Dive Brief:

• Longtime banking and insurance executive Dave Dowrich will take over as CFO of The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America on Nov. 1, the financial services organization announced Wednesday. He will oversee all financial planning, general account, management and reporting as well as actuarial, tax and accounting operations and strategies.
• Most recently, Dowrich was CFO of the international business segment of Prudential Financial. Before that, he held leadership roles at insurance firm AIG, including CFO of its Japan and Asia Pacific division, and was a vice president at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.
• Dowrich will succeed Glenn Richter, who resigned in May. Seun Salami, the firm’s chief accounting officer, has been serving as interim CFO since then. “Every aspect and all stages of Dave’s career combine to make him the perfect leader for our critical financial actions,” TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett said in a statement. “His insights and skills are broad, deep and globally informed.”

Dive Insight:

Dowrich’s hire is the latest in Duckett’s moves to reassemble TIAA’s C-suite. Also on Wednesday, the firm named Derek Ferguson, COO of poverty alleviation nonprofit Robin Hood, as its first chief administrative officer.

TIAA has emphasized its commitment to diversity in its hiring practices. In May, it shared it had ranked 9th on DiversityInc's Top 50 list for the second consecutive year. 

“TIAA has made diversity, equity and inclusion a cornerstone of its culture,” Duckett said at the time. “Fostering a diverse and inclusive environment is not only the right thing to do but also what’s best for the long-term health of our business.”

In May, Duckett took over the chief executive role from Roger Ferguson, who had led the firm for over 13 years. During Ferguson’s tenure, TIAA expanded beyond its core business, retirement account management, to offering broader services in investments and banking, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Duckett, the second Black female to lead a Fortune 100 company, arrived at TIAA after several years at JP Morgan Chase, including serving as head of its consumer banking and auto finance divisions. At JPMorgan, Duckett prioritized efforts to close the wealth gap between Black and white Americans and was an executive sponsor of the bank's Advancing Black Pathways initiative, aimed at helping Black Americans close historical achievement gaps. 

Earlier this summer, TIAA paid a $97 million settlement after U.S. and New York state investigators alleged it misled customers and failed to disclose conflicts of interest in making recommendations for rolling over assets into different managed account programs. 

“Rollovers of ESPs are of paramount importance to investors seeking financial security in retirement, and advisers acting in a fiduciary capacity need to provide their clients with complete and accurate disclosure so that they may make fully informed investment decisions,” said Melissa Hodgman, acting director of the SEC Enforcement Division at the time of the action.

As part of the settlement, TIAA agreed to make significant internal reforms. 

Representatives for TIAA declined to make Dowrich available for comment.