(September 17, 2013) — Judy Mares, ATK’s current vice president and CIO, has been named Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)’s new political deputy assistant secretary, aiCIO can reveal.
Mares will be replacing Michael Davis, who joined Prudential Retirement as head of its stable value business last October. She will be working under Phyllis Borzi, EBSA’s assistant secretary. An agency of the United States Department of Labor, EBSA is responsible for enforcing the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
EBSA oversees over 700,000 private-sector retirement plans, 2.3 million health plans, and other welfare benefit plans that affect 141 million Americans.
Mares has been managing ATK’s pension, savings, and Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association Plans (VEBA), a total of $4.2 billion in assets, for seven years. She also worked as CIO of Ameritech Corporation from 1990 to 1995 and director of benefit finance at General Mills, Inc. from 1976 to 1988.
“Judy brings a wealth of experience to the job, and she shares our strong commitment to improving benefits security for all of America’s workers,” Borzi said.
Mares is likely to be a considered a welcome addition, as she brings her knowledge of corporate sponsors to the EBSA table.
Previously, Mares was appointed member of the ERISA Advisory Council by the Secretary of Labor, and served as a loaned executive to President Carter’s Commission on Pension Policy.
She is currently a member of the Committee on the Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA)—an organization that represents America’s largest corporate pension plans of $1.4 trillion. Mares is also the chair of the defined contribution (DC) committee within CIEBA.
“I’ve probably been the person involved with CIEBA longer than any other person involved now,” Mares told aiCIO in April. “[It’s] a safe environment with people who know what you know and do what you do.
However, sources told aiCIO that Mares will be stepping down from her position as chair of the DC committee, as she takes her role as EBSA’s deputy assistant secretary in October.
It is understood that Carol McFate, CIO of the Xerox Corporation, will take on the soon-to-be-vacant CIEBA position. Laura Schumann, director of investment advisory services at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Assocation, will be one of the vice-chairs of the DC committee.
CIEBA is understood to be looking to fill the other vice-chair position.
Related content: The Rise of Mega-Defined Contribution