Key People and Institutions
A plain-language guide to the public officials, pension staff, advisers, managers, and sellers in Arkansas's Israel Bonds story.
These are the public officials, pension leaders, advisers, managers, and sellers at the center of Arkansas’s Israel Bonds decisions.
Public officials and board representatives
Dennis Milligan
Arkansas Auditor of State · former State Treasurer
Milligan served as State Treasurer when Arkansas’s Treasury program involving Israel Bonds began. As Auditor, he holds an ex-officio ATRS board role and publicly promoted Israel Bonds. His office’s records also show scheduling, correspondence, speech preparation, and other promotional activity.
Chief Deputy Auditor Jason Brady acted through Milligan’s office as the Auditor’s designee or proxy. The signed APERS minutes identify Brady as the official who presented the proposal and moved the authorization.
Jason Brady
Chief Deputy Auditor
Brady acted as the Auditor’s designee or proxy in ATRS and APERS settings. At the APERS Investment Finance Subcommittee meeting, he presented the Israel Bonds proposal and moved to authorize a $25–$50 million range. ATRS records also identify him in the Auditor’s board role.
Other records show Brady assisting with correspondence, scheduling, speech material, internal information-sharing, and public promotion.
Pension systems and advisers
Aon
ATRS investment consultant
Aon owned the implementation work: it compared options, recommended Reams, and noted limited marketability. ATRS trustees owned the investment decision and the financial case for putting the strategy in the portfolio.
Reams Asset Management
ATRS investment manager
ATRS selected Reams to carry out the Israel Bonds strategy through a separate manager account. A December 2025 Board update reports $50 million funded to that account. ATRS’s public disclosure currently ends at the transfer to Reams, leaving members waiting for a security-by-security account.
Mark White
ATRS Executive Director
White led ATRS during the June 2025 authorization and later manager implementation. The April outreach itinerary scheduled an encounter with him as the proposal moved through Arkansas offices.
Rod Graves
ATRS Deputy Director
Graves sent the December 29 Board update that reported $50 million funded to the Reams account. The notice is the clearest public document for the manager-funding amount.
Amy Fecher
APERS Executive Director
Fecher led APERS during the 2025 authorization and later purchase. A seller report describes an April encounter, and later correspondence documents operational follow-up as APERS moved toward a transaction.
Carlos Borromeo
APERS Chief Investment Officer
Borromeo handled investment operations for APERS. His February 2026 email about the records search makes the need for a standard, decision-specific Board memo concrete.
Danny Knight
ATRS Board Chair in 2025
Knight raised concern about the procedure during the June 2 ATRS meeting, placing governance and process directly into the Board discussion.
Seller and outreach
Development Corporation for Israel
U.S. broker-dealer for Israel Bonds
The company underwrites and sells Israel Bonds in the United States. Its representatives conducted outreach to Arkansas officials and pension personnel. The specialized sales channel and limited marketability are part of the financial due-diligence question.
Lawrence Berman
Israel Bonds sales executive
Berman appears throughout the outreach trail: correspondence, itinerary material, presentations, and follow-up messages involving Arkansas agencies. His messages document the seller’s strategy and claimed progress; signed agency records document the resulting public actions.
Brad Young
Israel Bonds regional representative
Young participated in Arkansas outreach with Berman and appears on the April 2025 itinerary and related communications.
State Financial Officers Foundation
National network of public financial officers
Arkansas agency files show SFOF serving as a national political and promotional network: event participation, a 2020 seller sponsor listing, circulation of another state’s purchase, speech preparation, and later offers to connect member states. Pension trustees still carried the financial responsibility for Arkansas’s decisions.
See how the decisions unfolded → Browse the primary documents →