carries out the plan's administrative provisions. The plan's investment program tilts entirely toward venture capital, executed through accounts and vehicles offered by GuideStone Financial Resources. GuideStone, a faith-based financial services organization tied to the Southern Baptist Convention, acts as the plan's sole documented business partner and conduit to the asset class. The structure channels commitments into a venture portfolio that is institutionally curated but doctrinally constrained, limiting the universe of accessible general partners and portfolio companies. No direct investments, co-investments, or fund-of-funds relationships outside the GuideStone platform have been publicly disclosed. Scale and team metrics remain undisclosed. No AUM figure, deployment total, or professional headcount appears in any public filing. The plan's governance sits within Samford University's finance division, with the Retirement Committee responsible for administration and Coyne providing strategic oversight. No additional offices, philanthropic vehicles, or adjacent investment entities tied to the plan have been identified. A recent operational event is not verifiable from available sources. The plan's structural differentiator is its freeze date. Since January 2013, no new liabilities have accrued to new hires, transforming the vehicle into a runoff portfolio with a shrinking participant base. This makes the plan an atypical allocator: its time horizon is shortening, its liquidity profile is governed by a declining beneficiary pool, and its investment decisions are necessarily shaped by a liability stream that is contracting rather than growing — the inverse of most institutional venture LPs.