The Department of Labor named four new members and changed duties for two current members of its ERISA Advisory Council on Tuesday.
Glenn Butash, who joined the council in 2019, was reappointed and named chairman, while current member David Kritz was appointed vice chairman.
Mr. Butash is managing counsel, U.S. compensation and benefits, at Nokia Corp. where he provides legal advice in connection with the design and operation of large, complex, defined benefit, defined contribution and welfare benefit plans. Mr. Kritz is assistant deputy general counsel for Norfolk Southern Corp., where he provides legal advice on benefits, compensation, employment and corporate issues.
The council's new appointees include John R. Harney, a partner at O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue with more than 30 years of experience in providing legal services to employee organizations, multiemployer plans, and other pension and welfare benefit funds; Peter Wiedenbeck, a Washington University School of Law professor with more than 30 years of experience teaching employee benefits law and taxation; James Haubrock, a shareholder with Clark Schaefer Hackett and certified public accountant with extensive experience in employee benefit plan audit services; and Lisa C. Allen, a senior compliance consultant for the Altera Group and an employee benefits expert with more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.
"The knowledge and expertise these new members bring to the employee benefits discussion will be a strong asset for the ERISA Advisory Council," said Secretary Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson, acting assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, in a news release "We look forward to working with this group, which complements the ongoing work of the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of workers, retirees and their families."
In 2019, the terms of four council members expired — Srinivas D. Reddy, the council's chairman and senior vice president, retirement and income solutions at Principal Financial Group; Douglas L. Greenfield, a partner at law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser; Robert A. Lavenberg, president of ERISAworks; and Colleen E. Medill, a professor at University of Nebraska College of Law.
