AFT and AAUP: Apollo CEO Is Using Company Resources to Fund Personal, Political Agenda

WASHINGTON-AFT President Randi Weingarten and American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson have written a letter to Apollo Global Management board member and audit committee chair Jessica Bibliowicz to demand that the Apollo board investigate CEO Marc Rowan's personal use of Apollo staff and resources-an apparent breach of company policy-to run a private political campaign attacking America's colleges and universities.

Through Freedom of Information Act requests and other sources, the AFT has obtained documents revealing Rowan tapped his Apollo executive assistant, his chief of staff and his Apollo email account to wage his political campaign, the so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which conditions federal research funding on institutions signing a loyalty oath to the Trump administration.

"It is, of course, Rowan's right as an American to hold whatever views he pleases," Weingarten and Wolfson write. "What is not permitted under Apollo's Code of Business Conduct is the use of Apollo's staff and resources to conduct Rowan's campaign."

Apollo's own Code of Business Conduct and Ethics explicitly requires that personnel involved in personal and civic affairs make clear that their views are their own and not those of the firm. Rowan appears to have made no effort to comply.

The AFT and AAUP's 1.8 million members have at least $29 billion in retirement assets invested in Apollo through their pension funds and additional exposure through their funds' public equity allocations. Around 700 AFT members work at Apollo subsidiary Lifepoint Health's healthcare facilities. Additionally, a significant number of universities where AFT members work have invested endowment assets with Apollo.

The letter raises deep concerns about Rowan's backing for the compact, which directly affects 420,000 AFT and AAUP higher education members and their students. It would fundamentally change the purpose of higher education by muzzling academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus by directing public money in ways that violate democracy and stifle innovation. It would reward campuses that toe the party line and punish those that cherish their independence by mandating what can or can't be the subject of critical academic inquiry.

In addition, the compact "would harm LGBTQIA+ students and staff at any university that adopts the compact"-a position difficult to square with Apollo's own stated values, including a 2021 Human Rights Campaign Foundation award naming it one of the "Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality." The compact further bans signatory institutions from considering race as a factor in admissions, which appears to conflict with Apollo's efforts to portray the firm as committed to racial equity through annual spending commitments on diversity initiatives.

The latest revelations come with Rowan's reputation under a cloud and Apollo's share price in decline. In February, the AFT and AAUP demanded the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate apparent inaccuracies in Apollo's official regulatory filings concerning its partners' dealings with dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Epstein files revealed multiple meetings over several years between Epstein, Rowan and Apollo co-founder Leon Black-including discussions of private tax matters for the founders' family offices. The firm is also at the center of the crisis roiling the private credit industry.

AFT and AAUP members are taking notice. An online petition launched by the AAUP late last week has already generated hundreds of letters calling on California pensions to halt further allocation to Apollo.

The letter closes with a pointed question for the Apollo board: "Has the Apollo board of directors formally endorsed Rowan's campaign and given him express permission, despite the apparent conflict with the firm's own personnel policies, to use Apollo's firm resources to advocate against the interests of educators and public employees?"

The full letter can be read here.

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.