JOHN GALARNEAULT, MERCER
Title: Principal Age: 39
John Galarneault, a new principal in the Minneapolis office of Mercer, a global human resource consulting company, is looking to help Twin Cities employers manage an issue that's front-and-center to them and their employees -- retirement.
Galarneault said he intends to target the largest employers, those with more than 1,500 employees, on behalf of Mercer's retirement, risk and finance business. "That's why I'm being brought on board; that's where my experience and the vast majority of my expertise is," Galarneault said of pursuing business with what typically are Fortune 1000 companies.
Those companies have the largest retirement plans and, therefore, face the largest risks. The good news, Galarneault said, is that they're also in the best position to manage that risk. Since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the risks facing 401(k) accounts and pension plans also have been more evident to employees.
"You have to somehow meld those two together, where it's important to your employees as an attraction and retention tool but you need to manage it differently than you did in the past," Galarneault said.
Galarneault, who has a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics from St. Olaf College, worked at Aon Hewitt for 17 years, most recently as a senior actuarial consultant in the Minneapolis office, where he helped build the firm's global benefits practice.
Managing pension plans has gotten more challenging since the financial meltdown: a Mercer report in July found that the total deficit in pension plans sponsored by S&P 500 companies had grown by $59 billion in the first half of 2012 to $543 billion.
Deficits have gotten a bit worse since then, said Galarneault, adding that nine of the 10 companies he works with face a pension-plan deficit. Companies can respond, Galarneault said, by taking steps such as freezing pension plans, reducing future benefit levels, contributing cash from reserves or borrowing money to fund the plan, a popular move given today's low interest rates.
