Charles E. F. Millard
Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
In office 2007–2009
Preceded by	Bradley Belt
Succeeded by	Joshua Gotbaum
President & Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation
In office 1995–1999
Appointed by	Rudy Giuliani
Preceded by	Clay Lifflander
Succeeded by	Michael Carey
Member of the New York City Council from the 5th district
In office January 1, 1992[1] – December 1, 1995[2]
Preceded by	C. Virginia Fields
Succeeded by	Gifford Miller
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Gwen
Children	9
Alma mater	College of the Holy Cross (BA) Columbia University (JD)
Occupation	Financial executive, former elected official, former appointed official

Charles E. F. Millard is an American political figure and business executive specializing in pensions and investments. He is the former Director of the United States Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) where he served between 2007 and 2009.

Private Sector

Millard is a Senior Advisor for Ares Management. From 2011 until 2016 he was Managing Director and Head of Pension Relations with Citigroup, where he oversaw relationships with pension investors around the world. Millard is also a consultant/advisor for multiple companies through Cardinal Advisors LLC, and serves on the Board of Directors of Ross Corporate Services, a UK-based pension services firm.^[3][4] He has also been an advisor for McKinsey, AQR Capital, the Kiski Group, and Amundi Assest Management.

In March 2016, Millard led the publication of the report "The Coming Pensions Crisis."^[5] The report was noteworthy for highlighting $78 trillion in unfunded retirement obligations in twenty countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report also advocated the development of more pooled defined contribution systems such as Collective Defined Contribution, Target Benefit, and Defined Ambition as methods to increase retirement security.

In his role at Citigroup, Millard led international pension conferences and has continued to be a leading speaker at numerous pension-related conferences around the country. He has appeared on CNBC^[6] and has been published in The Wall Street Journal,^[7] Bloomberg,^[8] Financial Times,^[9] and elsewhere on a variety of pension topics.

During his time with Citigroup, he also taught at the Yale School of Management on pensions and public policy.^[10]

Earlier in his career in the private sector, Millard served as a Managing Director at both Lehman Brothers and Prudential Securities,^[11] and immediately prior to joining the PBGC, Millard was a Managing Director at Broadway Partners, a national real estate investment and management firm in New York.^[12] Millard also served as an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell where his activities included constitutional litigation in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.^[13][14]

Public Sector

Under Mayor Giuliani, Millard served as President and chief executive officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation^[15] and Chairman of the New York City Industrial Development Agency, and was responsible for much of the redevelopment of 42nd and Times Square. ^[16]

Millard was twice elected to the New York City Council, and was the first Republican elected Councilman from Manhattan in twenty-five years. In that role he drafted the original legislation to eliminate pornography stores from many New York neighborhoods.^[17]

Millard ran for Congress in 1994 against Representative Carolyn Maloney. He lost 64% to 35%. His 35% of the vote is ten points higher than that of any Republican candidate in that district since then.^[18]

In 1979–80, he worked as a VISTA volunteer in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and in 1982–83, he served as Legislative Assistant for Foreign Affairs for Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick.^[19]

Tenure at the PBGC

Millard was the first Director of the PBGC to be Presidentially appointed and confirmed by the United States Senate and ran the agency from 2007 to 2009.^[20] As Director, Millard was the chief executive officer of the PBGC and carried the rank of Under Secretary.

During his tenure at PBGC, the agency's deficit shrank from $18.9 billion to $11.2 billion in 2008.^[21]

The PBGC is governed by a three-person Board; the Secretaries of Treasury, Commerce, and Labor. In February 2008, the Board adopted a new investment policy presented to it by Millard.^[22] The investment policy intended to put 45 percent of the Corporation's $55 billion in equities, 45 percent in fixed income assets, and 10 percent in alternative investments.^[22] No assets were transitioned into equities during fiscal year 2008^[23][24] and the PBGC only began the transition of some assets from fixed-income to equities in late 2008.^[24] The New York Times noted in May 2009, that the PBGC had not fully implemented this transition.^[25]

Peter R. Orszag (then director of the Congressional Budget Office) stated the following about Millard's plan:^[26]

"The change in investment strategy represents an effort on the part of PBGC to increase the expected returns on its assets and to diminish the likelihood that taxpayers will be called on to cover some of its liabilities. The new strategy is likely to produce higher returns, on average, over the long run. But the new strategy also increases the risk that PBGC will not have sufficient assets to cover retirees’ benefit payments when the economy and financial markets are weak. By investing a greater share of its assets in risky securities, PBGC is more likely to experience a decline in the value of its portfolio during an economic downturn—the point at which it is most likely to have to assume responsibility for a larger number of underfunded pension plans."

Some proposed that the new policy was still relatively conservative when compared to private pension funds, according to "Pensions and Investments", a trade publication.^[22] Ron Gebhardtsbauer, former PBGC actuary and head of the Actuarial Science Program at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, stated on June 16th, 2010, "If the PBGC had followed Millard and invested in stocks in 2009, it could have $10 billion more in assets today."^[27]

In May 2009, The New York Times reported that Millard was criticized by PBGC's Inspector General for certain ethical matters related to Millard's relationships with companies and executives involved with the award of a PBGC contract. Millard relied on his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before a Senate investigative committee. March 2010, the Inspector General advised Senators Grassley, Baucus, Enzi, and Harkin that the investigation was completed and no charges would be filed.^[28]

Early life and education

Millard obtained a B.A. Honors Degree, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the College of the Holy Cross and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where each year he was ranked a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.^[29]

Personal

Millard and his wife are parents of nine children.^[30]

References