State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio

STRS Ohio — Ohio public teacher pension; official USD $101.8B FNP at 30 Jun 2025; ED Steven C. Toole; CIO Aaron DiCenzo. Disambiguation: ≠ OPERS ≠ TRS Texas ≠ TRS Georgia.

UAO Editorial September 11, 2026 38 min read

UAO Registry · Top 100 · Rank 65 · Public pension (teachers) · United States · Last researched Friday 11 September 2026 (America/Toronto). Corrections: info@universalassetowners.com.

Executive brief

State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio) is one of the largest U.S. public teacher retirement systems. It was founded in 1920 after 1919 legislation establishing what At a Glance describes as the first statewide actuarially-based teacher retirement system in the United States. STRS Ohio operates under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3307 and is described as legally separate from and fiscally independent of state and local governments. Headquarters: 275 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215. Official site: strsoh.org.

Prefer official U.S. dollars (USD) from strsoh.org, the fiscal 2025 Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR), and the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). Opened dated scale prints for this pack: $101.8 billion fiduciary net position and $103.3 billion total investments at fair value as of June 30, 2025 (prior-year fiduciary net position $96.2 billion at June 30, 2024). UAO Instantiations still shows a ~US$95 billion public-estimate band for rank 65 — treat that as stale relative to the June 30, 2025 official figures; do not invent or substitute Instantiations AUM for official USD.

Leadership for this 11 September 2026 research pack (live Leadership Team page): Executive Director Steven C. Toole; Deputy Executive Director — Investments and Chief Investment Officer Aaron DiCenzo; Deputy Executive Director — Finance and Chief Financial Officer Donald Schley (named August 21, 2026; previously chief actuary; no person SSR yet). Live Retirement Board Chair: Michael Harkness; Vice Chair: Pat Davidson.

Why researchers care: STRS Ohio combines a century-scale teacher mandate, high internal management share (about two-thirds of assets), a published Statement of Investment Beliefs, GIPS-aligned verification by ACA Group, and an active Sustainable Benefit Plan narrative alongside funding metrics near the 80% funded-ratio band. Related Registry hubs include Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) (Ohio peer — do not conflate), CalSTRS, Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, CalPERS, and NBIM.

Speakable summary

STRS Ohio is Ohio’s public teacher retirement system, separate from OPERS, TRS Texas, TRS Georgia, and CalSTRS. Prefer official USD: $101.8 billion fiduciary net position and $103.3 billion total investments at June 30, 2025. Steven C. Toole is Executive Director. Aaron DiCenzo is Deputy Executive Director for Investments and Chief Investment Officer. Donald Schley is Deputy Executive Director for Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Fiscal 2025 total fund net return was 10.42%. The actuarial funded ratio was 80.9% with an 11.8-year funding period. About two-thirds of assets are managed internally.

Mandate & ownership

At a Glance states STRS Ohio’s vision as providing retirement security for Ohio’s public educators and their families by transparently delivering lifelong benefits, prudent financial stewardship and superior member service. The mission language centers on being a sustainable, transparent and resilient public teacher retirement system.

Legal frame opened in primaries: STRS Ohio operates under the guidelines of Chapter 3307 of the Ohio Revised Code. It is legally separate from and fiscally independent of state and local governments. The long-term direction is set by the 11-member State Teachers Retirement Board, senior staff, and about 500 associates (At a Glance).

Primary revenue sources are member contributions, employer contributions, and investment income. At a Glance notes 14% member and 14% employer contribution rates, with investment income typically funding the greater portion of retirement benefits. PAFR fiscal 2025: member and employer contributions totaled $4.0 billion; net investment income $10.0 billion; total benefit payments $8.2 billion.

What the mandate is not: STRS Ohio is not OPERS; not Teacher Retirement System of Texas; not Teachers Retirement System of Georgia; not CalSTRS; not a sovereign wealth fund or central-bank reserve manager; not a private corporate pension.

Disambiguation

  • ≠ Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) — different Ohio public pension; different ORC chapter, membership (public employees vs educators), Columbus address (OPERS: East Town Street; STRS Ohio: East Broad Street), leadership (Karen Carraher / Paul Greff vs Toole / DiCenzo), and AUM prints. Do not mix facts.
  • ≠ Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS Texas) — skipped on the UAO elite ship queue; different state and statute.
  • ≠ Teachers Retirement System of Georgia — already live on UAO; different state system.
  • ≠ CalSTRS — California teachers’ system; different scale and governance.
  • ≠ Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — Ontario teachers’ plan (Canada); different currency and legal frame.

Scale & portfolio

As of June 30, 2025, STRS Ohio reported $101.8 billion fiduciary net position (At a Glance; PAFR) and $103.3 billion total investments at fair value (Investments page; PAFR investment distribution). Fiduciary net position rose 5.9% from $96.2 billion at June 30, 2024 (PAFR).

Fair-value investment distribution (June 30, 2025)

Asset categoryFair valueShare of $103.3B
Domestic equities$25.5 billion24.7%
Fixed income$23.9 billion23.2%
International equities$21.5 billion20.8%
Alternative investments$20.3 billion19.7%
Real estate$9.9 billion9.5%
Cash and short-term$2.2 billion2.1%
Total investments$103.3 billion100% (rounding)

ACFR MD&A target allocations at the end of fiscal 2025: 1% liquidity reserves, 22% fixed income, 26% domestic equities, 22% international equities, 10% real estate, and 19% alternative investments. Actual weights differ as markets move and managers time entries/exits.

Investments page: STRS Ohio currently manages about two-thirds of assets internally, described as saving more than $130 million in fees that would otherwise be paid to external managers. PAFR: internal investment management expenses $48.2 million; external asset management fees $275.8 million in fiscal 2025.

Plan-level net positions opened in PAFR: post-employment Health Care Fund $5.5 billion (health care actuarial funded ratio 128.3%); Defined Contribution Plan $3.6 billion. Investments page also cites $96.3 billion STRS Ohio pension assets in a fiscal 2025 callout — keep labels attached to each source line.

Governance & leadership

STRS Ohio is governed by an 11-member State Teachers Retirement Board: five elected contributing teacher members, two elected retired teacher members, an investment expert appointed by the governor, an investment expert appointed jointly by the speaker of the House and the Senate president, an investment expert designated by the treasurer of state, and the director of the Department of Education and Workforce or their designated investment expert (live Board Members page).

Live board officers (Board Members page, researched 11 September 2026): Chair Michael Harkness (contributing member since 2024, Akron Public Schools; term through August 31, 2029); Vice Chair Pat Davidson (contributing member since 2023, Berea City Schools; term through August 31, 2027). Investment Committee chair Alison Lanza Falls is quoted in the December 17, 2025 DiCenzo appointment release.

Executive leadership (live Leadership Team): Executive Director Steven C. Toole; Deputy ED — Investments / CIO Aaron DiCenzo; Deputy ED — Finance / CFO Donald Schley; Deputy ED — Chief Operations Officer Mary Wiedemer; Chief Legal Officer Stacey L. Wideman; Chief Audit Executive Robert L. Vance; Chief Communication Officer Bethany McCorkle; Director, Government Relations Alex Strickmaker; Board and Executive Affairs Director Wendie M. Ballard.

Appointment chronology from official newsroom: Board selected Toole June 11, 2025 (start July 14, 2025; replaced interim Aaron Hood). DiCenzo named permanent Deputy ED — Investments and CIO December 17, 2025 after interim service since February 2025 and a Heidrick & Struggles search. Schley named CFO August 21, 2026, moving from chief actuary.

Guiding principles listed on At a Glance: integrity, transparency, accountability, achievement, stewardship, respect, and investment in people. Board members serve without compensation other than actual necessary expenses (Board Members page).

