< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Chief Executive / Center for Retirement Initiatives / Georgetown University
Last year’s rank: 32

“I’m not afraid of ERISA,” says Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, chief executive of the Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) at Georgetown University. The 64-year-old Townsend, who also is a managing director of Washington-based investment and advisory firm Rock Creek Group, says her investment management experience gives her a more optimistic view of how ERISA can benefit retirement savings even in states that resist federal oversight. In her position at CRI and as chair of Maryland’s task force on retirement security, Townsend — former lieutenant governor of Maryland and Robert Kennedy’s eldest child — says, “I’ve been pushing a different viewpoint, which is that I think it’s important to have the consumer protections that ERISA offers.” Her hope: Over the next few years, more states will embrace those protections; if that doesn’t occur, a single statute might make the most sense. So far, more than 20 states have tried to write their own statutes, often — as in the case of Connecticut — using ERISA language, but Townsend points out the difficulty of regulating and implementing those efforts. The Maryland task force plans to introduce legislation that will allow employers to contribute to multiemployer plans, unlike the individual retirement account model that has taken hold in other states. “I think [multiple-employer plans] will grow as a more attractive option in coming years, because the Department of Labor will make it clear, I hope, that they are a viable option and people will understand that we want to encourage a greater contribution than 3 percent.”

 

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Methanol Gains Traction as an Alternative Energy Source Sponsored by CME Group May 2, 2025 3. Chris Christie New Jersey 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor

6. Kevin de León California 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions

11. John Kline Minnesota 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution

16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. 17. Mark Mullet Washington 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon

21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley

26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch Utah 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business

31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department