< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Kenneth Mehlman
Global Head of Public Affairs
KKR & Co.
PNR
In the spring of 2013, the American Federation of Teachers included KKR & Co. on its list of asset managers it believes to be anti–defined benefit pensions. The New York alternative-asset giant disagreed and quickly brought out a big gun. Kenneth Mehlman, KKR’s global head of public affairs, fired off a letter to AFT president Randi Weingarten (No. 3) highlighting just how much of an ally on the issue KKR has been. “Over the past several years, we have worked in partnership with legislators, policy makers and organized-labor leaders to advocate the importance of defined-benefit plans for public-sector workers,” Mehlman wrote, adding that he had personally worked with former Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern (No. 37) on pensions. The AFT must have been impressed, because it took KKR off the blacklist. Mehlman is no ordinary public affairs chief. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College with a JD from Harvard Law School, he was an environmental attorney at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld before entering politics. He served as White House director of political affairs in the George W. Bush administration and chaired the Republican National Committee from 2005 through 2006. He may be best known for coming out as gay in 2010. Although Mehlman, 48, won’t discuss KKR’s efforts to support defined benefit pensions on the record, he remains actively involved in retirement issues. In October he spoke, along with former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (No. 32) and Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler (No. 18), at a forum in Portland, Oregon, advocating a state-sponsored initiative to provide retirement plans for workers at businesses that do not have plans.
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 |
