Church of England Pensions Board Chief Executive Bernadette Kenny Passes Away

Bernadette Kenny, Chief Executive, Church of England, 1957—2017

Bernadette Kenny, chief executive of the Church of England’s Pensions Board, has died at age 60.

Following an extensive career in the Civil Service, Kenny joined the endowment in February 2011. During her more than six years with the Church of England, she oversaw changes to the Pensions Board as well as the National Church Institutions (NCIs), such as issuing a £100m housing bond, changes to the retirement housing scheme, and funding arrangements to de-risk the pension schemes—arrangements which the Jonathan Spencer, chair of the Church of England’s Pensions Board, called “innovative.”

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Bernadette. We have lost more than a brilliant colleague, we have lost a force for good,” Spencer said in a statement. “Bernadette believed that things could always be improved for the people she worked for and with. She played a lead role in the culture change programme at the NCIs and was a champion of greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace, most recently helping to launch a network for BAME (black, asian and minority ethnic) colleagues. She also led a much more open and consultative relationship with the dioceses.”

Kenny is survived by her husband and three children.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

Spencer is overseeing the interim arrangements for a new Pensions Board leader.

“On behalf of the Pensions Board and the National Church Institutions, we send our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends,” he said.

Tags: Bernadette Kenny, Church of England, Pension

The Teamsters Local 805 Pension and Retirement Fund and the Southwest Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters (SWORCC) pension plan have withdrawn their applications with the US Department of the Treasury for a suspension of benefits under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA).

The brief withdrawal letters did not provide reasons for rescinding the applications, however, the Local 805 fund said it reserved the right to resubmit the application with additional information “that may be advisable or recommended by the Department of Treasury.”

The Teamsters Local 805’s proposed benefit suspension plan, which was submitted on March 22, called for reducing all participants’ benefits by the maximum amount allowed under the MPRA. It would have treated all participants under the plan equally, and was expected to take effect April 1, 2018. Future benefits would have accrued at a rate of 1% of contributions, up to a maximum of $50 per year of service.

The benefits suspension proposal from the Southwest Ohio Regional Council, which was submitted on March 30, sought a uniform 17% reduction of the monthly benefit of every participant and beneficiary. It would also have applied a uniform series of steps to recalculate the participant or beneficiary’s accrued benefit. It called for the elimination of any subsidy for those individuals, or their beneficiaries, who retired prior to age 62; and beneficiaries receiving monthly benefits would have had their benefits recalculated to apply the same reduction factors for retirements prior to age 62.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

Tags: Pension, Southwest Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters, Teamsters Local 805, US Department of the Treasury