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The 2014 Pension 40: Daniel Loeb

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Daniel Loeb
Founder
Third Point
Last year: 18

In March 2014, Rhode Island’s $8 billion state pension fund redeemed $74.3 million from Daniel Loeb’s New York–based hedge fund firm Third Point in favor of funds with less exposure to the equity markets. Then–Rhode Island general treasurer (now Governor-elect) Gina Raimondo (No. 14) called the move strategic, attributing it to a more refined focus on allocation and overall returns by the pension fund. The now $17.5 billion Third Point had performed well compared with its peers, producing 24.7 percent returns in 2013, but it lagged the S&P 500 index. Critics, such as American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten (No. 3), have urged public pensions to invest in low-cost index funds rather than pricey hedge funds. In 2013 and 2014 the AFT called out a number of hedge funds, including Third Point, for undermining workers’ retirement security by accepting investments from the same pension plans their managers were pushing to eliminate. Loeb’s contributions to charter schools, advocacy group StudentsFirst New York and conservative New York think tank the Manhattan Institute Policy Research, which has supported scholars advocating the end of defined benefit plans, made him a target. Loeb has argued that his support of charter schools doesn’t reflect his views on pensions and that, contrary to unions’ beliefs, StudentsFirstNY and the Manhattan Institute have no house policies on pensions.

The 2014 Pension 40

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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
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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
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32
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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
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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


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