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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2008
PBGC Public Affairs
202-326-4343
President Names Three Members to PBGC Advisory Committee
WASHINGTON— President Bush has appointed Jack Miller of Darien, Conn., Dana M. Muir of Ann Arbor, Mich., and John J. Szczur of Rockville, Md., to serve on the Advisory Committee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.“We are fortunate that once again the president has made three excellent choices to help guide the agency,” said PBGC Director Charles E.F. Millard. “Jack Miller brings with him years of experience managing the pension assets of GM and Dana Muir and John Szczur bring expertise from academia and the pension worlds respectively. I look forward to working with them.”
Mr. Miller recently retired as senior advisor for General Motors Asset Management in New York. During his tenure, he restructured GM's $21 billion 401(k) plan by streamlining investment options, introducing new external managers and reducing participant expenses. He was also responsible for the pension and 401(k) plan assets of GM's external ERISA clients, GMAC Insurance assets, and VEBA healthcare assets. Mr. Miller previously served as vice president-relationship management at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in New York where he was responsible for investment relationships with a number of the firm's major institutional clients. He also served as corporate controller and chief investment officer for Philip Morris Companies, and director of benefit plan investments for Eli Lilly and Company. Mr. Miller holds an undergraduate degree in international relations from Princeton University and an MBA from the University of Michigan. On the PBGC AdvisoryCommittee, he will represent employee interests until 2011.
Ms. Muir is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Business Law at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, where her primary research interests are employment law and securities law as they relate to employee benefits. Her research has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and she serves as editor-in-chief of the annual Supplement to Employee Benefits Law. From 2002-2004, she also served as a member of the Department of Labor's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans where she chaired the working group on Defined Benefit Plan Funding and Discount Rate Issues. Ms. Muir earned an MBA from the University of Detroit and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She will represent the interests of the general public on the PBGC Advisory Committee until 2011.
Mr. Szczur is director of investments for the Central Pension Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers and Participating Employers in Washington. He is responsible for a diversified investment portfolio of more than $10 billion. He has also served as a senior investment analyst for National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Arlington, Va., where he provided analysis and support for the management of portfolios totaling over $4.5 billion, including $2.2 billion of defined benefit retirement plan assets, $1.2 billion of defined contribution plan assets and over $300 million in mutual fund assets. Mr. Szczur has an undergraduate degree in business and economics from the University of Pittsburgh, an MBA from George Washington University and a master's degree in real estate and urban development from American University. He will represent the interests of employees on the PBGC Advisory Committee until 2011.
The PBGC is a federal corporation created under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). It currently guarantees payment of basic pension benefits earned by 44 million American workers and retirees participating in over 30,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. The agency receives no funds from general tax revenues. Operations are financed largely by insurance premiums paid by companies that sponsor pension plans and by investment returns.
The PBGC Advisory Committee carries out several specific responsibilities outline by ERISA, including advising on PBGC investment policies and procedures, the trusteeship of terminated plans, and other matters as determined by the PBGC.
