# Mark White Executive Director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Email [email protected], phone 501.621.8853. Signature carries Arkansas Constitution Art. 14 § 1 quotation about public schools. White's authority and responsibilities are governed by Board Policy 3. Section I.B describes the Executive Director as "the Board's official link to the operation of the System... accountable for all organizational performance and entitled to exercise all authority delegated by official Board action." Under Section I.C(2) the ED may resolve member issues with a direct financial impact of up to $5,000 without Board approval; resolutions exceeding $5,000 require Board approval. Under Board Policy 4 Section S, White is jointly responsible with the investment consultant for the initial selection of investment managers. The 5/8/2025 directive to Rod Graves and the 5/22/2025 Board preview together represent White acting under both authorities: as the source of the recommendation packaged for the Board, and as the joint selector (with PJ Kelly of Aon) of Reams Asset Management as the Israel bond manager. In this batch White is the principal decision-shaper for ATRS's Israel Bonds adoption. He appears across all five PDFs, in roles ranging from FOIA respondent to Board agenda-setter to internal directive author. The first sustained appearance is the December 2024 Mryyan FOIA exchange. White initially declined Mryyan's broadly worded request as not "sufficiently specific to enable the custodian to locate the records with reasonable effort" under Ark. Code Ann. § 25-19-105(a)(2)(C), but voluntarily provided a list of direct Israel-based equity holdings as of 11/1/2024. When Mryyan pressed specifically for Israel Bonds issued by DCI, White responded on 12/10/2024: "I'm aware of the Israel bonds issued by the Development Corporation for Israel, and no, we do not have any direct investment in those bonds." After a phone conversation with Mryyan on 12/11/2024, White asked Rod Graves to check pooled fixed income funds for Israel bond holdings, leading to the SSgA CMX6 holdings export. White provided that export to Mryyan on 12/12/2024 with the caveat that the dollar figures represented the fund as a whole and not ATRS's ownership interest. White attended the 4/15/2025 in-person meeting at the State Capitol with Berman, Young, Milligan, and presumably Brady. The 4/11/2025 confirmation email from Milligan addressed only White; whether other ATRS staff attended is not documented in this batch. White's 5/8/2025 internal directive to Rod Graves is the most consequential single document in the batch. Subject line "Israel Bonds." White wrote: "Let's go ahead and plan to move forward with a proposal to the Board in June." The message specified the structural parameters White wanted built into the Board package: up to $50 million total, no more than $20 million in the first year, no more than $15 million in subsequent years, with the option of either an Investment Policy change or a resolution depending on what the Investment Policy review showed. White also wrote that Aon would not be making "a formal recommendation" but would provide information on characteristics, performance, and risk profile. He committed to writing the memo for the packet himself. White's 5/14–15/2025 correspondence with reporter Mike Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a public-facing disclosure. White confirmed ATRS held Israeli bonds and direct equity and fixed income holdings in Israeli companies, then clarified that the bonds were owned indirectly through an index fund. He provided a total Israel exposure figure of approximately $25 million ($19 million direct, $6 million indirect) including the approximately $1 million Israel bonds slice from the SSgA fund. White's 5/22/2025 Board preview email to Board Members is the public framing of the Israel Bonds ask to the trustees. He named "Our Board colleague, State Auditor Dennis Milligan" as the requester, noted that APERS had approved $25 to $50 million the previous week, and gave his own assessment: "From a pecuniary standpoint, it appears to me these bonds are a worthy investment." His recommendation was $50 million over 5 years at $10 million per year. In the 5/19/2025 reply to ATRS retiree John Rollans, White confirmed indirect Israel bond exposure of approximately $1 million. After the 6/2/2025 Board action, White processed the Jennifer Lenow citizen FOIA personally on 6/3–6/4/2025, transmitting three PDFs (BoardDocuments 3.7 MB, SignedResolution 648 KB, OtherDocuments 4.6 MB) plus a Google Drive