Mayor de Blasio Appoints John Adler as Director of The Mayor's Office of Pensions and Investments and Chief Pension Investment Advisor

January 26, 2015

Adler brings deep experience in pension and retirement issues, will serve as administration’s central advisor on pension investments

NEW YORK—Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the appointment of John Adler as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Pensions and Investments and Chief Pension Investment Advisor. Adler, most recently the Director of the Retirement Security Campaign at the Service Employees International Union, brings with him extensive experience in public pension and retirement issues.

On all investment issues, the Mayor’s Office of Pensions and Investments (MOPI) is the administration’s full-time, central advisor to the Mayor’s trustees on the five New York City retirement system boards and on the New York City Deferred Compensation Plan Board. MOPI, housed within the Department of Finance, works with the Office of the Comptroller to monitor and advise on the performance of investments and investment managers for all asset classes held by the pension systems and Deferred Compensation Plan—which hold combined assets valued at over $150 billion, covering over 350,000 active employees and 275,000 retirees and beneficiaries.

“John’s deep experience in pension investments and retirement security will go a long way for City taxpayers and employees, retirees, and beneficiaries alike,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “John will play a crucial role as we work to tackle growing pension costs, while securing the strongest possible returns on investments and ensuring a sustainable pension system that works for all.”

“John and his long, extensive history in this business will bring invaluable leadership as the new CPIA,” said Department of Finance Commissioner Jacques Jiha. “We are excited about his appointment and look forward to working with him.”

“I am excited to put my experience to work to help the City’s pension funds do the best possible job for our hard-working employees and their beneficiaries, retired participants, and the taxpayers,” said John Adler, incoming Director of the Mayor’s Office of Pensions and Investments and Chief Pension Investment Advisor. “I am grateful to Mayor de Blasio for the opportunity to work together with all the trustees of the pension funds to help make them high-performing, sustainable for the long term, and an economic asset for all my fellow New Yorkers.”

The five primary pension funds for New York City employees include the New York City Employees’ Retirement System; the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York; the New York City Police Pension Fund; the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund; and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System.

At MOPI, the Chief Pension Investment Advisor (CPIA) conducts research on all relevant investment issues that impact the portfolios, and provides the Mayor’s trustees on the five boards and the NYC Deferred Compensation Plan Board with timely investment reviews, reports and presentations, so that they may make recommendations on asset allocation and investment strategy. The CPIA meets with consultants and potential investment partners in connection with prospective investment opportunities. The CPIA also works with the Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management to ensure that all appropriate information is analyzed and integrated into the selection, termination and performance reviews of investment managers, as well as the analysis and development of investment strategies, and provided accurately to all trustees. The CPIA assists in negotiating the terms and conditions of investment contracts with investment managers and banks, and also consults regularly with the Office of Management and Budget and the Corporation Counsel regarding the potential fiscal impacts and legal liabilities of investment and policy matters coming before the Boards.

John Adler was most recently the Director of the Retirement Security Campaign at SEIU, where he managed all aspects of SEIU’s retirement security program, including public pension funds, Taft-Hartley pensions, Social Security, and private sector plans. He ran state campaigns to create state-sponsored retirement plans for workers without access to plans, and co-founded the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives.

Adler has spent 23 years with SEIU, first as an organizer with SEIU/1199 United Healthcare Workers East in New York, and, since 2001, working on pension and retirement issues with the international union first as the Director of the Capital Stewardship Program—where he oversaw all of the union’s work on private equity—and then as the Director of the Retirement Security Campaign.

Adler worked with SEIU locals and state councils to address threats to the retirement security of its members, and to advocate for solutions to the retirement security crisis the United States faces because of the decline of pensions in the private sector.

Adler has a B.A. from Yale University, and lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn, New York.

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