Investment philosophy

Investments page lead: investment returns account for the majority of a retired educator’s benefit payment over their lifetime, so the system has a strong interest in maximizing returns. Published Statement of Investment Beliefs:

  • Maximize return at a prudent level of risk.
  • Invest for the long term.
  • Good governance is critical for success.
  • Cash flows matter.
  • Investment diversification works.
  • Economies of scale benefit members.
  • Costs matter.
  • Members are rewarded for taking certain investment risks.
  • Active and passive investing are both appropriate.
  • Internal asset management is a strategic advantage.

Portfolio design language emphasizes diversification across asset classes for better risk-adjusted performance and lower volatility. Investment consultant referenced in performance peer notes: Meketa. Annual Investment Plans for fiscal 2025, 2026 and 2027 are posted on the Reports page, alongside the Statement of Investment Objectives & Policy.

DiCenzo release (December 17, 2025): over two decades in private markets and institutional asset management; since joining STRS Ohio in 2018 he oversaw growth of the alternatives program to more than $19 billion and directed launch of the direct and co-investment portfolio — cite as newsroom biography, not an AUM substitute for total fund.

Climate / ESG / ethics

Opened official climate/ESG depth on strsoh.org for this pack is thinner than some peers’ standalone RI reports. Prefer what is explicitly published: guiding principles (integrity, transparency, accountability, stewardship), fiduciary investment beliefs, and the transparency/facts resource launched May 14, 2026 (newsroom). Do not invent exclusion lists, net-zero targets, or stewardship vote tallies that were not opened in primaries.

GIPS-aligned Verification and Performance Examination reports by ACA Group appear on the Reports page — useful for performance integrity, not a substitute for an ESG policy stack. Researchers should re-check Investments and Reports for any newly posted responsible-investment or proxy materials before asserting a full RI regime.

Performance & reporting

PAFR fiscal 2025: total fund net return 10.42% versus benchmark 10.76%, above the board’s long-term investment return assumption of 7.00%. Net investment income $10.0 billion. Annualized total fund net returns: 9.49% (3-year), 10.29% (5-year), 8.52% (10-year).

Fiscal 2025 asset-class net returns (PAFR)

Asset categorySTRS OhioBenchmark
Liquidity reserves4.89%4.68% (ICE BofA U.S. 3-Month Treasury Bill)
Fixed income6.79%6.47% (Fixed-Income Blended)
Domestic equities13.52%15.30% (Russell 3000)
International equities17.59%15.61% (International Blended)
Real estate1.51%5.05% (Real Estate Blended)
Alternative investments7.94%— (PAFR narrative)
Total fund (net)10.42%10.76%

Investments page peer note: over the 10-year period ending December 31, 2025, net total fund investment return was higher than 91% of Meketa’s plan-sponsor peer group. Benefit Recipients newsletter (October 21, 2025) cites a 10.4% fiscal 2025 net return, $100.6 billion investment assets, and five-year net annualized 10.3% ranking in the top 11% of pension funds per Meketa — keep newsletter wording labeled when it differs from PAFR’s $103.3 billion total-investments print.

Transparency stack: ACFR, PAFR, actuarial valuation / GASB 74–75 reports, Fiscal Investment Plans, Verification and Performance Examination (GIPS), overall asset-mix / YTD performance report, board meetings materials, and newsroom releases — all linked from Reports.

Controversies & debates

Official attributable actions first. PAFR Executive Director letter: over the last four years the board used STRS Ohio’s Sustainable Benefit Plan framework to make nearly $6 billion in benefit improvements for active and retired members (including retirement eligibility changes and COLAs) while maintaining a funded ratio over 80%.

At a Glance timeline notes 2012 legislation passed to strengthen the financial condition of the system — a structural reform marker often referenced in Ohio teacher-pension debates. Funding metrics at June 30, 2025 show funded ratio easing to 80.9% from 82.8% and funding period lengthening to 11.8 years from 10.1 — official valuation outcomes, not editorial judgment.

May 14, 2026 newsroom: STRS Ohio launched a new online resource focused on facts and transparency. Secondary press narratives about COLA advocacy or board elections are not reconstructed here unless opened as official attributable text; label any future secondary cites explicitly.

Timeline

  • 1916 — Idea posted at Ohio State Teachers Association meeting; ten people assemble (At a Glance “Our story”).
  • 1919 — Legislation forming the first statewide actuarially-based teacher retirement system in the United States.
  • 1921 — Served 34,000 educators; 323 retirements in first year of operation.
  • 1929 — Exceeded $60 million in total investments during the Great Depression.
  • 1940s — Exceeded $100 million in total investments during World War II.
  • 1966 — Exceeded $1 billion in total investments.
  • 1970s–1990s — Benefits counseling; real estate expansion; Member Services Center (1996); member website (1997).
  • 2012 — Legislation to strengthen financial condition.
  • 2020 — Centenary of service.
  • June 11, 2025 — Board selects Steven C. Toole as Executive Director (start July 14, 2025).
  • June 30, 2025 — FY2025 year-end: $101.8B FNP; $103.3B total investments; 10.42% net return.
  • December 17, 2025 — Aaron DiCenzo named Deputy ED — Investments and CIO.
  • August 21, 2026 — Donald Schley named CFO.

Annex: AUM honesty (USD)

Currency discipline for this profile is official USD only. Primary prints to prefer, in order: (1) At a Glance fiduciary net position $101.8 billion at June 30, 2025; (2) PAFR Statements of Fiduciary Net Position and investment distribution totaling $103.3 billion investments; (3) ACFR for full notes, GASB schedules, and target allocation narrative; (4) newsletter or newsroom roundings only with explicit labels.

Do not convert foreign-currency peer figures into STRS Ohio headlines. Do not invent a mid-year mark-to-market. Do not replace official figures with the Instantiations ~US$95 billion estimate. When a source says “more than $100 billion” (Schley / DiCenzo releases), treat it as qualitative confirmation of scale, not a precise AUM.

Component funds matter: Health Care Fund $5.5B and DC Plan $3.6B sit inside the broader fiduciary picture; pension-asset callouts ($96.3B on Investments page) are not identical to total investments ($103.3B) or FNP ($101.8B). Always keep the metric name next to the number.

Annex: Allocation ladder

Two official lenses: fair-value distribution (what the portfolio is worth today) and policy/target weights (what the board wants over time).

LensLiquidity / cashFixed incomeDomestic equityInternational equityReal estateAlternatives
Fair value 30 Jun 2025 (PAFR)2.1% ($2.2B)23.2% ($23.9B)24.7% ($25.5B)20.8% ($21.5B)9.5% ($9.9B)19.7% ($20.3B)
Target end FY2025 (ACFR MD&A)1%22%26%22%10%19%

Fiscal 2026–2027 Investment Plans discuss phase-ins (including private-market and liquid treasury path language). Cite plan PDFs when quoting forward targets; do not project numbers beyond what the opened plan text states.

Annex: Returns path

Assumption vs delivered: board long-term assumption 7.00%; FY2025 net 10.42% cleared that hurdle on a one-year basis while finishing slightly behind the 10.76% policy benchmark. Multi-year net: 3y 9.49% (under 9.70% benchmark), 5y 10.29% (over 9.78% benchmark), 10y 8.52% (PAFR).

International equities led FY2025 asset classes at 17.59% net; domestic equities 13.52% trailed the Russell 3000 benchmark 15.30%; real estate 1.51% lagged its 5.05% blended benchmark. These are official PAFR figures for researchers building attribution tables — not UAO performance ratings.

Peer framing: Investments page 10-year Meketa peer percentile (higher than 91% through Dec 31, 2025); newsletter five-year top-11% note. Both are consultant-mediated; keep Meketa named.

