Jeffrey Fleck, Executive Director of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board discusses how West Virginia transformed its public pension landscape. In this conversation you’ll hear the history behind closing the Defined Contribution (DC) plan in 1991, reopening the Defined Benefit (DB) plan in 2005, and the large-scale transfer of members back to DB — a move that helped lower costs and improve funding. Learn how the DB plan’s funded status climbed from roughly 9% to about 90% today, with a plan to eliminate unfunded liabilities by 2034–2035. Jeffrey also explains how a compact team of ~100 staff administers 10 retirement plans for ~160,000 participants, their goal to process retirements within 30 days, and early, cautious uses of AI (call center and OCR) to improve operations. Plus: milestones the board is celebrating this year, including the director’s 15-year tenure and the agency’s 35th anniversary.