Katie Selenski, the former executive director of California's retirement savings program CalSavers, has joined the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association as a senior adviser, DCIIA announced in a news release Thursday.
The position is new.
Ms. Selenski, who is based in Sacramento, Calif., will report to Lew Minsky, DCIIA's president and CEO.
Ms. Selenski was previously with CalSavers, where she served as the program's first executive director, shepherding it from concept to its formal launch in 2019. When she left CalSavers in April to pursue what she described as "new ways to make an impact," the program had nearly 418,000 savers and $478 million in assets.
In joining DCIIA, Ms. Selenski said in an interview that she will have "a singular opportunity to collaborate with some of the most influential industry leaders and policy shapers to improve retirement security for workers."
"I couldn't be more aligned with their mission to enhance retirement security for American workers," she added.
Prior to CalSavers, Ms. Selenski was the state policy director for pension policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, where she advised policymakers in a dozen states and cities. Before that, she was a senior manager with the non-partisan public sector consulting firm Harvey M. Rose Associates.
Mr. Minsky applauded Ms. Selenski's strong background. "Her breadth and depth of industry knowledge and experience will be incredibly valuable assets as we continue to evolve our organization and expand key strategic initiatives, including our work around retirement savings access and inclusion and custom research within our retirement research center," Mr. Minsky said in the news release.
DCIIA is a non-profit association of more than 300 members organizations, including investment managers, consultants and advisors, law firms, record keepers, insurance companies, data providers, plan sponsors and others committed to the best interests of plan participants.