Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao To Meet With 2002 ERISA Advisory Council

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Washington, DC - Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao will meet with the Advisory Council of Employee Welfare and Pension Plans today to swear in the Council’s new members and to talk with the group about how it can assist in improving the retirement security of America’s workers.

“Since the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974, Secretaries of Labor have relied on the advice of benefits practitioners who have served on the ERISA Advisory Council,” said Secretary Chao, “I am looking forward to the Council’s consideration of issues important to preserving and enhancing the retirement and health benefits security of the American worker.”

Secretary Chao also will announce the Council’s new leadership. James S. Ray of Alexandria, Virginia and Ronnie Sue Thierman of San Francisco, California, will take over the reins of the 15-person advisory committee at the meeting.

Ray, an employee organization representative, chaired the Council’s 2001 Working Group on Increasing Pension Coverage. He is in private legal practice working with many of the nation’s multi-employer plans. He previously served on the Advisory Council in the early 90s and was its vice chair. Thierman, who is a principal with Mercer Human Resources Consulting, is the actuarial profession representative on the Council. She was vice chair of the 2001 Working Group on Challenges to the Employment-Based Healthcare System.

The new members whose three-year terms commence today are Michele Weldon, director of the Financial Services Industry Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP’s Audit and Business Advisory Services, Boston, Massachusetts, as the accounting profession’s representative; David Wray, president of the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of Chicago, Illinois, as an employer representative; John Szczur, director of investments, Central Pension Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers and Participating Employers of Washington, DC, an employee organization representative; Judy Weiss, vice president in charge of retirement and savings business matters, Metropolitan Life Insurance of New York City, as the insurance industry representative; and Dana Muir, associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, representing the general public.

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