Dive Brief:

• Longtime banking and insurance executive Dave Dowrich will take over as CFO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) 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, the company said.
• Dowrich’s hire is one of two C-suite moves TIAA CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett made Wednesday. The firm also named Derek Ferguson as its first chief administrative officer Wednesday. Ferguson previously served as chief operating officer of the poverty alleviation nonprofit Robin Hood Foundation.
• Most recently, Dowrich was CFO of the international business segment of Prudential Financial. Before that, he served as CFO of insurance firm AIG's Japan and Asia Pacific division, and was a vice president at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs.

Dive Insight:

In taking TIAA's top financial role, 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,” Duckett said in a statement. “His insights and skills are broad, deep and globally informed.”

Representatives for TIAA declined to make Dowrich available for comment. “TIAA has an enviable record of delivering for its clients, backed by many decades of financial strength and stability, and it is an honor to join this mission-driven organization at such an exciting time in its history,” Dowrich said in the company's Wednesday press release.

Duckett, the third Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company full time, took over TIAA's CEO role in May after several years at JPMorgan Chase, where she served as head of its consumer banking and auto finance divisions.

In Dowrich, TIAA has hired a CFO who also is Black. The company in May said it 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. “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.”

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. 

TIAA's previous CEO, Roger Ferguson (no relation to the company's new chief administrative officer), had led the firm for 13 years. During his tenure, TIAA expanded beyond its core business — retirement account management — to offering broader services in investments and banking, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

TIAA in July 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.