link to the Investment Committee and full Board audio recordings. He forwarded the same FOIA to APERS executive director Amy Fecher with "FYI"; Fecher acknowledged she had received the parallel APERS request the previous week. The Milligan custodian production captures additional post-vote White correspondence not in the ATRS Staff Emails batch. On 6/6/2025 at 4:48 PM White issued a board canvass for Israel-Bonds-responsive emails in connection with a second Lenow FOIA request that targeted "any/all emails of ARTRS staff and/or board members that include reference to Israel Bonds in the last year." White's instruction: "If you received or sent any emails from/to someone outside of ATRS staff in the last year regarding Israel Bonds, that email may be subject to the FOIA request. If you have an email that may qualify, please let me know." This canvass is the process document that produced the Milligan custodian batch four days later. On 6/9/2025 White forwarded to the Board his prior Westrock Coffee correspondence with retiree John Rollans, explaining that he had not responded to Rollans's most recent message because Rollans copied the Board on it. The Westrock correspondence captured in the 6/9 forward contains White's most explicit statement of how ATRS investment decisions are governed: "At ATRS our investment decisions are based on recommendations from our outside professional investment consultants. They are monitoring and stay in regular communication with Westrock, and if they determine it is in the System's interest to sell our stake, they will make that recommendation to the Board." White also cited five Wall Street analysts independently rating Westrock as "buy" as external validation. This procedural framing for a held position is in tension with White's 5/8/2025 directive on Israel Bonds ("they will not be making a formal recommendation"). The companion concept page [[westrock-procedural-asymmetry]] develops the implications. The Spadoni custodian production adds context about the 4/15/2025 ATRS meeting. White's meeting was one of eight scheduled meetings the Auditor's office orchestrated for Berman and Young that week, not a singular substantive engagement. Per Spadoni's 4/11 schedule, White's slot was 10:00 to 10:30 AM Tuesday, sandwiched between the 8:00 AM Sen. Hester meeting and the 11:30 AM Treasurer Thurston meeting. Berman forwarded the 12th Series Institutional Offering Rate Sheet to Spadoni at 8:23 AM the same morning, less than two hours before the meeting; whether White received this rate sheet during the meeting is not directly documented but the timing suggests it was the institutional sales material delivered. The 5.68 percent 10-year rate on that rate sheet is consistent with the rate Matt Waz of Reams later cited on 5/28/2025. White's positioning across the batch oscillates between procedural neutrality (FOIA responses, executive director's report) and substantive advocacy (the 5/8 directive, the 5/22 preview's "worthy investment" line). The 5/8 directive predates Aon's formal involvement on 5/9 and predates the May 28 Reams analysis. The structural parameters of the eventual Board ask were set before the consultant or any candidate manager had been engaged. ## Evidence > "I'm aware of the Israel bonds issued by the Development Corporation for Israel, and no, we do not have any direct investment in those bonds." > Mark White to Badria Mryyan, Emails1.pdf p.11, 12/10/2024 > "Let's go ahead and plan to move forward with a proposal to the Board in June. Please talk with Aon and/or State Street to see what they can present to the Board. I know they will not be making a formal recommendation, but I would like to have some information from them as to the characteristics, performance, and risk profile of these bonds, and to the extent they will do so, some assurance that this is a worthwhile investment." > Mark White to Rod Graves, Emails3.pdf p.6, 5/8/2025 > "For example, maybe we provide that we will invest up to $50 million total, with no more than $20 million in the first year and no more than $15 million in each future year" > Mark White to Rod Graves, Emails3.pdf p.6, 5/8/2025 > "I will do a memo for the packet that outlines our recommendation, and then we can attach whatever the consultants/managers provide, and also see what information the underwriter can give us to provide the Board." > Mark White to Rod Graves, Emails3.pdf p.6, 5/8/2025 > "I don't know if I can have a number by tomorrow but we will try. Also, one clarification -- the Israel bonds we currently have are through an index fund, so we