AIDEA looks to do business with investment firm promoted by Crum
AIDEA needs to provide Alaskans with information on what business it intends to conduct with an investment firm that former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum claimed to have helped set up before he quit his state job in 2025 to run for governor.
The AIDEA agenda for its July 8 “special” board meeting suggests that AIDEA is about to do business with the company. It also says that the topic will be discussed in secret.
As is typical with AIDEA, there is no public information to determine what exactly the state wants to do with the so-called “Frontier Economic Fund” or why.
The agenda for the meeting says there is a public presentation to be made on the “AKAF,” but the slides that purport to contain information about the public presentation do not mention the Frontier Economic Fund.
The slides only mention Prospr Aligned, which is the company headed by a right-wing booster of Crum that set up the AKAF last year. Derek Kreifels, CEO of Prospr Aligned, said in 2024 that “Adam Crum is a great leader and public servant!”
One of the slides claims that Prospr Aligned is aimed at “Restoring trust in capitalism.”
We need more information about what the company and AIDEA are planning and why before the July 8 meeting.
Is AIDEA planning to invest some of its cash with the investment fund, which features a broad range of companies, some of which are related to Alaska? Or is it looking to hire Prospr Aligned? Why?
This is a textbook example of what’s wrong with AIDEA, which wants to operate with public funds in secret.
It does so because the Dunleavy-appointed board is the closest thing in state government to a rubber-stamp operation.
Refusing to release information in advance is the best way that AIDEA has found to keep the public uninformed and unaware.
The AKAF has net assets of $2.8 million.
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By way of background, here is what I wrote a year ago about Crum, Prospr Aligned and the AKAF:
June 25, 2025
Alaska Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum still doesn’t understand his duties as a state employee responsible for overseeing vast sums of public money.
If he did, he wouldn’t be attaching the name and influence of the state Department of Revenue to a private investment fund, the latter promoted by a guy who lavishes praise on Crum as a rising star among the nation’s financial wizards.
Here is the press release in which Crum crosses an important line, oblivious to the appearance it creates of state interference with private enterprise.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Crum’s boss, must be oblivious as well.
“Today, Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Adam Crum, in partnership with Prospr Aligned, announced the launch of The Frontier Economic Fund (NYSE: AKAF), a new investment vehicle focused on companies driving sustainable growth, local job creation, and long-term investment across Alaska.”
“There’s a real alignment happening between Alaska’s strengths and the country’s needs,” Crum said in the press release. “This fund creates a bridge between that momentum and people who want to support it.”
Part of the problem here is that executives of Prospr Aligned and Vident Asset Management, companies involved in this fund, lobbied the state to participate in this venture and registered as lobbyists in Juneau this year.
If this fund is a good idea, let private industry lead the way. But Crum has decided to tip the scales and make it a government-blessed venture. I am not suggesting in any way that Crum has a financial involvement in this. The issue here is the appearance of impropriety and why there must be a clear line between politics and state investments.
Crum, a trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund, helped set up communication between Prospr Aligned and Marcus Frampton, the chief investment office of the Alaska Permanent Fund.
“APFC doesn’t have anything to do with the Frontier Fund (I believe that is what it is called). At Adam’s request Marcus (Frampton) took a call with them, but no plans to deploy to the fund,” APFC Executive Director Deven Mitchell said in a June 16 email to me after I asked about this matter.
Legislators need to get on this and see whether Crum will direct that state investments be made into this fund.
Prospr Aligned was founded by Derek Kreifels, a leader of the anti-ESG movement, who seeks to inject right-wing politics into investment decisions.
He says the mission is to “empower conservative investors to shape corporate behavior.”
Kreifels, former Kansas assistant treasurer, was a co-founder of the State Financial Officers Foundation. He is the former CEO of that group.
Crum is now the national vice chair of the State Financial Officers Foundation.
“Adam Crum is a great leader and public servant!” Kreifels said on X last year when the foundation gave Crum the “rising star award.”
Now we have Kreifels’ company saying Crum worked with it to launch the private fund, which was “designed in partnership” with the state.
The reputation and standing of the Alaska Department of Revenue is not something that Crum can loan to a friend to bolster a private business, but that’s what he has done.
Despite the alleged state travel ban, Crum is supposed to take part next week in a bell-ringing ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange promoting Kreifels’ fund.
Kreifels and Vident Asset Management have created what they call the “Alaska Last Frontier Index” of 130 companies. It takes some looking to find the list.
Many of these companies do a tiny part of their business in Alaska and it’s hard to see how or why anyone would consider this an Alaska fund.
