Our company charter states that our mission is "to aid and strengthen" the institutions we serve and to provide financial products that are "suited to the needs of such entities, their employees and their families, on terms as advantageous to the holders and beneficiaries of such contracts and policies as shall be practicable."
That mission obligates us to be the strongest, most successful and most effective operation we can be. It also compels us to connect more personally with our customers, so that we can understand their current needs and then meet them. That is why we are transforming ourselves to refocus on the noble mission our founder, Andrew Carnegie, gave us more than 85 years ago.
Andrew Carnegie was one of history's great philanthropists who believed in using his enormous wealth to advance the greater good. When he became a trustee at Cornell in 1890, Mr. Carnegie was appalled to learn how small professors' salaries were and thought they deserved a financially secure retirement. He donated $10 million to fund a system of free pensions that over time, evolved into the company known today as TIAA-CREF.
We are proud of our nonprofit roots and our special relationship with the higher education market. Today, we continue to serve those whose life work advances the greater good, which has expanded to include people who work in the medical, cultural and research fields, in addition to higher education.
Staying true to our values, we are setting a new standard in the financial services industry by becoming a company that is completely aligned with its customers' best interests. We are offering high value products and services, objective advice and a wide choice of world-class products, both proprietary and nonproprietary, tailored to our clients' ultimate financial goals.
We have also made great strides in nurturing a corporate culture of ethics and compliance. Annually, we survey employees to help ensure that we have an accurate understanding of how well they think our culture suits our strategy. Our people have consistently affirmed that our key values: integrity, diversity, and upholding our good reputation — remain part of our current culture. These three values have consistently ranked in the "top ten" of values that describe our current culture, and that's exactly where they should be, since they underlie what is special and unique about our company. These are aspects of our identity that must never change.
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© 2008 and prior years, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), New York, NY 10017
