< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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Amy Kessler
Head of Longevity Reinsurance / Prudential Financial
Last year’s rank: 21

Amy Kessler has long been an evangelist for risk transfer transactions in which pensions shift their liabilities to an insurance company like her employer, Prudential Financial. Now she believes her work is paying off. While she remains an advocate for pension funds to de-risk their portfolios, she is also pushing for individuals to understand their own longevity risk and what it means for their financial plans. “Ten years ago no one really understood the longevity risk that pension funds were facing,” says Kessler, 48. “Today people actually get it. People are living longer lives, and that’s wonderful, but it’s also a very big financial obligation for companies sponsoring pension plans. And for folks not in pension plans, it’s a very big financial consideration as they prep for their own retirement.” This year Timken Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. bought group annuities from Pru, which also signed its first deal to provide longevity reinsurance to the U.K.’s Pension Insurance Corp. Kessler is working with companies to layer a longevity-risk strategy on top of what the industry calls liability-driven investments, which are designed to manage volatility and risk. Without a longevity-risk strategy, she explains, companies aren’t building in enough upside to cover people’s longer lives. Kessler’s global perspective is helping U.S. companies look beyond their domestic peers. “There are global multinational companies that are de-risking, so now activity in Europe becomes directly relevant to anyone in that peer group,” she says. “We’re trying to help people see the connection between their corporate finance good health and their pension fund.” Kessler spent 17 years in capital markets at Bear Stearns Cos. and Lazard. She joined Pru in 2009 and has led $34 billion in international reinsurance transactions for organizations including British Airways and Rolls-Royce Holdings. Last year she worked on the largest-ever longevity-risk transfer, for the BT Pension Scheme. Kessler is now leading the launch of reinsurance for pensions in Canada and the Netherlands.

 

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Finding, Applying for, and Winning Grant Funding: Tips for Nonprofits Sponsored by Fidelity Investments April 29, 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. TreasuryDepartment 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