< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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Hank Kim
Executive Director and Counsel / National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems
Last year’s rank: Not ranked

Hank Kim’s job defending and promoting public sector pensions, which invest some $9 trillion in assets in 50 states and many more municipalities, keeps him busy. But in 2010, Kim, executive director and counsel for the Washington-based National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS), was drawn to the private sector workforce, where half of full-time workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. In 2011, Kim launched the Secure Choice Pension, a multiple-employer cash-balance plan that could be offered at the state level via payroll deductions. States including Arizona, California and Illinois showed interest, but after financial industry opposition mounted, they opted to keep the Secure Choice moniker while changing the design to an individual retirement account. “The future still is possible for pensions,” Kim says. “The critics can contend that they are dinosaurs and underfunded, but the one thing they consistently fail to do is offer a plausible alternative, and that’s why we have these state initiatives.” Kim earned a JD from Indiana University, then returned home to New Jersey and a staff job with then–U.S. senator Bill Bradley. After working on tax and health care issues for Bradley, Kim moved to the International Association of Fire Fighters union. He is now working on a code of conduct for vendors to public pensions.

 

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Sponsored Is the Market Really Sure About Its Direction? Sponsored by CME Group October 27, 2025 3. Chris Christie New Jersey 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor

6. Kevin de León California 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions

11. John Kline Minnesota 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution

16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. 17. Mark Mullet Washington 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon

21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley

26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch Utah 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business

31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department