This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: Randi Weingarten
No. 4 Randi Weingarten, President / American Federation of Teachers


American Federation of Teachers
As president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, 58, is among the most vocal supporters of defined benefit pensions, asserting that, among other positives, they spur economic development. Every dollar paid for pension benefits generates $2.25 in output, she notes. Since 2011 the AFT has partnered with other unions and the Clinton Global Initiative to invest in U.S. infrastructure. In early November the AFT launched an advertising campaign touting public pension plan investment — through a consortium, LaGuardia Gateway Partners, that includes the California State Teachers' Retirement System — in the $3.6 billion overhaul of New York’s LaGuardia Airport. “When the economy rebounds, more people should be able to take part in the American dream,” says Weingarten, who majored in labor relations at Cornell University and graduated from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law before working as a labor attorney and a high school history teacher in New York. “Part of this means getting good returns, fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, and creating good jobs.” Though AFT favors infrastructure, another investment doesn’t sit well with its president: hedge funds. “Not all hedge funds are bad,” she says. “But some are trying to kill the same plans that are investing in them.” Weingarten wants hedge fund managers seeking capital from pension plans to disclose any affiliations with organizations actively working to phase out defined benefit plans. In a recent report, the AFT spotlighted hedge fund managers’ links to organizations such as the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and StudentsFirst, a lobbying organization for charter schools.
![]() 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation ![]() 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. Treasury Department ![]() 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 |