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Hartogensis Confirmed as PBGC Director

Government Affairs

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Gordon Hartogensis as head of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. He will replace W. Thomas Reeder, Jr., who has served as director of the PBGC since October 2015.

The full Senate approved Hartogensis’s nomination April 30 by a vote of 72-27. After being nominated by President Trump in May 2018, Hartogensis was approved by both the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in November. Subsequently, the vote on his nomination by the full Senate was held up by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) after Senate Republicans refused  to confirm Democratic appointees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.

Hartogensis is the brother-in-law of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University and an M.S. in Technology Management from Columbia University. According to Politico, Hartogensis has spent the past several years managing his family's sprawling investment portfolio after striking gold in a 1990s startup and retiring at age 29.

At the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on his nomination Sept. 27, Hartogensis said he considers his background to be a plus. “The PBGC will benefit from the perspective of an outsider,” he said, as well as “an experienced technology leader at the helm.”

The pension crisis “needs a bipartisan solution,” Hartogensis told the committee. “I see myself as a bipartisan problem solver… I pledge to work with Congress to protect the retirement security of all Americans.”