During the quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Permanent Fund on Wednesday, the board voted to replace Ethan Schutt at chairman and Ellie Rubenstein as vice chairwoman. The new board chairman is Jason Brune, former Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner, and vice chairman is Adam Crum, currently the state commissioner of the Department of Revenue.
Both Schutt and Rubenstein will remain on the board, but the coup that took place in Fairbanks was still a surprise to many, and it follows a season of controversy that developed after leaked emails showed that Rubenstein may have put undue pressure on the professional staff that manages the fund to steer investments toward her own interests or that of her father, billionaire David Rubenstein. Rubenstein served as vice chair for the Permanent Fund for less than a year.
An investigation is under way that seems to be focused more on the leaks than on the actual issue of conflict of interest.
Schutt was reappointed this month to his seat on the Permanent Fund by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. His appointment is for four more years. He served as chair for less than two years.
The Permanent Fund’s website was immediately changed to reflect the new leadership.
Brune was appointed by Gov. Dunleavy in 2018 to be the Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner appointed. Prior to that, he was the senior director of land and resources at Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI), and worked for Anglo American, a global mining company. He has served on the Alaska Sealife Center Board, Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Endangered Species Act Recovery Team, Tyonek Tribal Conservation District Board, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Public Advisory Committee, and numerous other business and civic organizations. Brune is the former executive director for the Resource Development Council, executive director emeritus for Alaska Resource Education, and past president of the Alaska Miners Association. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Carleton College, and his graduate work was in environmental science at Alaska Pacific University.
Brune was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2022 to hold one of the two seats reserved for the governor’s cabinet members. In 2023, following his resignation as commissioner, he was appointed by Dunleavy to a four-year public seat.
Crum was born and raised in Alaska and has significant public and private sector experience in strategic management, organizational development, executive consulting and large-scale projects. His ability to manage, establish and lead effective teams was highlighted throughout his public service to the State of Alaska as he led the Alaska Department of Health for four years, including through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to his 2018 appointment by Gov. Dunleavy as commissioner for DHSS, Crum served as executive vice president of his family’s company, Northern Industrial Training. Active in numerous community service organizations, Crum has also served as a board member for the Salvation Army and MyHouse, a group that works specifically with homeless youth.
Trustee Crum holds the seat on the APFC Board of Trustees designated for the commissioner of Revenue, having been appointed in November 2022 by Gov. Dunleavy. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northwestern University and a master of science in public health from Johns Hopkins University.
With these recent actions, what can we expect with regards to the performance of the APFC? Hopefully, better than the past performance by a large margin.