This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: Hank Kim
No. 36 Hank Kim, Executive Director and Counsel / National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems


Hank Kim’s job defending and promoting public sector pensions, which invest some $9 trillion in assets in 50 states and many more municipalities, keeps him busy. But in 2010, Kim, executive director and counsel for the Washington-based National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS), was drawn to the private sector workforce, where half of full-time workers lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. In 2011, Kim launched the Secure Choice Pension, a multiple-employer cash-balance plan that could be offered at the state level via payroll deductions. States including Arizona, California and Illinois showed interest, but after financial industry opposition mounted, they opted to keep the Secure Choice moniker while changing the design to an individual retirement account. “The future still is possible for pensions,” Kim says. “The critics can contend that they are dinosaurs and underfunded, but the one thing they consistently fail to do is offer a plausible alternative, and that’s why we have these state initiatives.” Kim earned a JD from Indiana University, then returned home to New Jersey and a staff job with then–U.S. senator Bill Bradley. After working on tax and health care issues for Bradley, Kim moved to the International Association of Fire Fighters union. He is now working on a code of conduct for vendors to public pensions.
![]() 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 |