EBSA Press Release: FIVE NEW MEMBERS NAMED TO ERISA ADVISORY COUNCIL [03/07/1996]

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Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich today announced his appointment of five new members to the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans who will represent various sectors of the employee benefit field.

The advisory council, comprised of 15 members named by the Secretary of Labor, submits policy recommendations concerning the implementation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Representing the accounting profession will be Marilee Lau, assurance partner of KPMG Peat Marwick's North American operation located in San Francisco. A certified public accountant with experience in employee benefit plan issues, Lau has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' employee benefit plans committee for the past three years. She also served on the AICPA's audit review task force.

Vivian Hobbs, a partner in the Washington, D.C. law office of Arnold and Porter, will represent employee organizations. She has worked during the past 13 years for the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, which represents some 240 pension and welfare plans that cover nine million participants and beneficiaries.

Richard McGahey, economist and partner in Neece, Cator, McGahey & Associates in Washington, D.C., will represent employer organizations. He was executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress and chief economist for the Senate's Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He was part of the Clinton-Gore transition team for the Department of Labor and helped assess issues related to the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Representing the insurance industry will be Kenneth S. Cohen, senior vice president and associate general counsel of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance of Springfield, Mass. Cohen recently completed his third year as chair of the American Council of Life Insurance's pension committee, the principal policy committee for the insurance industry on pension and other employee benefit matters. He also served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's health and employee benefits committee and has written several articles on various pension issues and lectured in this arena.

James O. Wood, III, executive director of the Louisiana State Employees' Retirement System in Baton Rouge, is the new representative of the general public. An attorney, Wood has experience with both corporate and public benefit plans. He administers the $3.5 billion pension and disability plan for approximately 100,000 Louisiana state employees and retirees. Previously, he was director of benefit programs for Carolina Power and Light Co. in Raleigh, N.C.

The new members will be sworn in April 8 during 9:30 a.m. ceremonies at the Council's first meeting of the year. The event will take place in the Secretary's Conference Room, S2508, at the U.S. Department of Labor's Frances Perkins Building at 200 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C.