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The 2015 Pension 40: Damon Silvers

No. 13 Damon Silvers, Director of Policy and Special Counsel / AFL-CIO

By Tyler Davies

December 22, 2015

< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

Damon Silvers

Director of Policy and Special Counsel /
AFL-CIO

Last year’s rank: 7

Pensions and retirement security continue to be key issues for the AFL-CIO and Damon Silvers, the union’s director of policy and special counsel. “We have a long-term, accelerating retirement crisis in the U.S.,” says Silvers, 51. “The AFL-CIO is focused on solutions that address the full breadth of the crisis for all working Americans.” That effort got a boost in November, when the Department of Labor gave the go-ahead for states to develop their own retirement savings plans for private sector workers. Silvers says there’s a growing recognition of the need for new pension models: “There’s been a change over the past five years, where most people familiar with retirement security policy recognize that the conversion to 401(k) savings accounts has not worked and we need to do something different.” Silvers is a die-hard believer in the labor movement. The son of an English teacher and a chemistry professor, he got his first taste of organized labor as an undergrad at Harvard University, when some of his fellow cafeteria workers went on strike; Silvers became part of the negotiating team. He then participated in the South Africa anti-apartheid divestment efforts. After studying history at the U.K.’s University of Cambridge, Silvers worked as a labor organizer before earning a joint JD and MBA from Harvard. He joined the AFL-CIO in 1997. Though pensions are only part of Silvers’ portfolio, they remain a passion, along with the fight for Social Security and health care benefits. Silvers also has a sophisticated understanding of finance theory: He currently serves as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investment advisory committee, the Treasury’s financial research advisory committee and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s standing oversight and investor advisory groups. Even by Washington standards, that’s a lot of committees and a lot of contact with Wall Street. But Silvers understands the importance of capital markets to his members and their retirement savings.

The 2015 Pension 40