Chairs Named for ERISA Advisory Council

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name: Sharon Morrissey
Phone Number: 202.219.8921

Acting Secretary of Labor Cynthia Metzler today named Joyce A. Mader of Washington, D.C.,as the chairman of the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. Also named as vice chair of the Council was Carl S. Feen of New Haven, Conn.

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 (ERISA).

Representing employee organizations (multiemployers) on the Council during her three-year term, Mader is a partner in the Washington-based law firm of O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue and heads its employee benefits practice through which she represents collectively bargained and union-sponsored employee benefit plans. In 1996, she spearheaded the Council's Working Group on Providing Guidance to Service Providers.

Outside of the ERISA Advisory Council assignment, Mader is active as co-chair of the plan design, qualification and administration subcommittee of the American Bar Association's employee benefits committee on the labor law section. She has served on the steering committee of the District of Columbia Bar labor law division and the attorneys committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. A frequent speaker before labor and industry groups and at educational programs on a variety of issues relating to employee benefit plans, she lectures at the Catholic University Law School, teaching a course entitled "ERISA, the Labor-Management Perspective."

Serving the Council in his third year as an employer representative, Carl S. Feen is an estate and business planner and employee benefit specialist for CIGNA Financial Advisors where he has worked for the past 30 years. He is a life member of the Million Dollar Roundtable of the U.S. life insurance industry.

Feen has a long record of service to the Connecticut state government, his local community and to numerous religious, business and other organizations. He served as vice chair of the Connecticut Governor's Council of Economic Advisors and on the board of trustees of the Community-Technical College System and chaired its business and industry committee. He also has been an active fundraiser for the Democratic Party in Connecticut. A champion of small business, Feen plans to continue his advocacy in his final year with the Council.

The two will assume their leadership roles at the group's first meeting, set to take place March 6 at the U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW Washington. The session is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. in the Secretary's Conference Room S2508, at which time the Council's five newest members will be sworn in.

New members are J. Kenneth Blackwell of Cincinnati, Ohio, treasurer of the state of Ohio, representing the investment management community; Thomas J. Mackell, Jr. of Jackson, Wyo., executive vice president of Simms Capital Management Inc. of Greenwich, Conn., as the general public representative; Michael R. Fanning, chief executive officer of the Central Pension Fund, International Union of Operating Engineers and Participating Employers, representing employee organizations (multiemployers); Neil M. Grossman, vice president/national director of legislative and legal research, Association of Private Pension and Welfare Plans (APPWP), the employer representative, and Barbara Ann Uberti, vice president of Wilmington Trust Company of Wilmington, Del., representing corporate trust. Manning and Grossman reside in the Washington area.

In addition, the Council will decide what topics it will address for 1997 and will set its agenda for the remainder of the year.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.