This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: Kevin de León
No. 6 Kevin de León, Senator and Senate President Pro Tempore / California


The powerful head of the California State Senate, Kevin de León, is among a handful of lawmakers, labor leaders, academics and activists trying to develop new approaches to retirement security. “California is leading the way to provide a modicum of dignity and respect to the millions of workers who today have no access to any type of retirement security at their place of employment,” says de León, 49. In 2012, the former community organizer and first high-school graduate in his family proposed and helped pass the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Trust Act. The law — the first of its kind — was signed by Governor Jerry Brown and created a savings retirement trust for some 7 million low-wage private sector workers not receiving pension benefits in California. Similar efforts are now under way in other states, including Connecticut, Maryland and Oregon. The Secure Choice movement received a boost in November, when the Department of Labor issued guidance intended to help states develop these programs in line with ERISA (see Phyllis Borzi, No. 5).”This is the most far-reaching retirement security plan for private investors since Social Security,” says De León, who recently coauthored an oped on the topic with Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. De León is also a committed environmentalist who won his 2014 bid for senate leadership with backing of allies that included hedge-fund-manager-turned-climate-change-activist Tom Steyer. In September the senate passed a de León-sponsored bill requiring the state’s two largest pension plans, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, to divest from coal companies.
![]() 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. 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 |