# Celeste Gladden Investment Manager at the Arkansas Office of the Treasurer of State. Phone (501) 682-1419. Email [email protected]. The Treasury-side operational liaison to DCI on Israel Bonds wire transfers from at least November 2023 through May 2025, the operational counterpart to Steve Pulley's Senior Investment Officer order-placement role. The R2 production refines Gladden's title from the R1 framing of "wire operations principal" to the formal title "Investment Manager." Gladden's 8/12/2025 3:28 PM email signature block to Berman, Mulvey, Young, Jimenez, Beaver, and Kilgore reads "Celeste Gladden / Investment Manager / Arkansas State Treasury / Ph (501) 682-1419." The role substantively covers wire operations, custodian coordination, FOIA-response transmission, and portal access management — the operational portfolio expected of an Investment Manager at a state Treasurer's office. The DCI Payment Validation document for the Thurston $20M purchase (5/5/2025) is addressed to "Arkansas State Treasurer, Attn: Celeste Gladden, 1401 W Capitol, Ste 275, Little Rock, AR 72201" — Gladden is the named operational point-of-contact at Treasury for DCI's Operations team. ## The 11/1-11/2/2023 Walther-era wire troubleshooting Gladden released the $10M wire for the Walther-era Israel Bonds purchase on 11/1/2023 at 10:57 CDT. The wire did not appear at Computershare same day. Gladden's 11/2/2023 10:35 AM message to Berman documented the BofA hold: > Our bank has confirmed the wire transfer went out by sending us the following; it looks like it went out at 3:04 AM this morning. So, Computershare might want to check today's activity instead of yesterday's. Looks like there was some type of hold placed on the wire, in the past I have seen this is done in relation to fraud prevention and is out of our control. > > 00002 11/02/23 03:04 WIR AM 11/02/23 [redacted] 10,000,000.00 > DOMESTIC WIRE HOLD [redacted] Berman's reply at 11:41 AM thanked Gladden by name: "Thank you Celeste, thank you Steve, for all your efforts and for this important investment." The Berman-Gladden working relationship is documented from this date onward. ## The 12/23/2024 Walther-era maturity coordination Gladden coordinated the redemption of the $10M Israel Bond maturing 1/1/2025 (purchased by Milligan in January 2020). Her 12/23/2024 11:21 AM email to Berman: > I have requested that BNY send the bonds from the DTC vault to Computershare. I'll send a confirmation tracking number as soon as I receive. Thanks. The exchange documents the operational pathway: BNY (custodian) holds the physical certificates in the DTC vault; Gladden initiates the redemption by directing BNY to FedEx the certificates to Computershare; Computershare receives the certificates and wires the principal-plus-interest back to Treasury. The cycle takes approximately 10 days from initiation to wire-back. ## The 4/17/2025 Book Entry migration question Gladden emailed Steven Kilgore 4/17/2025 10:31 AM asking for an Investment Accounting Director / Internal Audit review of the Book Entry custodial migration: > I need your help determining if this situation will be ok for our Israel bonds. > > Currently, our bonds are received in physical form and held at the vault at DTC with BNY as our custodian, and they provide reports that they are held in custody. > > If we were to change to book entry with Computershare, they would just send us statements of what bonds are held for us and they will no longer be in physical custody with BNY/DTC vault. They can provide reports anytime and we can also get access to a portal. > > According to policy we must have a third party holding the bonds. I think this would satisfy that requirement. It would also prevent the physical movement of these securities back and forth. > > I need the ok on this from your perspective. Gladden's prudential framing ("According to policy we must have a third party holding the bonds. I think this would satisfy that requirement") indicates substantive familiarity with the SBOF custody policy. Kilgore's 4/17/2025 12:55 PM response concurred: "I don't find a barrier to using Computershare for Israel bonds, assuming no ongoing fees are involved." ## The 4/22/2025 Accredited Investor certification transmission Gladden emailed Berman 4/22/2025 10:47 AM: > Larry, Please see our Accredited Investor certification, attached. The signed QIB letter (Accredited Investor Arkansas.pdf) was the QIB Rule 506 compliance step for the May 1 2025 wire. ## Operational role characterization Gladden's documented role across the Walther and Thurston tenures is operationally identical: initiate the wire on the Treasurer's-office side; coordinate with the bank (BofA) on wire status; coordinate with BNY/DTC on certificate movement; coordinate with Computershare on receipt confirmation; close the loop with DCI Mark Ng or Bill Mulvey on post-transaction reconciliation. The role spans both the 11/2023 Walther $10M and the 5/2025 Thurston $20M purchases as well as the 1/2025 $10M maturity-redemption cycle. Gladden does not appear in any Israel Bonds investment-decision documentation (Pulley's order-placement, Huffman's target-setting, Berman's rate-sheet pitching). The operational/decision-making division of labor between Gladden and Pulley is consistent: Pulley as the Senior Investment Officer makes the call; Gladden as the wire operations principal executes the call. ## Cross-references [[treasury-foia-r1-7-7-25]] source page [[steve-pulley]] Senior Investment Officer counterpart; Pulley makes the call, Gladden executes [[steven-kilgore]] Investment Accounting Director / Internal Audit; reviewed Gladden's Book Entry policy question [[bill-mulvey]] DCI VP Operations; Gladden's DCI operational counterpart on the Book Entry migration and the Computershare reconciliation [[mark-ng]] DCI Registered Principal Associate Director Central Processing; Gladden's Computershare reconciliation contact [[lawrence-berman]] DCI sales lead; Gladden's primary DCI relationship correspondent across both Walther and Thurston tenures [[bny]] Treasurer's-office investment custodian; Gladden coordinates BNY/DTC certificate movements on Israel Bond maturities [[state-treasurer-israel-bonds-operations]] the operational pathway Gladden's role anchors [[state-treasurer-israel-bonds-holdings]] the $55M Treasury position Gladden operationally administers ## R2 9-23-25 production additions The Treasury R2 production (9-23-25) refines Gladden's role across the 8/12/2025-8/13/2025 IsraelBondsDirect portal-access workflow and the 2025-9-15 ACFR Israel Bond Pricing chain. **The 8/12/2025 portal-access request initiation.