TIAA-CREF Names Hye-Won Choi Head of Corporate Governance.

NEW YORK -- TIAA-CREF, the financial services organization and leading provider of retirement savings in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields, today announced that Hye-Won Choi has been named Head of Corporate Governance, effective January 1, 2008.

Ms. Choi will oversee

the corporate governance program at TIAA-CREF, one of America's largest institutional investors and a leading supporter of shareholder rights and sound corporate governance practices in the U.S. and international markets. Among her responsibilities will be working to advance high standards of corporate governance and strengthen shareholder rights at companies in which TIAA-CREF invests, as well as helping to assure, where practicable, that TIAA-CREF's own governing practices reflect those that TIAA-CREF recommends for portfolio companies in which it invests.

She will succeed John C. Wilcox, who will complete his full-time employment with TIAA-CREF at year-end and then provide his services to the organization in a part-time consulting capacity.

"Hye-Won's experience and expertise make her ideally suited to lead our corporate governance program," said George W. Madison, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of TIAA-CREF. "Hye-Won has been instrumental in TIAA-CREF's work to promote good corporate governance principles and practices in both the U.S. and abroad, as part of our organization's ongoing mission to help meet the financial needs of the institutions and individuals we serve."

Ms. Choi, who joined TIAA-CREF in 1994, is currently Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Corporate Governance. In her new role, she will lead a team of nine professionals who focus on domestic and international corporate governance and manage TIAA-CREF's proxy voting.

Ms. Choi holds a B.A. from Harvard College and J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

In March 2007, TIAA-CREF published a new edition of its Policy Statement on Corporate Governance. The revised Policy Statement reflects recent developments in areas such as corporate governance, social and environmental policy, market structure, globalization, executive compensation and proxy voting. The Policy Statement and TIAA-CREF's proxy voting record are available at http://www.tiaa-cref.org/about/governance.

About TIAA-CREF

TIAA-CREF (www.tiaa-cref.org) is a national financial services organization with more than $437 billion in combined assets under management (9/30/07) and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields.

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., members FINRA, distribute securities products. Annuity products are issued by TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association), New York, NY

(c) 2007 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), New York, NY 10017

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