The fund promoters say the index features companies with substantial operations or investments in Alaska, but that is a bizarre claim.
Among the holdings are: Microsoft, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Air Canada, Pepsi, McDonald’s, General Motors, KeyCorp, Airbnb, Sherwin-Williams, Denny’s, Yamaha, Amazon, Alphabet, Kawasaki, Walmart, Best Buy, Costco, Cisco, Verizon, GameStop, Motorola, O’Reilly Automotive, Ford, Kroger, Apple, Oracle, American Airlines, Starbucks, Yum!, U-Haul, Target, Domino’s, Hertz, Walgreens, Harley-Davidson, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walt Disney, IBM, Hilton and Honeywell.
The major oil companies, mining and transportation companies operating in Alaska are on the list.
The top 10 holdings, amounting to nearly one-quarter of the weighted index are: General Electric, Uber, DoorDash, Royal Caribbean, Exxon, Kinross, ConocoPhillips, UPS, FedEx and Agnico Eagle Mines.
The “Frontier Economic Fund” is supposed to track the performance of the index.
A competent revenue commissioner would have the sense not to be involved in promoting this private venture.
When the bell-ringing ceremoney for AKAF was held on July 2, 2025, Crum was not in attendance. I wrote this column as a followup.
July 2, 2025
I wrote here last week about how Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum is promoting a private investment fund and claiming it is sponsored by the state.
The press release promoting this scheme was headlined, “Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Adam Crum and Prospr Aligned Announce Launch of the Frontier Economic Fund.”
It said, “Alaska Commissioner of Revenue Adam Crum, in partnership with Prospr Aligned, announced the launch of The Frontier Economic Fund (NYSE: AKAF), a new investment vehicle focused on companies driving sustainable growth, local job creation, and long-term investment across Alaska.”
At the very least this creates an appearance of impropriety.
Crum, who considers himself governor material, hasn’t posted on the revenue website about this partnership.
The private companies involved in this venture—Vident Asset Management and Prospr Aligned—said that they and the State of Alaska celebrated the launch of the Frontier Economic Fund by ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday.
“The New York Stock Exchange welcomes executives and guests of the State of Alaska, Prospr Aligned & Vident Asset Management to celebrate the launch of The Frontier Economic Fund (NYSE: AKAF). To honor the occasion, Derek Kreifels, Chief Executive Officer of Prospr Aligned, will ring the closing bell,” the NYSE said.
The company sent out invitations weeks ago saying Crum would be a featured speaker, along with Kreifels, founder of Prospr Aligned, and Vince Birley, CEO of Vident Asset Managment.
Perhaps Crum sent someone in his place or he decided not to go, having discovered the statewide freeze on out-of-state travel instituted with great fanfare by Gov. Mike Dunleavy on May 9.
Kreifels wants to inject right-wing politics into investments and wants to allow institutions to invest in way that align with their “values.” The fund claims to “align with Alaska’s economic vision and the companies helping to fulfill it.”
Whose values? Whose vision? Dunleavy’s? Crum’s?
It claims to have a “rules-based gateway to companies driving the economic engine of the 49th state.”
Whose rules?
Crum is a trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund, and he referred the promoters of the Frontier Economic Fund to the staff of the Permanent Fund. Fund executives said they had a meeting, but did not invest.
Here is the prospectus for the fund.
Crum and Kreifels are members of a mutual admiration society.
“Adam Crum is a great leader and public servant!” Kreifels said on X last year when the State Financial Officers Foundation gave Crum the “rising star award.”
Crum is vice chair of the foundation, which was co-founded by Kreifels, who remains on the board of directors.
The foundation boasted July 2 that Crum’s “visionary leadership is driving economic growth with the launch of The Frontier Economic Fund.”
“Commissioner Crum’s track record of managing complex challenges and boosting Alaska’s prosperity now includes creating new investment opportunities that build local jobs and sustainable futures,” the Crum/Kreifels admiration society said.
We need to hear an explanation from Crum, the governor and the Permanent Fund about whether Crum is advancing a plan to invest state money in this enterprise.
Kreifels and Birley both registered as lobbyists this year with the state.
Someone or some group has put $1 million into the new fund to get it started.
The fund tracks an index of more than 130 companies, including many household names that do not rise and fall with the Alaska economy. The top 10 largest enterprises in the index today are Royal Caribbean, General Electric, Uber, DoorDash, Exxon, Kinross, ConocoPhillips, FedEx, UPS and Santos.