< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Jordan Marks
Executive Director
National Public Pension Coalition
PNR
It’s been a busy year for Jordan Marks and the National Public Pension Coalition. The Washington-based not-for-profit was established in 2007 in response to Alaska’s decision to terminate its defined benefit pension plan for state workers. Funded by seven of the U.S.’s major unions, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union, NPPC’s mission is to counter attacks on defined benefit pension plans. As the organization’s executive director, Marks, 35, has been front and center in efforts to coordinate and assist campaigns across the U.S. Surprisingly, Marks says he’s gratified by how his side fared in the 2014 midterm elections. “This was not a bad year for pensions,” he says. NPPC won almost all its legislative and ballot initiatives, and helped defeat a measure in Phoenix that would have switched new city employees into a 401(k) system. NPPC often faces deep-pocketed opponents, including the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (No. 2), which poured money into the Phoenix initiative. But Marks, who has served as a staffer to former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, believes that the power of NPPC’s message has not just helped the coalition prevail but has slowed the pace of attacks on traditional pensions. “People don’t like to see public employees get hurt,” he says.
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 |
