< 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
| 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 |
