The Texas Hedge Fund Association has elected a new chairman and three members of its board of directors.

The board unanimously elected Heather E. Gilker of Dallas-based strategic consulting firm GSG Capital Advisors as its chair. 

Gilker will serve as chair for an initial two-year term. She replaces Christopher A. Zook, founder of the THFA and its long-serving chair. Zook will remain on the board as a non-voting member.

Newly elected directors serving two-year terms on the THFA board include J. Keith Benedict, chief operating officer, general counsel and a member of the investment committee of A. G. Hill Partners, a Dallas-based family office; Bill Braxton, associate director of marketing of Crestline Investors, a Fort Worth-based hedge fund manager; and Steven J. Menna, a principal in Rothstein Kass' Dallas office.

Incumbent board members who will continue to serve include Steven W. Caple, chief operating officer, Unity Hunt in Dallas; Allison Duensing, general counsel of the Saracen Group of Companies in Houston; Doug E. Jegi, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer for CrossCap Management in Houston; Philip Pilibosian of Condera Advisors in Houston; Michael Rebello, Ashbel Smith Professor at the School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas; and Dale West, director of external public markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin. 

The board also elected Menna to serve as secretary/treasurer.