# John Ward Elected member trustee of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees, holding Position #6. Ward replaced Shawn Higginbotham, whose 6/30/2025 resignation was announced at the 4/7/2025 Board meeting per [[atrs-bot-packets-7-3-25]] and was effective 6/30/2025. The Position #6 appointment occurred at the 6/2/2025 BOT meeting under Agenda Item XVIII per [[atrs-bot-audio-6-2-25]], though the 6/2 BOT audio transcript does not document the specific appointee name. Ward is the documented first-appearance Position #6 trustee at the 12/1/2025 Board recordings. ## First documented appearance at the 12/1/2025 IC The 12/1/2025 ATRS Investment Committee audio transcript at [[atrs-board-audio-12-1-25]] documents Ward as a substantive procedural participant. Ward moves the adoption of the IC agenda at the opening of the meeting: > "Motion. There's motion by Mr. Ward. Is there a second? Second. Second by Ms. Ford." > 20251201B_IC_Audio.transcript.txt segment 4, [00:00:36 to 00:00:42] Ward subsequently moves and seconds multiple procedural motions through the IC meeting, including the second of the approval of the September 29, 2025 minutes: > "Second by Mr. Ward." > 20251201D_BOT_Audio.transcript.txt segment 73, [00:02:25 to 00:02:27] Ward is captured as a routine procedural participant at both the IC and BOT meetings, in the standard procedural-mover/seconder pattern of an elected member trustee. The substantive policy adoptions on 12/1 (BP4 and BP6 amendments for the 5% private credit allocation, Resolution 2025-47 Big River Steel tax credit amendment, Resolution 2025-48 BlackRock China divestment, Resolutions 2025-49 and 2025-50 private equity commitments) all received voice votes Ward participated in at the BOT. ## Position on the Board Position #6 elected member trustee, replacing Shawn Higginbotham (Vice Chair through 6/30/2025; resignation announced at the 4/7/2025 Board meeting). The position is one of the elected trustee seats per [[atrs-board-governance-structure]]. Whether Ward serves on the Investment Committee, the Operations Committee, the Audit Committee, or has a procedural specialization is not documented in the 12/1 transcripts; the IC and BOT minutes when produced would document committee assignments authoritatively. Ward did not participate in the 6/2/2025 ATRS Board meeting at which Resolution 2025-22 (Israel Bonds) was authorized. The 6/2 IC roll call documented at [[atrs-ic-audio-6-2-25]] and the 6/2 BOT roll call at [[atrs-bot-audio-6-2-25]] include Higginbotham (Ward's predecessor) but not Ward. Ward's first documented appearance therefore postdates the Israel Bonds authorization by approximately six months. ## Significance for the investigation Ward is a Position #6 trustee with no documented involvement in the Israel Bonds authorization decision and no documented engagement with the post-vote oversight question on the standing Israel Bonds position. The 12/1 IC and BOT (Ward's first documented Board day) contained zero substantive references to Israel Bonds across approximately 2,966 combined segments. Ward attended approximately three weeks before Reams's single-quarter $50M Israel Bonds capital call deployment per [[atrs-reams-capital-call-execution]] and did not receive any Israel Bonds notification at the regular Board venues he attended. Whether Ward was independently informed of the pending Reams capital call through other channels (Board distribution list emails between 6/30/2025 and 12/1/2025, individual ATRS staff communications, the 12/29/2025 Rod Graves Board Update-Liquidity email documented at [[atrs-reams-capital-call-execution]]) is not addressable from the 12/1 audio record alone. The 12/29/2025 Graves email is the wiki's documented first post-deployment Board notification; Ward as a Position #6 trustee on the ATRS Board Distribution List would have received that email. ## Evidence > "Motion. There's motion by Mr. Ward. Is there a second?" > 20251201B_IC_Audio.transcript.txt segment 4, [00:00:36 to 00:00:42] > "Second by Mr. Ward." > 20251201D_BOT_Audio.transcript.txt segment 73, [00:02:25 to 00:02:27] ## Cross-References [[atrs-board-audio-12-1-25]] source page documenting Ward's first documented Board appearance [[shawn-higginbotham]] preceding Position #6 trustee and Vice Chair through 6/30/2025 [[atrs-board-governance-structure]] concept page on Board composition [[atrs-bot-packets-7-3-25]] source page documenting Higginbotham's resignation announcement and the 6/2/2025 Position #6 appointment process [[atrs-reams-capital-call-execution]] December 2025 single-quarter Reams capital call deployment that postdated Ward's first 12/1 Board day by approximately three weeks ## Sign-In Sheet confirmation (R 2-28-26) The 2026-05-12 ingest of the 12/1 trustee sign-in sheet at `raw/atrs/FOIA Response 2-28-26/FOIA Response 2-23-26/Request 1 - Board Meetings/Sign-In Sheets 12-21-2025.pdf` (filename typo for 12/1/2025) documents Ward in Position #6 with personal signature, consistent with the wiki's prior framing. The 12/1 guest sign-in sheet contains an entry "John Wand / Magnolia SD / 9:10" that may or may not be the same individual as the Position #6 trustee. The "Wand" rendering is plausibly a misspelling of "Ward," and the Magnolia School District affiliation is consistent with an elected member trustee role (the ATRS Board includes Trustees representing active school employees and retirees per [[atrs-board-governance-structure]]). The identity question is a continuing FOIA target — Ward's biographical details from the Board's published trustee roster would resolve whether the Position #6 elected trustee John Ward is the same individual as the Magnolia SD guest John Wand who also signed in. The sign-in sheet cross-confirms Ward's trustee role; whether the Magnolia SD affiliation is his is not directly resolved.