LABOR DEPARTMENT FILLS PENSION POST OF DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Leslie B. Kramerich has been appointed to the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) by Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. Kramerich also is delegated the duties of PWBA’s Assistant Secretary until a permanent candidate is appointed to fill the post.

In her dual capacities, Kramerich oversees more than 700,000 private-sector pension plans with assets of $3.7 trillion as well as 6 million welfare plans providing health, day care and other fringe benefits to American workers and their families. She directs the day-to-day administration of the federal pension law known as ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — relating to regulatory, enforcement and policymaking initiatives affecting these employee benefit plans.

Kramerich has extensive knowledge of laws relating to pension, securities and bankruptcy. She joined the department after five years of working with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as an attorney-advisor to the chief negotiator. While at PBGC, she participated in several landmark agreements between the government and private companies as well as provided financial, legislative, and regulatory analyses in support of various initiatives of the agency.

From May 1989 to November 1993, she was an attorney with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, a Washington, D.C. law firm, where she advised clients on issues dealing with employee benefits, disability, tax and bankruptcy.

She has several years of legislative experience. From 1987 to May 1989, her principal duties included advising minority members of the committee on federal government programs falling under the jurisdiction of the committee. Between 1984 and 1987 she served on the staffs of the Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health, Senator David Durenberger and the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, Senator John Heinz. In 1982, she briefly worked as an intern to the House Committee on Aging where she was involved in issues related to corporate raiding of pension plans through asset reversions.

Kramerich also worked as a consultant to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), designing educational materials and a public outreach program to explain a newly- enacted Medicare program on physician payment. The project was widely disseminated to a broad spectrum of constituent groups, including AARP chapters, Medicare beneficiaries, health and senior citizen organizations, and consumers.

Professional affiliations include membership in the Ohio State Bar, District of Columbia Bar, and the American Bar Association.

Kramerich is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Case Western Reserve University and earned a Juris Doctor from Ohio State University College of Law in 1984.

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

Contact Name: Gloria Della
Phone Number: (202) 219-8921