Five Members Appointed to 2012 ERISA Advisory Council

The council, which is also known as the ERISA Advisory Council, contains 15 members who provide advice on polices and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by ERISA.

Ralph C. Derbyshire will represent investment management. He is senior vice president and deputy general counsel for FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments in Boston. He directs legal support for administrative services to more than 18,000 employee benefit plans, which together cover more than 19.5 million individuals. Before joining Fidelity, Derbyshire served as the chief ERISA counsel for Putnam Investments. He is also an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School, where he teaches courses on ERISA and retirement plans.

James English of Pittsburgh is treasurer of the Blue Green Alliance and Blue Green Alliance Foundation. He will represent employee organizations. He recently retired after 41 years with the United Steel Workers, where he most recently served as secretary-treasurer overseeing investments and financial operations. He also has served as a trustee for both single and multi-employer plans.

Cindy Hounsell is the president of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, a nonprofit education and advocacy groupin Washington, D.C. She will represent the general public. An attorney and retirement expert, Hounsell leads WISER’s efforts to increase the financial literacy of women to reduce the disadvantages that they face while saving for retirement, as well as efforts to improve and expand women’s access to retirement planning.

David C. Kaleda will represent corporate trust. He is a partner at Alston & Bird LLP in Washington, D.C. He provides advice to fiduciaries of large plans, trusts and other arrangements on issues related to design, fiduciary responsibility and various aspects of ERISA compliance. Previously, he served as a legal adviser to the employee benefits trust and the recordkeeping/administration divisions of the Vanguard Group.

Neal S. Schelberg will represent employers. He is a senior partner at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York. He serves as legal counsel to the boards of trustees for more than 50 multi-employer and single-employer pension and welfare benefits plans. He has more than 30 years of experience in the area of employee benefits, including co-authoring the “ERISA Fiduciary Answer Book,” and teaching courses at Fordham University Law School and New York University.

Learn more about the ERISA Advisory Council at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/aboutebsa/erisa_advisory_council.html.