Scott W. Wise to Lead New TIAA-CREF Endowment Management Business

Rice University endowment head Scott W. Wise will join TIAA-CREF as chief investment officer of a new business that will provide investment management services for endowments and foundations nationwide.

Mr. Wise joins TIAA-CREF from Rice University, where he serves as President of Rice Management Company and has served as the university's chief investment officer (CIO) since 1989.

The new endowment initiative plans to offer institutions access to the highest standard of excellence in a fully outsourced investment office, with capabilities of managing multi-asset class portfolios to help institutions meet current operating and long-term financial goals.

"We're pleased to welcome Scott Wise as chief investment officer of our new endowment management business," said Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., TIAA-CREF President and CEO. "As one of the most experienced and successful chief investment officers in the endowment management field, Scott understands the challenges endowments and foundations face in addressing asset allocation concerns and liquidity needs that arose during the economic downturn, and is prepared to provide solutions that enable institutions to address them."

Mr. Wise remarked that, "to build and lead a team and a business that offers endowment management expertise to charitable institutions around the nation is a unique and exciting opportunity for me. It is an honor to have been selected from among a stellar group of candidates and to have the backing of TIAA-CREF, one of the most recognized and respected names in the institutional world."

Among other services, TIAA-CREF's new endowment management business plans to provide customized asset allocation expertise, access to some of the best-in-class managers across a range of traditional and alternative asset classes, and a fully integrated risk management approach drawn from the experience of both Mr. Wise and TIAA-CREF, which manages more than $425 billion on behalf of 15,000 institutional clients and 3.7 million individual participants.

TIAA-CREF's endowment management business plans to be fully operational later this year and will operate independently of the organization's retirement plan business.

Mr. Wise and the new business will be based in Houston, Texas. About TIAA-CREF TIAA-CREF (www.tiaa-cref.org) is a national financial services organization and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields with $426 billion in combined assets under management (3/31/10).

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., members FINRA, distribute securities products.

©2010 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, New York, NY 10017

C47882