Executive Staff and Presidential Appointees
Vince Snowbarger is Deputy Director for Operations. In that role, he oversees the PBGC's participant-oriented operations conducted by the Benefits Administration and Payment Department. Mr. Snowbarger joined the agency in 2002 after a career as an attorney, educator, and elected official in his native Kansas. From 1997 until 1999 he represented the Kansas Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Snowbarger is a graduate of Southern Nazarene University, and received his M.A. from the University of Illinois and his J.D. from the University of Kansas.
Laricke Blanchard is Deputy Director for Policy. Prior to joining PBGC, Mr. Blanchard was Assistant to the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve System. He advised Chairman Bernanke, the Governors, and senior staff on issues potentially affecting Board policy and was a liaison with Congress. Prior to undertaking that position he was Special Assistant to the Board. Before joining the Federal Reserve in 2002, Mr. Blanchard was Vice President and Counsel at Citigroup in the federal affairs office. Earlier, he was an Associate in the Financial Institutions Group at Williams & Jensen, P.C. Mr. Blanchard’s previous professional experience includes several years working on Capitol Hill on the House Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs Committee and on the personal staff of Representative Floyd H. Flake (D-NY). Mr. Blanchard attended Amherst College where he graduated cum laude and was the recipient of the Charles Hamilton Houston Prize. A member of the District of Columbia Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association, Mr. Blanchard also holds a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School.
Patricia Kelly is Chief Financial Officer. She joined the PBGC in November 2007 after serving in the same position at the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to that, Ms. Kelly was the CFO and Budget Officer for the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. During her federal career, she also worked at the Bureau of the Census where she was the Assistant Division Chief in the Decennial Census, the largest peacetime operation of the United States government. She earned an MBA from American University, and an MA and BA from Pennsylvania State University. Ms. Kelly also holds a CPA license and a Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) certification.
Richard Macy is Chief Information Officer. He came to PBGC in July 2006 following more than 20 years with ADP Inc., a worldwide provider of employee administration services based in Roseland, N.J. His most recent post was vice president, support services, with ADP COBRA/FSA Services in Alpharetta, Ga., where he oversaw major corporate initiatives in reengineering and automating core business processes, conducting business profitability studies and establishing overseas operations. Mr. Macy began his career as a systems engineer and IT manager with Williams, Thacher & Rand, a New York City-based benefits consulting firm. He became president of the firm's WTR Data Services unit before it was acquired by ADP. Mr. Macy is a mathematics graduate of Wesleyan University and holds a master's degree in business administration from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
Alice Maroni is Chief Management Officer. She came to PBGC in May 2011 after ten years at the Smithsonian Institution where she served as Chief Financial Officer, with responsibility for the Institution’s financial integrity, including budgeting and contracting services. Before joining the Smithsonian, Ms. Maroni was Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller). In that capacity, she advised the Pentagon leadership on all budgetary and fiscal matters and management improvement programs. On a day-to-day basis, she directed the justification of the budget to Congress, managed departmental negotiations on the budget in the inter-agency process, and oversaw the execution of the annual budget. On an interim basis, she served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, functioning as the Department’s chief of staff. Prior to her tour in the Pentagon, Ms. Maroni was a professional staff member of the House Armed Services Committee, advising and assisting the Chairman and other committee members on defense budget, financial, and economic issues. Before joining the committee staff, she worked in the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress. Ms. Maroni graduated from Mount Holyoke College and earned a masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is also a graduate of the National War College. Ms. Maroni is a recipient of the Distinguished Federal Leadership Award given by the Association of Government Accountants. She is a certified Government Financial Manager and a member of both the Association of Government Accountants and the American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC), serving as the National President of ASMC from May 1995 to May 1996.
Michael Rae is Acting Chief of Negotiations and Restructuring. Mr. Rae joined PBGC in 1991 as a policy analyst in the Corporate Policy and Research Department where he assisted on a variety of the corporation’s legislative and regulatory reform proposals. During his career at PBGC, Mr. Rae has served temporary assignments at the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Mr. Rae is a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Masters degree in Public Policy. He completed undergraduate studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Judith Starr is General Counsel. She came to PBGC in July 2005 from the Department of the Treasury, where she served as chief counsel of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network with responsibility for administering the Bank Secrecy Act. In that position, she oversaw the creation of information-sharing mechanisms among government entities and the financial services industry, and the expansion of suspicious-activity reporting and anti-money laundering requirements. Prior to that, she was assistant chief litigation counsel in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement. Ms. Starr also served as a special prosecutor for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She has published a number of articles on both securities and bankruptcy law, and is a recipient of the SEC's Stanley Sporkin Award for outstanding contributions to SEC enforcement. Ms. Starr began her legal career as a clerk to Judge William Schwarzer of the U.S. District Court for Northern California. Before entering government service, she was a commercial litigator in private practice in Los Angeles. Ms. Starr received her juris doctor from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and her bachelor of arts from the College of William and Mary.
Ann Orr is Chief of Staff. Ms. Orr’s prior government service includes eight years at the National Endowment for the Humanities where she was Chief of Staff. In her tenure at NEH, Ms. Orr successfully fought off efforts to eliminate the agency. She also created programming to engage the general public in humanities disciplines such as history, English and philosophy. Ms. Orr was also a professional staff member on the predecessor to the Senate HELP Committee. During her ten years of service on the now Senate HELP Committee she worked to enact legislation in elementary and secondary education and vocational education. She also worked on titles of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 and the Omnibus Drug Act. In addition to her stints in government, she was the executive director of two foundations. Ms. Orr was the Executive Director of the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation and Executive Director of the National Trust for the Humanities. Ms. Orr holds a B.A. from Yale University.
J. Jioni Palmer is Director of Communications and Public Affairs & Senior Advisor. Prior to joining PBGC, Mr. Palmer was Communications Director for the Congressional Black Caucus where he was responsible for developing and implementing a proactive national communications strategy to raise the profile of the 42 member caucus, which included the House Majority Whip, four full committee chairs and 18 sub-committee chairs. Immediately prior, Mr. Palmer served as National Press Secretary at Media Matters for America where he helped coordinate a multi-pronged rapid response media relations, external affairs and online advocacy operations with nationwide reach. Previously, Mr. Palmer served as press secretary for the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives overseeing communications strategy involving multiple policy areas including tax, health, and social services. Before March 2007, he was a reporter with Newsday, where he started as a summer intern in 1999 and subsequently covered the various levels of government and politics in New York. Joining the Washington bureau in September 2004 as Newsday's Congressional Correspondent, he began reporting on the daily activities on Capitol Hill, focusing on the New York delegation. He was awarded a Newsday Publisher's Award for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent rebuilding of New Orleans. Mr. Palmer is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles where he majored in African American Studies.