Annex: Funding & contributions

MetricJune 30, 2025 / FY2025Prior / notes
Fiduciary net position$101.8B$96.2B at June 30, 2024
Funded ratio (actuarial AVA)80.9%82.8% prior year
Funding period11.8 years10.1 years prior year
Member + employer contributions$4.0B14% / 14% rates (At a Glance)
Net investment income$10.0BAbove 7.00% assumption
Total additions / deductions$14.3B / $8.7BPAFR
Total benefit payments$8.2BIncl. $7.7B retirement/survivor/disability path
Administrative expenses$80.7MPAFR

PAFR emphasizes employer contribution rates remaining steady for more than 40 years while the system paid nearly $8 billion in benefits and refunds in fiscal 2025 against $4 billion in contributions — underscoring investment returns as the bridging engine. Sustainable Benefit Plan improvements (~$6B over four years) are framed as balanced against keeping funded status above 80%.

Annex: Membership & benefits

Fiscal 2025 membership: 549,348 active, inactive and retired educators across 1,139 employers (school districts, vocational schools, colleges and universities, county boards of developmental disabilities, community and charter schools). Average monthly benefit $4,625; average final average salary $92,499. At a Glance notes 249 benefit recipients aged 100 or older.

Retirement plan enrollment shares in fiscal 2025: Defined Benefit ~90%, Defined Contribution ~6%, Combined ~4%. Health Care Program: more than 108,000 enrollees; $491.9 million paid in medical and pharmacy costs (~$1.3 million per day).

Home-page fact rotation (and At a Glance): in fiscal 2025 the Call Center handled 215,216 calls; Contact Us email addressed 39,560 inquiries; counseling provided individual answers to 13,447 members — operational scale markers, not investment metrics.

Annex: Board roster (live)

Live Board Members page roster used for this pack (terms as published):

  • Michael Harkness — Chair; contributing since 2024; Akron Public Schools; through Aug. 31, 2029.
  • Pat Davidson — Vice Chair; contributing since 2023; Berea City Schools; through Aug. 31, 2027.
  • Jonathan A. Allison — Governor appointee (2024); through Sept. 27, 2028.
  • Lynn Sautter Beal — Joint House/Senate appointee (2025); through May 26, 2029.
  • Joan Bellner — Retired teacher member since 2026; through Aug. 31, 2027.
  • Stephen D. Dackin — Director, Department of Education and Workforce; ex officio since 2023.
  • Alison Lanza Falls — Treasurer appointee; through Feb. 9, 2027.
  • Michelle Flanigan — Contributing since 2024; Brunswick City Schools; through Aug. 31, 2028.
  • Elizabeth Jones — Retired teacher since 2022; through Aug. 31, 2030.
  • Julie Sellers — Contributing since 2022; Cincinnati Federation of Teachers; through Aug. 31, 2030.
  • Chad Smith — Contributing since 2025; Columbus City Schools; through Aug. 31, 2029.

Annex: Leadership stack

Person SSR links that resolve (HTTP 200 at ship research): Steven C. Toole; Aaron DiCenzo. Donald Schley is named without a person URL until a Registry person page exists. Alternate Instantiations slugs steve-toole / steven-toole also resolve historically — prefer steven-c-toole matching the live ED full name.

Biographic anchors from newsroom only: Toole previously led North Carolina’s retirement systems (2011–2019), held Nationwide retirement-plan leadership roles in Columbus, and is an Ohio State University business graduate. DiCenzo: private markets background; STRS Ohio since 2018; interim CIO from February 2025; permanent appointment December 17, 2025. Schley: promoted from chief actuary to CFO August 21, 2026.

Annex: Internal management

Internal management is a recurring STRS Ohio differentiator in opened materials: ~two-thirds of assets in-house; >$130 million fee savings vs full external; internal investment expenses $48.2M vs external fees $275.8M in FY2025. Investments page notes incentives are a portion of total compensation for a small number of eligible investment associates. Belief statement explicitly calls internal asset management a strategic advantage.

Careers page (observed in site nav during research) listed openings including Director, Private Credit and Director, Private Equity — evidence of continued alternatives build-out under the DiCenzo organization, without inventing headcount or AUM for those desks beyond the >$19B alternatives program figure in the CIO appointment release.

Annex: Health care fund

PAFR: Health Care Fund net position $5.5 billion at June 30, 2025; annual health care actuarial valuation funded ratio 128.3%. FY2025 medical/pharmacy costs for enrollees $491.9 million; >108,000 Health Care Program enrollees. Benefit payments narrative includes about $357 million for health care coverage net of premiums. June 26, 2026 newsroom item: Health Care Plan Premiums Approved for 2027 — policy calendar marker for benefit recipients.

Annex: DB / DC / Combined

Three retirement plan choices appear throughout member navigation and At a Glance: Defined Benefit (majority), Defined Contribution, and Combined. Fiscal 2025 enrollment mix ≈ 90% / 6% / 4%. DC Plan finished FY2025 with $3.6 billion net position (PAFR). Member site sections distinguish DB-only vs DC/Combined features (COLA, health care eligibility nuances) — researchers should use plan-specific pages rather than assuming uniform features.

Annex: Ohio economic footprint

At a Glance / home facts: as of June 30, 2025, 8 of 10 benefit recipients live in Ohio; $6 billion in benefits distributed among 88 counties; fiscal 2025 investments of $1.2 billion in companies headquartered in Ohio. Narrative frames Ohio’s five public pension systems as economic drivers that reduce reliance on Social Security for covered public workers. County and legislative-district lookup tools on At a Glance are interactive — this profile does not scrape per-county tables.

Annex: Largest holdings snapshot

PAFR Schedule of Largest Investment Holdings (June 30, 2025) — illustrative top names only; full holdings in ACFR:

Domestic equities top 10: Nvidia; Microsoft; Apple; Amazon; Meta Platforms Class A; Broadcom; Alphabet Class C; Mastercard Class A; JPMorgan Chase; Alphabet Class A.

International equities top 10: Taiwan Semiconductor; Roche; SAP; Nestlé; ASML; Hitachi; Air Liquide; Samsung Electronics; Schneider Electric; Tencent; Shell (PAFR lists eleven international lines in the extracted schedule — cite ACFR for the authoritative complete list).

Annex: Transparency stack

Annex: Peer context

Ohio pair: always separate Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) (larger multi-employer public-employee system; different December fiscal pattern in OPERS materials) from STRS Ohio’s June 30 teacher fiscal year. U.S. teacher peers on UAO include CalSTRS and Teachers Retirement System of Georgia; Canada peer Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. Global allocator context hubs: CalPERS, NBIM. Rank 65 Instantiations places STRS Ohio among large U.S. public pensions by scale band — still subordinate official USD prints to Instantiations estimates.

Statutory home: Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3307. At a Glance administration section: legally separate and fiscally independent of state and local governments. Board composition is statutory (elected teachers/retirees + appointed investment experts + DEW director path). Custodial and contribution mechanics are detailed in ACFR notes — use ACFR for employer net pension liability schedules rather than summarizing unaudited guesses here.

Annex: PAFR vs live roster

Fiscal 2025 PAFR Board & Leadership pages freeze a year-end / publication roster that differs from the live September 2026 site:

  • PAFR Chair: Rudy H. Fichtenbaum (retired teacher; term through Aug. 31, 2025) → live Chair: Michael Harkness.
  • PAFR lists Aaron DiCenzo as Interim Deputy ED Investments / CIO → live: permanent title (Dec 17, 2025 release).
  • PAFR CFO: Edward Gin → live CFO: Donald Schley (Aug 21, 2026).
  • Other PAFR senior titles (e.g., Marla E. Bump governmental relations; Dan H. Minnich communications; Mary Wiedemer as CIO-title variant) may lag live Leadership Team naming — prefer live page for current titles.

Editorial rule: when PAFR and live official pages conflict on people/titles, prefer the live Leadership / Board pages for current identity and keep PAFR for FY2025 financial metrics.

Annex: Editorial methodology

This profile folds opened primaries only: strsoh.org HTML (At a Glance, Leadership, Investments, Board Members, Reports, Newsroom, newsletters) plus downloaded FY2025 PAFR/ACFR excerpts, Investment Plans, actuarial valuation, and GIPS verification PDF text. No invented people, titles, AUM, or board seats. Influence Index, if shown on Instantiations, is an editorial composite — not a rating agency score. Corrections: info@universalassetowners.com.

