Charles E. F. Millard

During his tenure at PBGC, the agency's deficit shrank from $18.9 billion to $11.2 billion in 2008.[15]

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.[16] 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.[16] No assets were transitioned into equities during fiscal year 2008[17][18] and the PBGC only began the transition of some assets from fixed-income to equities in late 2008.[18] The New York Times noted in May 2009, that the PBGC had not fully implemented this transition.[19]

Peter R. Orszag (then director of the Congressional Budget Office) stated the following about Millard's plan:[20]

"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.[16] 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."[21]

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.[22]

Millard was previously a Managing Director with Lehman Brothers and was a cabinet official in the administration of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.[23]

According to his 2007 profile at the PBGC website, "Mr. Millard holds 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." [34]

Millard and his wife are parents of nine children.[35]