< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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.

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Sponsored A Candid Conversation on Real Estate’s Challenges, Cycles, Opportunities and Its Role in Institutional Portfolios Sponsored by Invesco October 16, 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