own those indirectly. But we do have direct holdings in equity and fixed income in Israeli companies." > Mark White to Mike Wickline, Emails3.pdf p.16, 5/14/2025 > "Our total holdings in Israel, including both equity and fixed income, is approximately $19 million in direct holdings and $6 million in indirect holdings, for a total of $25 million. Our stake in Israel bonds would be part of that indirect group." > Mark White to Mike Wickline, Emails3.pdf p.22, 5/15/2025 > "Our Board colleague, State Auditor Dennis Milligan, is asking the Board to consider making an investment in Israel Bonds." > Mark White Board preview, Emails3.pdf p.28, 5/22/2025 > "From a pecuniary standpoint, it appears to me these bonds are a worthy investment. If the Board decides to pursue this, based on my conversations with Aon, my recommendation would be an investment of up to $50 million spread over 5 years, with up to $10 million per year." > Mark White Board preview, Emails3.pdf p.28, 5/22/2025 > "On your second question, ATRS indirectly owns Israel bonds through one of our bond funds. The value of our stake in those bonds is approximately $1 million." > Mark White to John Rollans, Emails3.pdf p.26, 5/19/2025 > "At ATRS our investment decisions are based on recommendations from our outside professional investment consultants. They are monitoring and stay in regular communication with Westrock, and if they determine it is in the System's interest to sell our stake, they will make that recommendation to the Board." > Mark White to John Rollans, Communication with John Rollans - 9 june 2025.pdf p.2, 5/20/2025 > "We have received an FOI request from Jennifer Lenow as follows: 'I would like to request any/all emails of ARTRS staff and/or board members that include reference to Israel Bonds in the last year.' We are running a search of our systems to identify any emails sent or received by me or staff." > Mark White board canvass, Freedom of Information Request - 6 june 2025.pdf p.1, 6/6/2025 ## Cross-References [[rod-graves]] White's investment officer [[dennis-milligan]] [[jason-brady]] Auditor's office contacts [[badria-mryyan]] [[mike-wickline]] [[john-rollans]] [[jennifer-lenow]] FOIA and press correspondents [[pj-kelly]] Aon partner with whom White is jointly responsible for manager selection under BP4 Section S [[independent-credit-analysis-gap]] [[pecuniary-frame-act-498]] [[atrs-resolution-2025-22]] [[board-colleague-conflict]] [[written-recommendation-requirement]] [[atrs-investment-policy-bp4]] [[westrock-procedural-asymmetry]] concept pages developing White's documented behavior and the policy framework binding it [[wendy-spadoni]] Auditor's-office staffer who scheduled White's 4/15 meeting [[john-thurston]] State Treasurer scheduled in the same Capitol tour as White [[auditor-multi-official-capitol-tour]] concept page on the eight-meeting Capitol tour ## White at the April 7 and June 2 Board meetings (7/3/25 production) The 7/3/25 supplemental ATRS FOIA production documents White's procedural role at the two relevant Board meetings. At the April 7 meeting, White provided the Executive Director Report, presented the Operations Committee's BP4 Section T proxy voting discussion item (no action taken), authored the BP4 redline materials in the packet, and was the subject of the Board's Executive Session evaluation. At the June 2 meeting, the Executive Summary positions White as the procedural responsible officer for the BP4 amendment, Resolution 2025-21 (Egan-Jones), and Resolution 2025-22 (Israel Bonds). White's separate proxy-vote-service selection memo (extracted-text lines 2746 onward in the 6/2 packet) describes the three-firm bid process for proxy services (Egan-Jones, Glass Lewis, ISS) and his rationale for selecting Egan-Jones. The 6/2 packet contains the structural Aon Hewitt advisory documentation for the Israel Bonds attachment (the Kelly + Comstock memo of pp.149-150, consisting only of a header and an empty "APPENDIX: Disclaimers" heading). White's 5/8/2025 directive language "I will do a memo for the packet that outlines our recommendation, and then we can attach whatever the consultants/managers provide" was the prediction; the actual packet attachment from the consultants is documented at [[atrs-resolution-2025-22]] and [[independent-credit-analysis-gap]]. The White memo to the Board that the 5/8 directive predicted is not separately identifiable in the 6/2 packet text beyond the Executive Summary description of the Israel Bonds agenda item. [[atrs-foia-r1-staff-emails]] [[atrs-board-rules-r1]] [[auditor-foia-r1-milligan]] [[auditor-foia-r1-spadoni]] [[atrs-bot-packets-7-3-25]] source pages ## Auditor R3 3-3-26 production: second canvass + Lenow Arkansas Times response The Auditor R3 production at [[auditor-foia-r3-3-3-26]] captures four substantive Mark White-side findings in the post-vote period. **The second ATRS Board canvass on 6/19/2025.