The 2014 Pension 40: Randi Weingarten

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< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On

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Randi Weingarten
President
American Federation of Teachers
Last year: 1

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers, continues to be one of the most powerful voices in defense of defined benefit pensions, which explains why she was ranked No. 1 last year. Weingarten, 57, who has a BS in labor studies from Cornell University and a JD from Yeshiva University, views the recent midterm elections as a big win for public employee defined benefit plans. In particular, she points to the defeat of Proposition 487, a measure backed by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (No. 2) that would have converted Phoenix’s public employees’ defined benefit plan to a 401(k). “When people have the facts,” Weingarten says, “they see that defined benefit plans are cost-efficient and help people stand on their own as retirees. The people who don’t have them are facing a huge crisis in terms of retirement security.” Weingarten and the AFT have led a plan to use pensions as an engine of economic development. In June the AFT, in partnership with other major unions and the Clinton Global Initiative, met a five-year, $10 billion commitment two years early. The funds, raised from public and union pension plans, will finance infrastructure projects across the U.S., creating jobs and providing returns on the unions’ investments. Weingarten cites a National Institute of Retirement Security study finding that pension benefit expenditures support 6.2 million jobs and $943 billion in economic output nationwide. Every dollar paid out in pension benefits, she explains, supports $1.98 in total output.


The 2014 Pension 40

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Bruce Rauner
Illinois
John and
Laura Arnold

Laura and John
Arnold Foundation
Randi Weingarten
American Federation of Teachers
Rahm Emanuel
Chicago
David Boies
Boies, Schiller & Flexner
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Randy DeFrehn
National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans
Damon Silvers
AFL-CIO
Laurence Fink
BlackRock
Chris Christie
New Jersey
Robin Diamonte
United Technologies Corp.
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Ted Eliopoulos
California Public Employees’ Retirement System
John Kline
Minnesota
J. Mark Iwry
U.S. Treasury Department
Gina Raimondo
Rhode Island
Phyllis Borzi
U.S. Labor Department
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Orrin Hatch
Utah
Abigail Johnson
Fidelity Investments
Ted Wheeler
Oregon
Caitlin Long
Morgan Stanley
James Hoffa
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
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Amy Kessler
Prudential Financial
Alejandro
García Padilla

Puerto Rico
Christopher Klein
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia
Steven Rhodes
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Kevin de León
California
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David Draine
Pew Charitable Trusts
Jordan Marks
National Public Pension Coalition
Sam Liccardo
California
Joshua Rauh
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman
Pension Rights Center
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Timothy Blake
Moody’s Investors Service
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University
Edward (Ted) Siedle
Benchmark Financial Services
Daniel Loeb
Third Point
Judy Mares
Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department
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Andrew Biggs
American Enterprise Institute
Andy Stern
Columbia University
Kenneth Mehlman
KKR & Co.
Teresa Ghilarducci
New School for Social Research
A. Melissa Moye
U.S. Treasury Department

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