The board of the State Teachers’ Retirement System of Ohio named Aaron F. Hood as its new interim executive director. Hood’s appointment is effective today, November 18. Executive search firm Korn Ferry assisted in the search.
Hood is currently a finance senior fellow in the department of social sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was previously chief financial officer of Summit Carbon Solutions, following his tenure as a founding partner in Perella Weinberg Partners, where he served separate stints as chief financial officer, chief operating officer and head of asset management.
“Mr. Hood will provide a seamless transition as the Board searches for STRS Ohio’s next permanent leader,” STRS Board Chair Rudy Fichtenbaum said in a statement. “I can ensure the more than 500,000 members of STRS Ohio that the board and all staff remain dedicated to continuing to provide Ohio’s public educators with a foundation for their financial security.”
Hood earned a B.S. in theoretical economics and political science from the U.S. Military Academy, served five years and rose to the rank of captain in the Army Corps of Engineers, and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School.
STRS Ohio has dealt with high-profile turnover resulting from severe governance issues. In September, CIO Matt Worley and Acting Executive Director Lynn Hoover announced their resignations, although Worley’s does not take effect until March 31, 2025.
Hoover, whose resignation is effective December 1, is acting in place of Bill Neville, who had been on leave from the fund since November 2023 amidst reports of harassment against STRS staff and was ultimately removed in September.
The 11-member board of STRS is split, with a “reformer” faction controlling a majority of board seats. The reformers, including Fichtenbaum, want the fund to increase cost-of-living adjustments for beneficiaries and are calling for passive investing through index funds.
STRS beneficiaries and board reformers have criticized the fund for not providing cost-of-living adjustments—they were suspended between 2017 and 2022, then reinstated, but STRS did not provide back pay for the suspended years, drawing the ire of beneficiaries.
The ascendancy of the reformer faction led to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine removing Wade Steen, a reformer board member who was later reinstated by the state’s supreme court. Steen had originally been appointed as the board’s investment expert by former Governor John Kasich and was then reappointed by DeWine; Steen’s appointment expired in September. DeWine named Columbus-based attorney Jon Allison, expected to side with the “status quo” faction, to the board in his place.
The attorney general of Ohio, Dave Yost, opened an investigation into the reformers, accusing them of planning to allocate tens of billions of dollars of the pension’s assets into an investment management firm named QED, which Yost alleged had ties to the reformers, had a shoddy investment record and lacked experienced staff.
Related Stories:
STRS Ohio CIO, Acting Executive Director Resign
Ohio State Representative Proposes Consolidation of State Pension Systems
Ohio Attorney General Calls for Removal of Two Teachers’ Pension Board Members
Tags: Aaron F. Hood, Bill Neville, Lynn Hoover, Matt Worley, Ohio, Rudy Fichtenbaum, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, STRS Ohio