** Captured cross-custodian in Brady's Inbox as `Re Freedom of Information Request_4`. White's 6/19/2025 11:18 AM email to the ATRS Board Members Group: > *"We have received a second FOIA request, this one for emails 'regarding the purchase of Israeli bonds.' I already have the emails you've provided up through June 6. If you have sent or received any emails between June 6 and June 18 regarding the purchase of Israeli bonds, please forward them to me so that I can include them in our FOIA response."* This is a NEW second canvass on a new Lenow FOIA filing between 6/6 and 6/18. The first canvass (6/6/2025 4:48 PM) is replied-to within the thread. White issued the second canvass within hours of receiving the new Lenow FOIA, establishing **three Lenow FOIA filings at ATRS in three weeks** (the 6/3 original, the 6/4 BoardDocuments+SignedResolution+OtherDocuments-specific request, and now this new 6/18-window emails request). **The 7/2/2025 substantive response to Lenow's Arkansas Times inquiry.** Captured cross-custodian in Brady Inbox `FW Request for comment` and Milligan Boards `Ark Times on Israel Bonds`. White's 7/2/2025 4:44 PM response to Lenow defends the ATRS process against the Brady-Huckabee-and-foreign-policy critique: > *"Even though this request started with a Trustee, we still followed our usual process. Nothing prohibits a Trustee from suggesting an investment. What state law requires for ATRS (but not for other systems like APERS) is for our Board to seek the 'advice' of its consultant before making an investment decision. That's exactly what the Board did in this case."* > > *"Our general investment consultant's role is to review and make recommendations about investment managers. They never make recommendations about the purchase of individual stocks or bonds. That is not their job, and they would be exceeding the scope of their securities licensure if they were to do so."* The response sharpens [[westrock-procedural-asymmetry]] and [[independent-credit-analysis-gap]] with the post-vote articulation of White's consultant-driven framing. The "exceeding the scope of their securities licensure" framing redefines the consultant role narrowly (manager selection only, not specific instrument purchase recommendation), retrofitting a structural reason why Aon could not have produced substantive Israel Bonds analysis under [[written-recommendation-requirement]]. White also rejects Lenow's Arkansas Code § 24-2-201 question: *"You asked about the permissible investments listed in Arkansas Code § 24-2-201. That list and that statute do not apply to state retirement systems like ATRS. They apply only to retirement plans operated by local governments."* **The 7/11/2025 article notification to the Board.** White's `Ark Times Article + Congratulations` (Fri 7/11/2025 3:55 PM) to ATRS Board Distribution List attaches the published Arkansas Times article PDF: > *"I mentioned last week that the Arkansas Times was working on a story regarding the Israel bonds, and they published the story this afternoon. It's not focused on just us, it's a broader look that also includes APERS and the State Treasurer's Office... Everything in the story relating to ATRS has already been out in public for several weeks now, so I'm cautiously optimistic that this story will not create any new drama. I'll keep an eye on social media this weekend to see if it gets any traction with our members."* White's "cautiously optimistic that this story will not create any new drama" framing is the contemporaneous-anticipation of post-publication ATRS reputation impact. **The 6/9/2025 Communication with John Rollans Board distribution.** White's `Communication with John Rollans` email of 6/9/2025 7:28 AM to ATRS Board Members Group forwards his prior 5/19-5/20 Rollans Westrock Coffee correspondence: > *"I do understand your concern, but for a newer but growing company like Westrock Coffee, it is not uncommon for them to show even several years of losses before breaking through to profitability. At ATRS our investment decisions are based on recommendations from our outside professional investment consultants. They are monitoring and stay in regular communication with Westrock, and if they determine it is in the System's interest to sell our stake, they will make that recommendation to the Board."