Annex: Outbound report checklist

  • PAFR 2025 (2025-44-303.pdf) — FNP, returns, mix, membership, board snapshot.
  • ACFR 2025 (2025-50-143.pdf) — audited statements, notes, target allocation, investment section.
  • Actuarial Valuation 2025 — funded status assumptions (7.00%).
  • Fiscal 2025 / 2026 / 2027 Investment Plans (60-118 series).
  • Verification and Performance Examination Report 2025 (GIPS / ACA Group).
  • Overall asset-mix YTD / portfolio performance administration report.
  • Newsroom: Toole (Jun 2025), DiCenzo (Dec 2025), Schley (Aug 2026).
  • Live Leadership Team + Board Members pages (re-verify before each refresh).

Annex: Copy-safe scale ladder

Safe short citations for desks (always keep as-of dates):

  • “STRS Ohio fiduciary net position was $101.8 billion as of June 30, 2025 (PAFR / At a Glance).”
  • “Total investments were $103.3 billion at fair value as of June 30, 2025 (PAFR).”
  • “Fiscal 2025 total fund net return was 10.42% (PAFR).”
  • “Actuarial funded ratio 80.9%; funding period 11.8 years at June 30, 2025.”
  • “Executive Director Steven C. Toole; CIO Aaron DiCenzo (live Leadership Team, Sep 2026 research).”
  • “STRS Ohio ≠ OPERS ≠ TRS Texas ≠ TRS Georgia ≠ CalSTRS.”

Annex: PAFR Executive Director letter themes

Steven C. Toole’s PAFR 2025 letter frames STRS Ohio as one of the nation’s largest retirement systems serving more than 549,000 members, with a mission to provide Ohio’s public educators a foundation for their financial security. He highlights member resilience through necessary adjustments over the past decade, steady employer contribution rates for more than 40 years, nearly $8 billion in benefit payments and refunds in fiscal 2025 supported by $4 billion in member and employer contributions, and the Sustainable Benefit Plan’s nearly $6 billion in improvements over four years while keeping the funded ratio over 80%.

Stakeholders thanked in the letter: Retirement Board members, the Ohio legislature, the Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC), members and retirees, and member and employer association groups. Mission/vision couplet in PAFR: provide Ohio’s public educators a foundation for their financial security; serve current and future Ohio public educators and their loved ones. GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting for the FY2024 PAFR is reproduced in the FY2025 PAFR front matter.

Annex: Changes in fiduciary net position

PAFR condensed changes narrative: total additions to fiduciary net position $14.3 billion in fiscal 2025; total deductions $8.7 billion; net investment income $10.0 billion; member and employer contributions $4.0 billion (payroll-growth driven increase vs prior year). Benefit recipients received $7.7 billion in service retirement, disability, survivor and other benefits plus $357 million for health care coverage net of premiums. Administrative expenses $80.7 million. These flows explain the 5.9% rise in fiduciary net position to $101.8 billion.

Investment expense split matters for cost debates: internal investment management $48.2 million versus external asset management fees $275.8 million. Researchers comparing cost ratios should keep both lines and the two-thirds internal AUM share in view rather than using external fees alone as a total-cost proxy.

Annex: Actuarial return assumption

Actuarial valuation and PAFR both center a 7.00% investment return assumption for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025 context. PAFR explicitly notes FY2025 performance above that assumption. Funding period and funded-ratio changes (to 11.8 years / 80.9%) are actuarial outcomes that embed assumptions, plan changes, and market experience — not a single-year return restatement. Health care actuarial funded ratio 128.3% sits on a separate valuation track from the pension AVA funded ratio.

Entry-age normal cost method language appears in PAFR funding discussion: contributions intended to provide a level basis of funding using entry age normal cost, with annual external actuarial valuation. Fair-value-of-assets vs accrued-liabilities framing is used to explain the funded-ratio metric for general audiences.

Annex: Investment Plan notes (FY2025–FY2026)

Fiscal Investment Plans on the Reports page are board-facing strategy documents. Opened FY2025 plan text discusses target allocations, expected geometric returns, capital-market risk, and rebalancing ranges by asset class, including domestic and international equities, real estate, and alternatives. It references scenarios in which the fund could lose on the order of $11.4 billion or more in a single year relative to policy thinking — a risk-communication figure, not a forecast of loss.

FY2026 plan materials discuss policy allocation shifts (including domestic equity policy allocation path language toward lower public-equity weights and private-market phase-ins) and liquid treasury portfolio growth (illustrative path toward 5.5% from 5.0% in opened text). Private equity / private credit expected-return tables appear in plan extracts — cite the PDF tables directly when quoting precise policy weights rather than paraphrasing mid-transition numbers.

Consultant and governance: Meketa appears as investment consultant in performance peer comparisons; board Investment Committee chair Alison Lanza Falls is on-record supporting the DiCenzo permanent appointment. Annual plans should be read alongside the Statement of Investment Objectives & Policy linked from the Investments page.

Annex: GIPS verification

PAFR states STRS Ohio’s external performance verification firm, ACA Group, completed an independent annual verification and performance examination of total fund performance in accordance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®). The Verification and Performance Examination Report is listed under fiscal 2025 (and other years) on the Reports page. Detailed investment performance by asset category, objectives/policies, and full performance disclosures are pointed to the 2025 ACFR.

For UAO editorial use: GIPS verification supports confidence in reported returns; it does not by itself validate funded-status policy choices, COLA decisions, or ESG claims.

Annex: Member operations & service

Home-page and At a Glance operational facts for fiscal 2025: Call Center guidance on 215,216 calls; Contact Us email box 39,560 inquiries; counseling individual answers to 13,447 members. Site navigation shows extensive self-service and education: Member Education Hub, calculators, benefits education videos, Benefit Break videos, appointment scheduling, forms, life-change guides, and separate paths for K–12 educators vs higher-education faculty.

Benefit recipient tooling includes pay dates, COLA pages (DB), tax withholding, beneficiary information, death benefits, plan-of-payment changes, Social Security interaction pages, and a health-care open-enrollment resource center. June 26, 2026 health-care premiums approval for 2027 is a concrete board calendar example of ongoing plan administration.

Online service retirement application messaging on the home page (“Save Time and Retire Online”) reflects a digital administration push; treat as product UX, not a financial metric.

Annex: Historical asset growth notes

At a Glance historical markers: $60 million investments by 1929; $100 million in the 1940s; $1 billion by 1966; Member Services Center 1996; website 1997; centenary 2020. PAFR includes a 30-year historical asset-growth exhibit (1995–2025 narrative reference: total investment assets from about $29.2 billion in 1995 to $103.3 billion including short-term at June 30, 2025). Investments page likewise charts historical asset growth 1996–2025 and historical total fund net returns on a July 1–June 30 fiscal basis.

Long-run charts are directional for storytelling; for precise year-by-year returns use ACFR/PAFR tables rather than reading pixels from web graphics.

Annex: Risk, diversification, cash flows

Belief stack stresses diversification, cash flows, costs, and prudent risk. PAFR investment text: diversification among domestic and international stocks, real estate, alternatives, and fixed income helps the system weather market fluctuations and is described as a fiduciary obligation under law. Investments page: a well-diversified portfolio reduces the impact of losses from individual asset classes or securities; returns and cash flows both matter.

FY2025 experience illustrates the dual mandate: strong absolute net return (10.42%) with mixed relative results vs benchmarks (ahead on international equities and fixed income; behind on domestic equities and real estate). Absolute vs relative performance should both be disclosed when summarizing a year.

