< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
18
Ted Wheeler
State Treasurer
Oregon
Last year: 20
Before Ted Wheeler, 52, was named Oregon state treasurer in 2010, the six-generation Oregonian had spent much of his career in financial services, including positions at Bank of America Corp. and Portland-based Copper Mountain Trust Corp., and he was well aware of retirement inadequacies. As treasurer, Wheeler, a Portland resident with a BA in economics from Stanford University, an MBA from Columbia University and a master’s in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, shares fiduciary oversight of Oregon’s $87.9 billion state retirement system and has spearheaded efforts to develop a state retirement plan for those without coverage. “Retirement security has historically been seen as a personal responsibility,” he says. “But the reality is it’s rapidly becoming an issue for policymakers.” In 2013, Wheeler backed a measure to create the Oregon Retirement Savings Task Force. This fall, as chairman of the task force, he presented its recommendations to a joint committee of the legislature and proposed a retirement savings plan for those not currently covered. As Wheeler sees it, such a program would work much like 529 college savings programs: automatic enrollment, escalation, professional management and portability. The legislature will take up the proposal in its next session. “I see states helping to incubate innovative ideas around retirement security that could compel the federal government to take action at the national level,” says Wheeler, who will leave office in 2016.
The 2014 Pension 40
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 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 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 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 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 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 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 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 |
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| 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 |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| 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 |
