Executive Director

Job Posting Title

Executive Director

Agency

092 TOBACCO SETTLEMENT ENDMT TRUST

Supervisory Organization

Secretary of Health and Mental Health

Job Posting End Date

Refer to the date listed at the top of this posting, if available. Continuous if date is blank.

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the posting end date above.

Estimated Appointment End Date (Continuous if Blank)

Full/Part-Time

Full time

Job Type

Regular

Compensation

$175,000.00 - $275,000.00

Job Description

BIRD DOG RECRUITMENT AND CONSULTING, LLC

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET)

Leadership Position Profile

Prepared by Bird Dog Recruitment and Consulting, LLC | September 2026

The Opportunity

The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust seeks an exceptional executive leader to serve as its Executive Director and lead one of Oklahoma's most distinctive public institutions.

Created by a vote of the people of Oklahoma in 2000, TSET is entrusted with converting the certified earnings of the state's tobacco settlement endowment into strategic grants that improve the health and well-being of Oklahomans. Through statewide programs, community grants, research, and evidence-based initiatives, TSET works to and create lasting improvements in the health of Oklahoma communities.

The Executive Director reports to the TSET Board of Directors and serves as the organization's chief executive, strategic leader, and principal administrative officer, responsible for translating the Board's vision, policies, and priorities into effective strategy, disciplined execution, and measurable results.

This is more than an administrative leadership position. The Executive Director must lead at the intersection of public policy, public health, government, grantmaking, organizational management, and Board governance, and must understand how to operate effectively within a politically complex environment while preserving TSET's institutional integrity, credibility, statutory responsibilities, and long-term mission.

The successful candidate will bring exceptional executive judgment, political acumen, strategic thinking, financial stewardship including a comprehensive understanding of the financial statements of TSET, communication skill, and relationship building ability, equally comfortable advising a governing Board, leading a professional staff, engaging senior state leaders, working with public and private grantees, evaluating grant proposals, and representing TSET before diverse constituencies across Oklahoma.

TSET's founders built this organization twenty-five years ago in the truest entrepreneurial sense, establishing its systems, its credibility, and its impact largely at the same time it was already operating. Today, TSET enters a different season: a mature institution with a substantial endowment, an established track record, and significant resources to direct toward growth and innovation. The next Executive Director will need real leadership maturity: the ability to assess what the Board of Directors of TSET wants the Trust to become, recognize what has earned its place, and lead the organization through thoughtful renewal where it is warranted, bringing the same resourcefulness that built TSET together with the institutional discipline this next chapter demands, including an assessment of the necessary cultural changes to accomplish the future direction of TSET

About TSET

TSET is a constitutionally protected public trust and, at the same time, a state agency, a grantmaker, a public health institution, and a steward of tobacco settlement certified earnings, governed by an appointed Board of Directors. By constitutional design, only the certified earnings on the Trust's investments, may be spent, and those earnings are directed toward clinical and basic research and treatment efforts in Oklahoma for the

purpose of enhancing efforts to prevent and combat cancer and other tobacco-related diseases, cost-effective tobacco prevention and cessation programs, and other health related initiatives.

Vision and Mission: Improving the health of every Oklahoman.

TSET's giving is guided by five core principles: prioritizing evidence based and proven approaches; encouraging innovative and creative solutions; fostering collaborative relationships to maximize efficiency; supporting comprehensive services across both urban and rural Oklahoma; and awarding funding based on merit and public benefit. In practice, current strategic priorities span tobacco cessation, cancer research, healthcare access, workforce development, and prevention.

TSET holds assets of approximately $2 billion and ranks among the state's largest health focused grantmakers, supporting roughly 100–150 active grants each year, typically $50,000 to $5 million per award, to universities, health systems, and community organizations. Signature initiatives include the Legacy Grants program, which awarded a combined $150 million to 14 grantee organizations, announced in 2025, and research grants, and efforts to promote tobacco cessation.

Governance

TSET's governance is divided between two boards. A separate, five-member Board of Investors, chaired by the State Treasurer, is constitutionally responsible for investing the Trust's assets. The seven-member Board of Directors does not invest the endowment; rather, it directs the certified earnings that the assets generate toward constitutionally authorized health programs, research, and administration. The Executive Director leads the agency that converts those earnings into public impact.

Each of the seven Board of Directors seats is appointed by a different statewide official: the Governor, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor and Inspector, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to staggered seven-year terms. The Oklahoma Constitution further shapes the Board's composition: no more than four appointees may belong to any one political party, at least one appointee must come from each congressional district (with no more than two from any single district), and all appointees must demonstrate expertise in public or private health care, or in programs benefiting children or senior adults.

This structure was built to keep TSET's governance broadly representative and insulated from any single political authority, which in turn shapes the kind of executive leadership the role demands. Oklahoma law (62 O.S. § 2309) vests the Board of Directors with the authority to appoint the Executive Director and other necessary staff, and the Executive Director reports to, and works in close partnership with, that Board.

Position Summary

The Executive Director is TSET's chief executive, and principal administrative officer. This is a high visibility, mission driven leadership role that calls for an executive equally comfortable in the boardroom, the State Capitol, and the community, someone who can preserve TSET's institutional integrity and credibility while translating Board strategy into disciplined execution and measurable results.

Primary Responsibilities

Board Governance and Strategic Partnership

Serve as the Board of Directors' principal executive partner and trusted adviser. Provide the Board with timely, objective, decision ready information; identify emerging opportunities and risks; make well-reasoned recommendations; and execute Board approved policies and strategic priorities, maintaining a clear distinction

between Board governance and executive management while fostering transparency, trust, accountability, and consistent communication.

Strategic Leadership

Provide enterprise level leadership for TSET, translating its constitutional mission and Board direction into clear strategic priorities, operating plans, grants, and measurable outcomes, and continually evaluating whether TSET's resources and activi