** Gladden emailed Berman and Mulvey 8/12/2025 3:28 PM (cc Young, Jimenez, Beaver, Kilgore): > Hello, I am writing as a follow up to the purchase of our newest Israel bonds that were settled via Book Entry in May. Since they were settled in this "new to us" way, we do not have them in custody like we do the others and we need reporting showing where they are held. Can someone please help us gain access to the portal where we can track these two new bonds? > > I need to get access for myself and: > Steven Kilgore [email protected] > Holly Beaver [email protected] > RE_ Israel Bond Rates - 8-13-25 (1).pdf p.5, 8/12/2025 3:28 PM The request initiated the DCI back-office workflow that ran Berman → Bill Mulvey → Raymond Su (DCI Operations) → Bradley Young → IsraelBondsDirect.com first-time-visitor registration with Computershare account C0018477645. The workflow documents Gladden as the Treasury-side principal coordinating ongoing operational access to the Book Entry custodial platform on behalf of the Treasury investment team. **The Computershare login policy constraint.** Bradley Young's 8/13/2025 3:17 PM response established "Computerhare's policy is one login per Computershare account." Gladden's 8/13/2025 12:37 PM response to Kilgore proposed that Kilgore maintain the login: "I am ok if you guys have the login going forward if you want to work with Bradley to get set up properly. It makes more sense for one of you to have it if we can't all login." The operational division between Gladden's Investment Manager role and Kilgore's Investment Accounting Director / Internal Audit role is therefore documented across the portal-access workflow. [[raymond-su]] DCI Operations contact in the August 2025 portal-access workflow [[holly-hester-beaver]] Treasury Investment Accountant who is one of three Treasury staff designated for IsraelBondsDirect portal access ## Treasury R3 2-19-26 production: Gladden as compliance coordinator and wire-confirmation sender on the Feb 17 2026 Thurston purchase The Treasury R3 (2-19-26) production documents Gladden's operational role on the second Thurston-era Israel Bonds purchase across four touchpoints January-February 2026: (1) **1/14/2026 3:50 PM**: Luis Jimenez forwarded Berman's cold solicitation to Gladden with an alternative operational mechanism: "Just wanted to make sure you know there was an option for the State to reinvest without exchanging funds." Gladden's response is not preserved in the extract; the transaction proceeded with separate maturity redemption and new purchase wire, so Gladden either declined the "reinvest without exchanging funds" option or no response was documented. (2) **1/21-22/2026**: Gladden coordinated with BNY Corporate Actions (Jeffrey D. Marcus, Paul Mastros, Arnold Dorville) on the DTC Vault certificate release for the 8th Institutional CUSIP 46514TZG6 maturity. The 1/21/2026 9:48 AM Gladden email to Marcus on "RE: AR State Treasury Acct 393223 Sovereign Bond Maturing (Held in DTC Vault)" produced the BNY tracking number for the overnighted certificate to Computershare. (3) **2/3/2026 2:30 PM**: Gladden returned the signed Accredited Investor letter to Jimenez (cc Bradley Young, Lawrence Berman, Steve Pulley): "Please see accredited investor letter, attached. We will wire funds on Feb 17. Celeste." Attachment: "State of Arkansas Accredited Investor.pdf" (the signed Treasury QIB letter for the August 2025 PPM cycle; the signed PDF is not separately produced in R3). (4) **2/17/2026 9:46 AM**: Gladden emailed the wire confirmation to Bradley Young (cc Jimenez, Pulley, Berman): "Bradley, The wire confirmation for today's purchase is attached. Celeste." Attachment: "Wire Confirm 2-17-26.pdf" (the Bank of America Outgoing Payments Report documenting the $10M wire to Computershare aaf SOI WirePurch, Value Date 02/17/2026, Beneficiary Information "Arkansas State Treasury, Israel Jubilee Bond - 5 Year"). The Feb 2026 transaction documents that Gladden's Investment Manager role continues to be the **Treasury-side operational coordination point** across compliance, wire execution coordination, and post-wire DCI notification. Gladden is NOT in the wire dual-control execution chain itself (the wire was input by Kathie Insalaco / approved by Janice Cohens); Gladden's role is upstream coordination and downstream notification. This is consistent with the May 2025 ladder transaction documented at R1. The R3 production also includes the 001CS0003 Computershare Bondholder Statement printed 8/20/2025 for "ARKANSAS STATE TREASURER, ATTN CELESTE GLADDEN, 1401 W CAPITOL STE 275, LITTLE ROCK AR 72201." Gladden's continued documentation as the Computershare ATTN for Treasury Israel Bonds correspondence is confirmed through the June 30 2025 reporting period. The November 30 2025 and December 31 2025 A1 Investment Recaps in R3 list Gladden as the MMTF (Money Management Trust Fund) portfolio principal alongside her Israel Bonds Investment Manager role; the institutional documentation positions Gladden across Treasury Money Management operations and Israel Bonds operational coordination simultaneously. [[treasury-foia-r3-2-19-26]] source page [[janice-cohens]] [[kathie-insalaco]] Treasury cash-management staff documented as the Feb 2026 wire dual-control inputter/approver