< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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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

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation What History Reveals About U.S. Debt Downgrades Sponsored by CME Group July 7, 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. 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