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ROGER MEHLE ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF FEDERAL RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD, APPOINTMENT OF JAMES PETRICK AS HIS SUCCESSOR

        Washington, D.C. (November 18, 2002) — Roger W. Mehle, Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, today announced his resignation from the Board after nearly nine years as the Board’s chief executive and managing fiduciary.  Mr. Mehle also served as the Board’s first presidentially appointed private-sector chairman from the agency’s inception in 1986 until 1994.

        Mr. Mehle further announced that the Board’s five members, led by its chairman, James H. Atkins, had appointed James B. Petrick, Director of the Board’s Office of Benefits and Investments and a twenty-five year Federal employee, to succeed Mr. Mehle, as Mr. Mehle had recommended.

        The Board is the independent Federal agency that administers the Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, a 401(k)-type retirement plan for nearly three million current and former Federal civilian employees and uniformed services members.  With over $100 billion in assets, the TSP is the largest defined contribution plan in the world, both in terms of participants and balances.

        “I have presided over many sweeping changes to the Thrift Savings Plan while at the Board,” said Mehle, “and while there are doubtless many yet to come, I feel that I leave the Board in a robust and stable position; TSP participation rates and balances are at all-time highs; the millions of members of the uniformed services can now enjoy Plan participation; our long-awaited new record keeping system is within grasp; and the vital issue of the Board’s independent litigating authority is squarely before the courts and Congress.  Moreover, with the expected turnover in the near future of almost the entire Board membership, the appointment of my successor at this time will assure continuity of the Board’s governance.”

        “I am particularly pleased that the issue of the Board’s litigating authority free from any political interference or control has progressed substantially in Federal appellate court.  I have no doubt that the Board will continue to press the suit to the fullest, and that the vital principle of the TSP fiduciaries’ freedom from political interference will be upheld by the courts.” (Background and details of the suit, Mehle v. American Management Systems, Inc., may be found on the Board’s Web site, www.tsp.gov.)

        Board Chairman Atkins noted that Mehle had advised Board members last year of his wish to return to the private sector, but that he had deferred doing so until both the new record keeping system development and the Board’s litigation against American Management Systems were on an even keel.  “My fellow Board members and I wish Roger would remain as Executive Director forever -- he was the key person to whom President Reagan turned in 1986 to create the TSP -- but we were delighted with his recommendation of Jim Petrick, whom we have known for years, to succeed him,” said Atkins.

        Mr. Mehle, an attorney and an investment banker, is also a former Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, New York University School of Business, and Fordham University School of Law.  Mr. Mehle plans to reestablish his financial institutions and securities law practice in Washington, D.C., where he resides with his wife Colette.

        Mr. Petrick, an attorney with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor before he joined the Board in 1986, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University Law School.  He resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife Barbara and their two children.

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