< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Chief Executive
Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University
PNR
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 63, says she was drawn into the pension debate after hearing American Federation of Teachers’ president Randi Weingarten (No. 3) say in a speech three years ago that 50 percent of Americans lack retirement plans at their jobs. “That was shocking to me,” says Maryland’s former lieutenant governor and Robert Kennedy’s eldest child, now a managing director at Washington-based investment and advisory firm Rock Creek Group. “I thought something should be done.” Earlier this year she joined a bipartisan group — including former Republican Party chief Kenneth Mehlman (No. 38) (now at KKR & Co.), former Clinton administration deputy assistant secretary of State David Marchick (now at Carlyle Group), the Service Employees International Union and the AFT — to form the Center for Retirement Initiatives at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy; Townsend, who has a JD from the University of New Mexico Law School, is CEO. The center’s mission: to provide research to help states with pension legislation. The center urges states to pool risk, apply professional management and combine the best elements of defined benefit and 401(k) plans. The first paper, dealing with the application of ERISA on state retirement efforts, was presented at the National Association of State Treasurers conference in December. In May, Townsend was named chair of a Maryland task force on retirement security. Now she can offer her own scary pension statistic: “Forty-three percent of Americans have less than $25,000 in their retirement plans.” Lots of work ahead.
The 2014 Pension 40Click name to view profile.
| 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 |
