This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
No. 28 Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Chief Executive / Center for Retirement Initiatives / Georgetown University


“I’m not afraid of ERISA,” says Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, chief executive of the Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) at Georgetown University. The 64-year-old Townsend, who also is a managing director of Washington-based investment and advisory firm Rock Creek Group, says her investment management experience gives her a more optimistic view of how ERISA can benefit retirement savings even in states that resist federal oversight. In her position at CRI and as chair of Maryland’s task force on retirement security, Townsend — former lieutenant governor of Maryland and Robert Kennedy’s eldest child — says, “I’ve been pushing a different viewpoint, which is that I think it’s important to have the consumer protections that ERISA offers.” Her hope: Over the next few years, more states will embrace those protections; if that doesn’t occur, a single statute might make the most sense. So far, more than 20 states have tried to write their own statutes, often — as in the case of Connecticut — using ERISA language, but Townsend points out the difficulty of regulating and implementing those efforts. The Maryland task force plans to introduce legislation that will allow employers to contribute to multiemployer plans, unlike the individual retirement account model that has taken hold in other states. “I think [multiple-employer plans] will grow as a more attractive option in coming years, because the Department of Labor will make it clear, I hope, that they are a viable option and people will understand that we want to encourage a greater contribution than 3 percent.”
![]() 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 |