* White also disclosed in the prior thread that "ATRS indirectly owns Israel bonds through one of our bond funds. The value of our stake in those bonds is approximately $1 million" — cross-confirms the [[ssga-cmx6-2024-11-30]] pre-vote indirect-exposure baseline that the December 2025 SSgA withdrawal substantially overrode (see [[atrs-reams-capital-call-execution]]). ## ATRS BOT audio (R 2-28-26): White at the 6/2 BOT on the Tetronix settlement The 6/2 ATRS BOT audio transcript at [[atrs-bot-audio-6-2-25]] does not capture White speaking on Resolution 2025-22 (the Israel Bonds resolution was moved by Chip Martin in his Investment Committee Chair capacity; White did not present the resolution at the BOT). The transcript does capture White speaking substantively on the Tetronix v. ATRS Blue Oak Arkansas litigation settlement, in support of Hannah Howard's $65,000 settlement recommendation: > "I don't see any realistic path by which the plaintiffs are ever going to recover funds from us if this matter continues but in the courts doing that we will incur costs for defending that and I think it is very likely that what we would spend on defending it is going to be more than $65,000 even though we would win at the end. So, in that sense from a purely financial standpoint this makes I think this makes sense." > 20250602D_BOT.transcript.txt segments 464-478, [00:15:35 to 00:17:04] White's articulated framing — purely financial standpoint, cost-of-defense calculus, no realistic plaintiff recovery — is the substantive cost-benefit analysis ATRS internally applied to the Tetronix settlement decision. The framing is structurally distinct from White's contemporaneous Israel Bonds framing across the wiki's documented record: on Tetronix, White presents an explicit financial calculus with quantified opposing costs and the cost-of-defense estimate; on Israel Bonds, White's 5/22/2025 Board preview substituted "From a pecuniary standpoint" as a conclusory judgment without quantified comparative analysis. Same person, same procedural slot (Executive Director at a Board meeting), two distinct analytical depths: Tetronix gets the quantified cost-benefit, Israel Bonds gets the substituted-judgment formulation. The Tetronix-Israel-Bonds analytical-depth asymmetry within White's own Board-level contributions parallels the Westrock-Israel-Bonds procedural asymmetry documented at [[westrock-procedural-asymmetry]]. The transcript does not capture White presenting any of the four IC-recommended resolutions (the BP4 amendment, 2025-21, 2025-22, 2025-23, 2025-24); Martin presented all four in his IC Chair capacity. ## ATRS IC audio (R 2-28-26): White's substantive 6/2 IC defense including the SEC-licensure framing The 6/2/2025 IC audio transcript at [[atrs-ic-audio-6-2-25]] captures White's substantive defense of Resolution 2025-22 at the IC, which the BOT transcript did not capture. White delivered an extended on-the-record defense at IC segments 957-1370 covering manager structure, deployment ladder, SEC-licensure rationale, pecuniary endorsement, and the "checks the box" framing of the Aon memo. The verbatim findings: **The SEC-licensure structural-rationale on the IC record.** White's IC defense at segments 985-1002 verbatim: > "we went to AON to get their advice on this I want you to understand in front of AON because of the way that they were licensed the SEC and they can correct me from this state this they cannot recommend individual stocks to bond so they cannot come to you and say you should buy this particular bond or this particular stock for anything their recommendations are on the managers" > 20250602B_IC.transcript.txt segments 985-998, [00:33:51 to 00:34:47] The framing parallels White's 7/2/2025 response to Jennifer Lenow at [[auditor-foia-r3-3-3-26]] (the "securities licensure" structural-rationale). The wiki's prior framing characterized the licensure rationale as a post-vote White construction; the IC transcript establishes the rationale was on the IC record at the moment of the vote, predating the Lenow response by approximately one month. The structural-rationale framing is therefore contemporaneous with the action, not retroactive. **The pecuniary endorsement on the IC record.