Executive Director National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP)
In over 35 years of experience working with multiemployer plans, Mr. DeFrehn has served this community as an administrator of national pension and health benefit plans in the U.S. and Canada; an actuarial and benefits consultant; a registered investment advisor; and since 2000, as their lead advocate and chief spokesman on matters of public policy affecting multiemployer plans, participants and their sponsoring organizations. He has organized and coordinates the activities of the Multiemployer Pension Plans Coalition, a diverse group comprised of more than 60 organizations of employer associations, unions, large employers, plans and trade associations concerned with the ongoing viability of multiemployer plans and their sponsoring organizations. The Coalition was largely responsible for the enactment of the multiemployer provisions of the Pension Protection Act in 2006, the Worker, Retiree and Employer Relief Act of 2008, and the subsequent funding relief contained in the recently enacted Preservation of Access to Medicare and Pension Relief Act of 2010.
Mr. DeFrehn also provided leadership and coordinated with several employer groups in the community’s successful opposition to the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s ill-conceived exposure draft on the reporting of withdrawal liability for contributing employers.
On the health care front, Mr. DeFrehn was an active participant in discussions relating to the enactment of, and coordinates the multiemployer community’s response to proposed regulations implementing, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
He has testified numerous times before committees of the United States House of Representative and Senate and the full range of administrative agencies with jurisdiction over multiemployer plans, and is often consulted by government officials and the press in the US, Canada and Europe interested in learning the multiemployer perspective on a variety of issues. He is frequently quoted in the mainstream and trade press and has appeared on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” and MSNBC’s “The Dylan Ratigan” show on issues regarding the funding of multiemployer defined benefit pension plans.
Mr. DeFrehn served as a delegate to the 2006 White House Savers’ Summit and from 2007-2009, served a three-year term as a member of the Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council. Among other professional affiliations, Randy is currently a member of the Board of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI); a member of the Government Liaison Committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans; a member of the Health Sector Assembly; and a co-founder of the International Consortium of Advocates for Worker Benefit Security, which brings together advocates for the advancement of multiemployer plans in North America and Europe.
Mr. DeFrehn received his Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh in 1974, and in 1981, received a Master of Arts in Industrial Relations from St. Francis University where he subsequently taught compensation and benefits administration at the graduate level.