U.S. Department of Labor Appoints New Members To the 2021 ERISA Advisory Council

WASHINGTON, DC – Today the U.S. Department of Labor announced the appointment of five members and leadership for the 2021 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council.

“The ERISA Advisory Council is an important resource for the Department of Labor,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson.  “We look forward to the contributions of these talented new members and appreciate their willingness to serve.”

The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). By law, members of the council serve for staggered three-year terms representing the following nine fields. Three members are representatives of employee organizations (at least one of whom represents an organization whose members are participants in a multiemployer plan). Three members are representatives of employers (at least one of whom represents employers maintaining or contributing to multiemployer plans). Three members are representatives of the general public. There is one representative each from the fields of insurance, corporate trust, actuarial counseling, investment counseling, investment management and accounting.

The appointees and the expertise they represent are:

Employers:

Megan Broderick is Senior Director for Global Retirement and Financial Wellbeing at PepsiCo. She leads PepsiCo’s strategy, design and governance for more than 120 retirement programs, and has more than 30 years of experience in compensation and benefits.

Corporate Trust:

Dave Gray is Head of Workplace Retirement Offerings and Platforms at Fidelity Investments. He leads the Fidelity teams that develop and manage solutions and experiences for more than 24,000 plan sponsor clients, and has more than 23 years of experience with the private retirement system.

General Public:

Mercedes D. Ikard is Director of Retirement Planning for Atrium Health. She has more than 20 years of experience in the design, administration, implementation and communication of corporate benefit programs for large multi-location organizations. 

Employee Organizations:

Anthony Marc Perrone is the International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). He has more than 40 years of experience with employee organizations, and serves as Chairman of the UFCW’s Industry Pension Fund. 

Investment Management:

Edward A. Schwartz is President of Schwartz & Co., a registered investment advisor and broker-dealer. He concentrates on serving ERISA-covered institutional retirement plans and has more than 29 years of experience in the investment field. 

Council Leadership:

Current member Glenn Butash will serve as the chair of the 2021 Council. Butash is Managing Counsel, U.S. Compensation and Benefits, at Nokia. He provides legal advice in connection with the design and operation of large, complex benefit plans as well as to Nokia’s plan administrators, fiduciary committees and in-house investment manager.

Current member James Haubrock will serve as the vice chair of the council. Haubrock is a shareholder with Clark Schaefer Hackett. He is a certified public accountant with extensive experience in employee benefit plan audit services.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.