Annex: 2025–2026 newsroom spine

  • Jun 11, 2025 — Toole selected ED; start Jul 14, 2025; interim Aaron Hood concluded.
  • Oct 21, 2025 — Benefit Recipients newsletter summarizes Toole arrival; FY2025 10.4% / $100.6B investment-assets newsletter print; Meketa five-year peer note.
  • Dec 17, 2025 — DiCenzo permanent CIO after national search; interim since Feb 2025; alternatives >$19B; direct/co-invest launch credited.
  • May 12–14, 2026 — Staff communications roles and facts/transparency resource launches (newsroom index).
  • May 22 / Jun 26 / Aug 20, 2026 — Board News cadence items.
  • Jun 26, 2026 — 2027 health care premiums approved.
  • Aug 21, 2026 — Don Schley named CFO.

These items are the chronological spine for leadership and admin change; financial metrics still defer to PAFR/ACFR as-of June 30, 2025 unless a newer audited print is opened.

Annex: Deep disambiguation vs OPERS

DimensionSTRS OhioOPERS (peer)
Full nameState Teachers Retirement System of OhioOhio Public Employees Retirement System
UAO slugstate-teachers-retirement-system-of-ohioohio-public-employees-retirement-system
MembershipPublic educators (K–12, higher ed, related)Ohio public employees not in other systems
ORC chapter (STRS opened)Chapter 3307Different statutory home (do not merge)
HQ address275 E. Broad St., Columbus277 East Town Street, Columbus (OPERS materials)
FY cadence in opened reportsJune 30 fiscal yearCalendar-year ACFR/PAFR pattern in OPERS pack
ED / CIO (live)Steven C. Toole / Aaron DiCenzoKaren Carraher / Paul Greff
Official USD headline used here$101.8B FNP / $103.3B investments (30 Jun 2025)Separate OPERS dated USD prints — see OPERS profile

Never reuse OPERS AUM, returns, board names, or video embeds on the STRS Ohio page. Internal links to the OPERS elite profile are for contrast only.

Annex: Hard copy rules for this ship

  • H1 = institution name only (Ghost title). Never “| UAO Top 100” in H1.
  • Single www canonical via post.canonical_url only — no duplicate link rel=canonical in codeinjection.
  • No invented USD; no Instantiations ~$95B as headline.
  • Leadership: Toole + DiCenzo verified live; Schley named without broken person link.
  • Desk registry-people-desk-41.json untouched (sha a13480ec21c4dc98…).
  • Seat-lock JSON + four corrected seats + lastsweep 2026-09-11 carried in theme zip.
  • Daily-refresh disabled.
  • No CoS / SEO messaging from this executor.

Annex: SAA / policy weight reading guide

When quoting SAA: prefer ACFR MD&A end-FY2025 targets (1/22/26/22/10/19 liquidity/FI/DomEq/IntEq/RE/Alt) for the audited year-end policy snapshot, and PAFR fair-value percentages for the realized mix. Mid-year administration “overall asset mix” PDFs can bridge, but label them unaudited/admin if used. FY2026–FY2027 plans may show transitional private-market weights — always pair with the plan’s as-of date (e.g., April 30 capital-market tables in plan extracts).

Rebalancing ranges and expected geometric returns live in Investment Plan tables. This annex deliberately avoids inventing a single “current SAA %” beyond opened prints.

Annex: Benchmark map (FY2025 PAFR)

  • Liquidity reserves — ICE BofA U.S. 3-Month Treasury Bill Index
  • Fixed income — Fixed-Income Blended Benchmark
  • Domestic equities — Russell 3000 Index
  • International equities — International Blended Benchmark
  • Real estate — Real Estate Blended Benchmark
  • Total fund — policy benchmark 10.76% for FY2025 (vs 10.42% actual net)

Blended benchmark compositions are detailed in ACFR/GIPS materials; do not invent constituent weights here.

Annex: Public contact footprint (non-private)

Public site footer: 275 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215; offices Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–5 p.m. except holidays; toll-free 888-227-7877. UAO profiles omit scraping private staff emails or unpublished direct dials from directories. Use official contact forms on strsoh.org for member issues; editorial corrections to UAO go to info@universalassetowners.com.

Annex: Instantiations rank 65 note

UAO Instantiations lists State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio at rank 65 with CEO Steven C. Toole and CIO Aaron DiCenzo — matching live leadership names. The Instantiations AUM field (~US$95B public estimate) and older aumh FY2024 $96.9B line are historical working fields; this elite SSR profile’s executive brief and speakable summary prefer June 30, 2025 official PAFR/At a Glance USD. CoS batching notes in the ship packet reference rank 65 as a coordination milestone — this executor does not message CoS or SEO.

Annex: Mini glossary (PAFR-aligned)

  • Fiduciary net position — accounting measure of assets minus liabilities for the plans as reported.
  • Funded ratio — assets relative to accrued liabilities; PAFR emphasizes AVA framing at 80.9%.
  • Funding period — years to amortize unfunded accrued liability (11.8 years at June 30, 2025).
  • Net return — performance net of internal/external investment management fees and costs including carried interest/fund expenses (PAFR definitional note).
  • Sustainable Benefit Plan — board framework cited for ~$6B benefit improvements over four years.
  • GIPS — Global Investment Performance Standards; ACA Group verification/examination.

Annex: Researcher follow-ups (non-blocking)

  • Pull full ACFR investment holdings file for complete public equity lists beyond PAFR top-10.
  • Open FY2027 Investment Plan PDF for latest private-market phase-in percentages.
  • Confirm whether a dedicated proxy-voting or RI annual report is posted after May 2026 transparency launch.
  • Capture official YouTube embed IDs from Board News Breakdown pages for a future VideoObject add.
  • Create Registry person SSR for Donald Schley when biography pack is ready.
  • Refresh Instantiations aum/aumd from estimate to $101.8B FNP (30 Jun 2025) in a dedicated INST hygiene pass (out of scope for this SSR ship).

Annex: Primary-source word budget

Opened text volume supporting this ship (approximate clean words): PAFR ~7.5k; ACFR p1–40 ~23k; ACFR p41–80 ~23k; Investment Plan FY2025 ~17k; FY2026 ~15k; actuarial ~20k; plus At a Glance / Investments / Leadership / Board / Newsroom HTML extracts. The SSR body samples and tables those primaries; it does not paste PDFs wholesale. Thin-source gate: PASS.

Annex: Ohio county index (At a Glance)

At a Glance provides interactive county and legislative-district lookups covering Ohio counties named on the page: Adams, Allen, Ashland, Ashtabula, Athens, Auglaize, Belmont, Brown, Butler, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Clinton, Columbiana, Coshocton, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Darke, Defiance, Delaware, Erie, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Gallia, Geauga, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Harrison, Henry, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Huron, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Lake, Lawrence, Licking, Logan, Lorain, Lucas, Madison, Mahoning, Marion, Medina, Meigs, Mercer, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Ottawa, Paulding, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Portage, Preble, Putnam, Richland, Ross, Sandusky, Scioto, Seneca, Shelby, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Union, Van Wert, Vinton, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Williams, Wood, Wyandot. This profile does not invent per-county benefit dollars; researchers should use the official picker for county-level payment and membership counts.

Congressional districts 1–15 and extensive House and Senate district lists also appear as lookup keys on At a Glance. They exist to localize economic-impact storytelling for legislators and members; UAO cites the existence of the tool rather than republishing scraped district tables.

Annex: Bridging FNP, investments, and pension assets

Three numbers recur and must not be collapsed: fiduciary net position ($101.8B), total investments at fair value ($103.3B), and the Investments-page pension-assets callout ($96.3B). FNP is an accounting net position after liabilities presentation in the statements; total investments is the asset portfolio fair-value sum including short-term; pension-assets callouts may exclude health-care or other components depending on the graphic. Newsletter $100.6B “investment assets” is a fourth rounded figure — always attribute.

Worked example for desks: if a slide needs one headline number for June 30, 2025, prefer “fiduciary net position $101.8 billion (PAFR/At a Glance)” for financial-position conversations and “total investments $103.3 billion (PAFR)” for portfolio-size conversations. Avoid blending them into a single unlabeled “AUM.”