** White's verbatim pecuniary endorsement at segments 1040-1050: > "from a pecuniary standpoint I do think this is a fine investment there is a premium on the rate over what we would earn in U.S. treasuries for instance and so I don't have any issues with that I do concur with Aon's recommendation that rings as an appropriate manager to handle this for us" > 20250602B_IC.transcript.txt segments 1040-1050, [00:36:01 to 00:36:29] The "rings" rendering is a Whisper artifact for "Reams." White's "from a pecuniary standpoint" formulation at the IC parallels his 5/22/2025 Board preview language documented at [[atrs-foia-r1-staff-emails]] and at [[pecuniary-frame-act-498]]. The framing is consistent across the pre-vote internal Board preview email and the at-vote IC defense. White also articulated "I do concur with Aon's recommendation that rings as an appropriate manager" — the wiki's first audio capture of White invoking the Aon-recommends-Reams structural construction at the moment of the vote. **The "to Mr. Knight's point" rebuttal exchange.** After Knight's verbal procedural dissent, a speaker (Whisper does not label, but content suggests White or Brady) responds: > "to Mr. Knight's point there's nothing that prohibits us from taking an investment opportunity without our normal process just want to make that clear that even though it may be outside the normal scope of operation there's nothing that prohibits it or calls it into question as far as legality or appropriateness" > 20250602B_IC.transcript.txt segments 1307-1316, [00:45:19 to 00:45:37] White responds confirming: > "that is correct what state law requires is that you have the advice of your investment council and you have that in front of you with the recommendation" > 20250602B_IC.transcript.txt segments 1317-1322, [00:45:39 to 00:45:47] White's "state law requires" framing reduces the BP4 Section A.5 written-recommendation requirement documented at [[written-recommendation-requirement]] to a single condition (the advice of the investment council is in front of the Board with the recommendation) satisfied by the Aon-recommends-Reams structural construction. **The Aon memo as policy-box-check on the IC record.** White's verbatim follow-up at segments 1356-1370: > "and I'd just like to come back to Aon's end of appendix this memo does not serve as a recommendation to investor not to invest because we're going to do that but according to our investment policy as written now we've approved this but before board has not approved it we're following up policy I believe so I believe as I said that recommendation from a manager I believe that that checks the box with what the policy requires it does say we recommend this manager" > 20250602B_IC.transcript.txt segments 1356-1370, [00:47:01 to 00:47:31] White's "this memo does not serve as a recommendation to invest or not to invest" is the wiki's first audio capture of White acknowledging on the IC record that the Aon memo is not a recommendation document on the merits. The "checks the box" framing characterizes the Aon memo as procedural compliance with Section A.5, satisfied by the document's recommendation of a manager (Reams) rather than by substantive investment-merits analysis on Israel Bonds. The framing is the wiki's most direct documentation of the Aon-as-policy-box-check construction. The IC ingest therefore adds a sixth distinct framing of the consultant role on Resolution 2025-22 to the wiki's documented record at [[independent-credit-analysis-gap]] (now six framings: White 5/8 pre-vote directive; White 5/22 Board preview; 6/2 packet documentary content; Chip Martin 6/2 BOT motion language; White 7/2 Lenow response; **White 6/2 IC defense**). The IC findings establish that White articulated both the SEC-licensure structural-rationale and the Aon-memo-as-policy-box-check framing at the moment of the substantive deliberation, not retroactively in response to FOIA scrutiny. ## 12/1/2025 ATRS Board day: no White Israel Bonds discussion captured The 12/1/2025 ATRS IC and BOT audio transcripts at [[atrs-board-audio-12-1-25]] do not capture White speaking on Israel Bonds, Reams Asset Management, or the December 2025 capital call. The 12/1 Board day preceded the Reams single-quarter $50M deployment per [[atrs-reams-capital-call-execution]] by approximately four weeks; White as Executive Director had standing presence at both the IC and BOT and did not bring Israel Bonds to either venue. The structural pattern at the Executive-Director level extends the [[independent-credit-analysis-gap]] post-purchase oversight absence finding: the official with authority over the December capital-call timing (per Resolution 2025-22's "determined by the Executive Director" delegation language) did not engage the Board on the position at the most plausible pre-deployment notification venue. [[atrs-ic-audio-6-2-25]] [[atrs-board-audio-12-1-25]] source pages