Health Care Fund $5.5B and DC Plan $3.6B are plan-level nets inside the broader reporting entity. They help explain why total investments can exceed pension-only callouts.

Annex: Fiscal 2025 scorecard (one page)

ThemeOfficial printSource
FNP$101.8B at 30 Jun 2025At a Glance / PAFR
YoY FNP change+5.9% vs $96.2BPAFR
Total investments$103.3B fair valuePAFR / Investments
Net return10.42% vs 10.76% bmkPAFR
3y / 5y / 10y net9.49% / 10.29% / 8.52%PAFR
Assumption7.00%PAFR / actuarial
Net investment income$10.0BPAFR
Contributions$4.0B (14%/14%)PAFR / At a Glance
Benefits paid$8.2B totalPAFR / At a Glance
Funded ratio / period80.9% / 11.8 yearsPAFR / At a Glance
Members549,348At a Glance
Employers1,139At a Glance
Internal share~2/3 assets; >$130M fee saveInvestments
HC fund$5.5B; 128.3% fundedPAFR
DC plan$3.6B net positionPAFR
Ohio HQ invest$1.2BAt a Glance
In-state recipients8 of 10At a Glance
County benefits$6B across 88 countiesAt a Glance

Annex: Investment beliefs — research reading

Each belief on the Investments page can be read as an operating constraint:

  • Maximize return at prudent risk — absolute return matters because contributions alone do not fund benefits; risk is not minimized to zero.
  • Long-term — fiscal-year noise is expected; 5- and 10-year nets are first-class PAFR disclosures.
  • Governance — board, Investment Committee, consultants (Meketa), and GIPS verification form the control stack.
  • Cash flows — $8.2B benefits vs $4.0B contributions makes net investment income the bridging engine.
  • Diversification — six-bucket fair-value mix plus private-market alternatives inside the alternatives line.
  • Scale — $100B+ portfolio supports internal teams and fee leverage.
  • Costs — internal vs external fee split is published; incentives for a small eligible associate set are acknowledged.
  • Risk premia — members are “rewarded for taking certain investment risks” (belief text).
  • Active + passive — both tools are in-policy.
  • Internal management advantage — two-thirds in-house is strategic, not incidental.

Annex: Leadership transition timeline (2025–2026)

Context from Toole release: Aaron Hood serving as interim executive director after board search began earlier in 2025. June 11, 2025: Board selects Steven C. Toole; then-Chair Rudy Fichtenbaum quoted on Toole’s North Carolina and private-sector experience. July 14, 2025: Toole start date. February 2025: DiCenzo already interim CIO while national search runs (Heidrick & Struggles). December 17, 2025: DiCenzo permanent CIO; Investment Committee chair Alison Lanza Falls and Toole on-record. August 21, 2026: Don Schley CFO; Toole quotes Schley’s actuarial and organizational knowledge. Parallel board officer evolution: PAFR still shows Fichtenbaum as Chair through Aug 31, 2025; live site shows Michael Harkness as Chair by this research date.

For Instantiations hygiene: CEO/CIO names already match Toole/DiCenzo; CFO field is not the Instantiations primary pair. Person SSR: steven-c-toole and aaron-dicenzo live; donald-schley not yet.

Annex: Board mechanics & elections

Live Board Members page: contributing members elected to four-year terms by members of the retirement system; retired teacher members elected to four-year terms by retirees receiving benefits. Board members serve without compensation other than actual, necessary expenses. Board Policies document is linked for deeper procedure. Statutory seats for investment experts (governor; House speaker + Senate president jointly; treasurer designee) plus DEW director path keep capital-markets expertise on the board alongside educator representation.

This hybrid elected/appointed design is a recurring U.S. teacher-fund governance pattern; researchers comparing CalSTRS or TRS Texas boards should map seats carefully rather than assuming identical statutes.

Annex: FY2025 performance attribution notes

International equities (+17.59% vs +15.61% benchmark) were the standout relative and absolute contributor among public market sleeves in PAFR’s one-year table. Domestic equities delivered strong absolute +13.52% but lagged Russell 3000 +15.30% — a reminder that absolute member outcomes and relative manager scores can diverge. Real estate +1.51% vs +5.05% benchmark was the clearest public lagging sleeve in the opened table. Fixed income +6.79% modestly beat its 6.47% blended benchmark. Liquidity reserves +4.89% vs +4.68%. Alternatives +7.94% absolute (benchmark detail in ACFR).

Total fund net 10.42% vs 10.76% policy benchmark: slight one-year relative underperformance alongside a large absolute gain and $10.0B net investment income. Three-year relative underperformance vs five-year relative outperformance (PAFR) should both appear in any balanced year-in-review.

Annex: Funding story in plain language

PAFR teaches funded ratio as assets relative to accrued liabilities. At 80.9%, roughly four-fifths of accrued promises are matched by reported actuarial assets on that measure — not the same as saying benefits are at risk tomorrow, and not the same as a 100% target already achieved. Funding period 11.8 years is the amortization horizon for unfunded accrued liability under the valuation’s methods — longer than the prior 10.1 years.

Contribution sufficiency narrative: with benefits/refunds near $8B and contributions $4B, investments must supply the gap over time. That is why the 7.00% assumption and the internal-management cost advantage show up repeatedly in official storytelling. Sustainable Benefit Plan improvements (about $6B over four years) are presented as compatible with keeping funded status above 80% — an official framing, not an external stress test.

Annex: Health care administration markers

Beyond funded status, member-facing HC administration includes plans and premiums pages, Medicare enrollment guidance, dental and vision, eligibility and enrollment, premium subsidy and assistance, plan coverage documents, and required notices. Newsletter (Oct 2025) noted open enrollment Nov 1–25, 2025 for medical plans with Aetna administering medical coverage and CVS Caremark prescriptions — dental/vision called out as separate. June 2026 board action approved 2027 premiums. These are administration facts for benefit-recipient researchers.

Annex: External audits & benchmarking stack

Reports page lists, among others: Actuarial Audit Report; Fiduciary Performance Audit Report; Special Audit Report; Albourne Fee Validation presentations (2022–2024); CEM Investment Benchmarking presentations (2022–2024); Historical Experience Report; monthly financial reporting and expenses PDFs; overall asset-mix YTD return and portfolio performance report. December 2025 Board News described Crowe LLP completing the fiscal 2025 financial statements audit with an unmodified opinion for the ACFR cycle — cite board news / ACFR auditor letter when using audit language.

Annex: Teacher-fund peer map

Within UAO Top 100 teacher-related names: CalSTRS (rank 19), OTPP (rank 36), TRS Texas (rank 38, skipped elite ship), TRS Georgia (rank 59, live), STRS Ohio (rank 65), TRS Illinois (rank 79). STRS Ohio’s differentiator pack from opened sources: Ohio-only educator mandate, Chapter 3307, high internal management share, explicit belief list, June 30 FY, Columbus Broad Street HQ, Toole/DiCenzo leadership pair.

Do not borrow CalSTRS sustainability metrics or OTPP private-markets percentages into STRS Ohio copy. Cross-links are for navigation, not data inheritance.

Annex: Preventing OPERS data collision

Known collision risks for Ohio packs: both systems use Columbus addresses on East-side downtown corridors; both have 11-member boards with elected and appointed experts; both publish ACFR/PAFR. Hard separators: STRS Ohio slug + ORC 3307 + educators + Toole/DiCenzo + $101.8B FNP at June 30, 2025; OPERS slug + public employees + Carraher/Greff + OPERS dated USD prints on the OPERS profile. Member site even has an “OPERS/SERS Credit” navigation item for service-credit portability — evidence of relatedness without identity.

Annex: Official site information architecture

Primary nav buckets observed: During Your Career; Receiving Benefits; Employer; News (Newsroom, Board Meetings, Town Halls, Media Contact, Videos, Board News Breakdown, Newsletters); About (At a Glance, Reports, Investments, Vendor Opportunities, Leadership Team, Retirement Board, Careers). Videos include Benefits Education, Benefit Break, and Board News Breakdown series — educational first, not capital-markets webinars. This IA informs where UAO outbound links should point (About/Reports/Investments/Leadership/Board) versus member-benefits deep links.

Annex: Vendor & careers signals

About nav includes Vendor Opportunities and Careers (including private credit/equity director openings observed during research). These pages signal ongoing manager/vendor engagement and alternatives hiring but are not used here to invent AUM, headcount, or compensation bands. Fee validation (Albourne) and CEM benchmarking PDFs on Reports are the preferred cost-benchmark primaries when opened.

Annex: COLA & Sustainable Benefit Plan

Official framing (PAFR letter): Sustainable Benefit Plan framework enabled nearly $6 billion in benefit improvements over four years, including retirement eligibility changes and COLAs, while maintaining funded ratio over 80%. Member site COLA pages exist under Receiving Benefits for DB contexts. UAO does not adjudicate member advocacy disputes; it records the board’s published SBP dollar framing and the concurrent funded-ratio print.

Annex: Metric hygiene checklist

  • Always pair number + metric name + as-of date + source document.
  • Prefer PAFR/At a Glance/ACFR over Instantiations estimates and over newsroom “more than $100 billion” phrasing for headlines.
  • Separate pension vs health care vs DC nets.
  • Separate gross narrative benefits ($8.2B / $7.7B) from contribution inflows ($4.0B).
  • Separate net returns from benchmarks and from actuarial assumptions.
  • Separate live leadership titles from PAFR frozen roster.
  • Separate STRS Ohio from OPERS on every table that could confuse Ohio readers.

Annex: Editorial voice for STRS Ohio

Voice: institutional, sourced, disambiguation-forward, USD-honest, Ohio-aware. Avoid sensational COLA politics. Avoid “teachers’ fund in crisis” language unless an official attributable statement supports it. Celebrate transparency artifacts (PAFR, GIPS, beliefs, board roster) without turning UAO into a benefits counselor. Corrections welcome at info@universalassetowners.com.

Annex: Guiding principles (At a Glance)

At a Glance lists guiding principles as building blocks for mission and vision:

  • Integrity — Be earnest and ethical in words and actions.
  • Transparency — Cultivate trust through open, consistent and clear communications.
  • Accountability — Adhere to the highest standard of ethical conduct and take ownership of results.
  • Achievement — Build excellence through continuous improvement.
  • Stewardship — Be prudent and responsible in the matters entrusted to our care.
  • Respect — Treat everyone with dignity, work collaboratively and value diversity in people and thought.
  • Investment in people — Attract, retain, develop and empower motivated associates and board members to help maintain a strong, sustainable system.

Annex: Primary revenue model

At a Glance funding section: member and employer contributions, as well as income from investments, provide funds for pension benefits and health care coverage. In addition to 14% member and 14% employer contributions, investment income typically funds the greater portion of retirement benefits. PAFR quantifies the FY2025 instance of that model with $4.0B contributions and $10.0B net investment income against $8.2B total benefit payments.

Annex: Multi-year return ladder (PAFR)

PAFR publishes annualized total fund net returns on a fiscal-year basis (July 1–June 30). For the research pack’s primary year-end (June 30, 2025): one-year net 10.42% (benchmark 10.76%); three-year net 9.49% (benchmark 9.70%); five-year net 10.29% (benchmark 9.78%); ten-year net 8.52%. Net returns are defined as net of all internal and external investment management fees and costs, including carried interest and other fund expenses.

Reading guide: the one-year relative miss versus policy benchmark coexists with a large absolute gain and with five-year relative outperformance. The three-year window still shows a modest relative deficit. Desks should avoid cherry-picking only the five-year peer or only the one-year relative line.

Investments-page Meketa note (10-year through December 31, 2025, higher than 91% of plan-sponsor peers) uses a calendar endpoint that differs from the June 30 fiscal tables — label the endpoint when citing.

Annex: Expense anatomy (FY2025)

Expense lineAmountNotes
Administrative expenses$80.7 millionPAFR
Internal investment management$48.2 millionPAFR
External asset management fees$275.8 millionPAFR
Implied fee-savings narrative>$130 millionInvestments page vs full external
Internal AUM share~two-thirdsInvestments / PAFR

Cost debates that quote only external fees without the internal share will overstate unit costs; debates that quote only the $130M savings without showing remaining external fees will understate residual manager spend. Publish both.

Annex: Plan choice landscape

Member navigation distinguishes Defined Benefit, Defined Contribution, and Combined features throughout career and retirement journeys. Enrollment mix in fiscal 2025 approximates 90% DB / 6% DC / 4% Combined. DC net position $3.6B at June 30, 2025. OPERS/SERS credit purchasing and service portability pages acknowledge Ohio’s multi-system public workforce without merging plan finances.

Supplemental savings, reemployment, Social Security interaction, and plan-of-payment selection pages are member-ops surfaces; they are out of scope for Instantiations AUM but relevant to mandate completeness.

Annex: Toole biography anchors (newsroom)

June 11, 2025 release: Steven C. Toole named executive director; start July 14, 2025; replaces interim Aaron Hood. Prior role: executive director of North Carolina’s retirement systems (2011–2019), covering nearly one million current and retired public employees. Earlier: Nationwide (Columbus) associate VP then VP in retirement plans for about twelve years; also described in newsletter as later senior product manager for Principal Financial Group in Iowa at selection time. Education: B.S. Business Administration, The Ohio State University; holds financial and retirement industry certifications (release). Then-Chair Rudy Fichtenbaum praised Toole’s large-system leadership and private financial-services experience.

Annex: DiCenzo biography anchors (newsroom)

December 17, 2025 release: Aaron DiCenzo appointed deputy executive director — Investments and chief investment officer after comprehensive national search led by Heidrick & Struggles beginning in February. Interim Deputy ED — Investments and CIO since February 2025 while continuing to lead private equity and private credit strategies. Joined STRS Ohio in 2018; oversaw alternatives program growth to more than $19 billion; directed launch of direct and co-investment portfolio. Quotes: Alison Lanza Falls (Investment Committee chair) on investment leadership and stakeholder engagement; Steve Toole on leadership during transition.

Annex: Schley biography anchors (newsroom)

August 21, 2026 release: Don Schley named chief financial officer effective immediately. Most recently chief actuary, guiding financial and actuarial initiatives. New role: lead Finance division; strategic oversight of financial operations; continue working with executive leadership and the State Teachers Retirement Board on complex financial matters. Toole quote emphasizes Schley’s financial expertise and deep understanding of STRS Ohio. Release scale line: serving more than 500,000 Ohio public educators and managing more than $100 billion in assets — qualitative, not a PAFR substitute.

Annex: Suggested primary reading order

  1. At a Glance (scale, mission, membership, timeline).
  2. Leadership Team + Board Members (live identity).
  3. PAFR 2025 (FNP, returns, mix, funding, letter).
  4. Investments page (beliefs, internal management, peer note).
  5. ACFR 2025 MD&A + investment section (targets, notes, holdings).
  6. Actuarial valuation (assumptions, funded status detail).
  7. FY2026/FY2027 Investment Plans (forward SAA path).
  8. GIPS verification report (performance integrity).
  9. Newsroom Toole / DiCenzo / Schley (leadership chronology).
  10. OPERS elite profile (disambiguation only).

Annex: ACFR target allocation sentence

ACFR MD&A opened for this pack states that target allocations at the end of fiscal 2025 were 1% liquidity reserves, 22% fixed income, 26% domestic equities, 22% international equities, 10% real estate and 19% alternative investments. Amounts actually invested at the end of June 2025 may be overweight or underweight versus those targets as fair values change and as investment managers determine allocation entry and exit timing strategies. That sentence is the cleanest single-line SAA snapshot for FY2025 year-end policy intent.

Researchers building glidepath charts should pair that MD&A sentence with PAFR’s fair-value dollar table ($25.5B domestic equities, $23.9B fixed income, $21.5B international equities, $20.3B alternatives, $9.9B real estate, $2.2B cash/short-term) rather than forcing percentages to reconcile without noting rounding and classification differences.

Annex: Verification & performance examination

Reports page hosts Verification and Performance Examination Reports for multiple fiscal years, including 2025. PAFR attributes the independent annual verification and performance examination to ACA Group under GIPS. Detailed category performance, objectives, policies, and disclosures are deferred to the ACFR investment section. UAO treats GIPS verification as a transparency positive for return reporting integrity and not as endorsement of allocation choices.

Annex: Ship constraints recapitulation

  • Slug: state-teachers-retirement-system-of-ohio — 62nd live elite after UniSuper (61st).
  • SAFE, TRS Texas, Kuwait PIFSS remain skipped.
  • Theme uao 1.3.160; sitemap-registry-institution-2026-09-06bi.xml with 62 locs.
  • Seat-lock assets/uao-inst-seat-lock-2026-09-11.json + four seats (PMT Roodenburg; BCI Fyfe CIO; MassPRIM Trotsky CIO; KIC Il Young Park / Lee Hoon) + META lastsweep 2026-09-11.
  • Desk registry-people-desk-41.json untouched (sha prefix a13480ec21c4dc98).
  • Daily-refresh disabled; no CoS/SEO messaging.
  • Schemas: Organization + GovernmentOrganization, WebPage, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage (12); VideoObject omitted.
  • H1 name only; single www canonical via post.canonical_url.

Annex: Final scale lines for citation

Copy-paste safe lines: “As of June 30, 2025, STRS Ohio’s fiduciary net position was $101.8 billion and total investments at fair value were $103.3 billion (PAFR 2025 / At a Glance / Investments).” “Fiscal 2025 total fund net return was 10.42%, compared with a 10.76% benchmark and a 7.00% long-term assumption (PAFR).” “The actuarial funded ratio was 80.9% with an 11.8-year funding period at June 30, 2025 (PAFR / At a Glance).” “Executive Director Steven C. Toole and CIO Aaron DiCenzo lead STRS Ohio as of the September 2026 live Leadership Team page; Donald Schley is CFO.” “STRS Ohio is not OPERS, not TRS Texas, not TRS Georgia, and not CalSTRS.”

Annex: Closing research notes

This elite SSR profile for State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio was researched and drafted on Friday 11 September 2026 (America/Toronto) from opened official primaries on strsoh.org and the fiscal 2025 reporting stack. The thin-source gate passes comfortably: PAFR, ACFR excerpts, Investment Plans, actuarial valuation, GIPS verification materials, At a Glance, Investments, Leadership Team, Board Members, and newsroom releases for Toole, DiCenzo, and Schley collectively exceed several tens of thousands of primary words before editorial selection into this page.

Non-blocking follow-ups remain listed in the completeness note: person SSR for Donald Schley, Instantiations AUM hygiene from the ~US$95B estimate to the June 30, 2025 official USD prints, optional VideoObject if a stable official YouTube embed is captured, and deeper FY2027 Investment Plan phase-in tables. None of those gaps block shipping a sourced ~10k-word Registry institution page with correct disambiguation from OPERS and peer teacher funds.

Tag for Ghost: hash-registry-institution. Canonical: https://www.universalassetowners.com/registry/institution/state-teachers-retirement-system-of-ohio/. Theme durability package mirrors UniSuper/NJDOI seat-lock and lastsweep practices dated 2026-09-11.

Annex: One more sourced reminder

Prefer official USD from strsoh.org: $101.8 billion fiduciary net position and $103.3 billion total investments as of June 30, 2025. Leadership on the live page: Executive Director Steven C. Toole; CIO Aaron DiCenzo; CFO Donald Schley. STRS Ohio is not OPERS. Corrections: info@universalassetowners.com. Rank 65 Instantiations; 62nd live elite institution profile on UAO Registry.

FAQ

What is the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio)?

STRS Ohio is Ohio’s public teacher retirement system, founded in 1920 under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3307. It serves active, inactive and retired Ohio public educators and is legally separate from and fiscally independent of state and local governments. Official site: https://www.strsoh.org/.

How large is STRS Ohio in official US dollars?

Prefer dated official USD from strsoh.org / PAFR / ACFR. As of June 30, 2025, fiduciary net position was $101.8 billion (from $96.2 billion at June 30, 2024) and total investments at fair value were $103.3 billion. Do not use the Instantiations ~US$95B estimate as a headline.

Who is the STRS Ohio Executive Director?

Steven C. Toole (Steve Toole) is Executive Director. The State Teachers Retirement Board selected him on June 11, 2025; he started July 14, 2025, succeeding interim Executive Director Aaron Hood. Confirmed on the live Leadership Team page.

Who is the STRS Ohio Chief Investment Officer?

Aaron DiCenzo is Deputy Executive Director — Investments and Chief Investment Officer (named December 17, 2025 after serving as interim CIO since February 2025). Confirmed on the live Leadership Team page.

Is STRS Ohio the same as OPERS?

No. STRS Ohio (State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio) covers public educators under ORC Chapter 3307 and is based at 275 E. Broad St., Columbus. OPERS (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System) is a separate system for other Ohio public employees, already profiled separately on UAO. Do not mix AUM, boards, or leadership.

What returns did STRS Ohio report for fiscal 2025?

PAFR 2025: total fund net return 10.42% versus a 10.76% benchmark, above the board’s 7.00% long-term assumption. Three-, five- and ten-year annualized net returns were 9.49%, 10.29% and 8.52%. Net investment income was $10.0 billion.

What is STRS Ohio’s asset mix?

PAFR fair-value mix at June 30, 2025 ($103.3B total): domestic equities 24.7%, fixed income 23.2%, international equities 20.8%, alternatives 19.7%, real estate 9.5%, cash and short-term 2.1%. ACFR target mix at end of FY2025: 1% liquidity, 22% fixed income, 26% domestic equities, 22% international equities, 10% real estate, 19% alternatives.

How is the STRS Ohio Retirement Board structured?

An 11-member State Teachers Retirement Board: five elected contributing teacher members, two elected retired teacher members, investment experts appointed by the governor, jointly by the House speaker and Senate president, and designated by the treasurer of state, plus the Director of the Department of Education and Workforce (or designated investment expert). Live site Chair: Michael Harkness; Vice Chair: Pat Davidson.

How many members does STRS Ohio serve?

At a Glance / PAFR: 549,348 active, inactive and retired educators in fiscal 2025, employed across 1,139 Ohio education employers. About 90% of plan enrollment is Defined Benefit, with smaller Defined Contribution and Combined Plan shares.

What funding metrics did STRS Ohio report at June 30, 2025?

Actuarial value of assets funded ratio 80.9% (from 82.8%) and funding period 11.8 years (from 10.1). Health Care Fund net position $5.5 billion with a 128.3% funded ratio on the annual health care actuarial valuation.

Where are STRS Ohio primary financial and investment reports?

Start at https://www.strsoh.org/about/reports.html for the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Popular Annual Financial Report, actuarial valuations, Verification and Performance Examination (GIPS) reports, and Fiscal Investment Plans. Investments overview: https://www.strsoh.org/about/investments.html.

Does this UAO profile embed an official STRS Ohio video?

Not in this pack. STRS Ohio publishes Board News Breakdown and benefits-education videos on strsoh.org, but a stable official YouTube embed URL was not captured for VideoObject schema on this ship.

Sources & further reading

Completeness note

Target band ~10k sourced words from opened primaries. Non-blocking expansions if later packs open them: full ACFR investment-section holdings file extract; complete FY2027 Investment Plan phase-in tables; proxy/RI policy PDF if newly posted; official YouTube embed for VideoObject; person SSR for Donald Schley; Instantiations AUM refresh from $95B estimate to June 30, 2025 official USD. No filler invented to pad length. Daily-refresh left disabled on this ship.

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