Brian R. Bodager has been President and CEO of the Pension Boards since 2015. As a banking executive and attorney, Brian brings more than three decades of financial, investment, and legal experience to serve the Church.
Prior to joining the Pension Boards, he was a member of the PBUCC Board of Trustees for 12 years. He served on the actuarial, Executive, and Personnel Committees, as well as chaired the Eligibility and Enterprise Risk Management Committees.
In 1992, Brian joined Wisconsin-based Associated Banc-Corp, a publicly-traded bank holding company, where he was responsible for legal affairs, compliance, security, purchasing, and facilities. He also was engaged in corporate development activities of the company, including mergers and acquisitions. During his 20-year tenure, he helped grow Associated Banc-Corp's assets from $1 billion to more than $20 billion. Immediately prior to joining the Pension Boards, he served as a principal for Performance Sciences, LLC, a Wisconsin-based early-stage business consulting and strategic planning firm.
Brian is a long-time member of Union Congregational UCC in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and a native of Ohio. He received his undergraduate degree from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and the Weatherhead School of Management, respectively.
Dave Klassen has significant experience in the fields of investment and finance. His Wall Street credentials include working as V.P. and portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Managing Director and Head of Equities at JPMorgan Chase.
In a productive decade away from Wall Street, he graduated from divinity school, and was Partner of Springboard Leadership LLC, working with top leaders and organizations to build leadership capacity in the finance, not-for-profit, and government sectors. He has been Chief Investment Officer of the Pension Boards-United Church of Christ and United Church Funds since 2011.
Dave earned a B.A. in Accounting from Franklin & Marshall College and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, and attended Tavistock Institute’s Leicester Conference on Authority, Leadership and Organization. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and currently is a member of the Board of Trustees of Union Theological Seminary in NYC. In the past, he has served on the Investment Committee of United Church Funds and the Board of Trustees of the Village of Irvington, New York. David and his wife Susan reside in Brooklyn, New York and are members of Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan.
John Linzey is Executive Vice President, Corporate Development & Growth of The Pension Boards–United Church of Christ, Inc. He received his B.B.A. in Finance and Investments and M.B.A. in Finance from Baruch College. From 1991 to 1993, John held the position of Senior Accountant at Imperial Commodities Corporation.
From 1993 to 2001, he served as Executive Associate for both the Pension Boards and the United Church Foundation (now United Church Funds). In 2001, he went to work for Computer Science Corporation as a Finance Manager. John returned to PBUCC in 2004 and served in various roles in the Finance/Accounting department before becoming Director of Treasury/Accounting Operations, a position he held from 2006 to 2019, when he was promoted to Chief Financial and Operations Officer.
John lives on Long Island with his wife Angeline. They are the parents of three school-age children and an adult daughter, and have two grandchildren.
Ruth Madison joined the Pension Boards in 2018 bringing over 25 years of managerial and technical experience from several premier firms in the retirement plan industry. She was Vice-President, Wealth Management Operations, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), where she was responsible for business support including process reengineering, procedure documentation, and business recovery.
During her time at BofAML, she also managed the retirement regulatory reporting activities and new business implementation function. Ruth's previous experience includes management positions at Ascensus and CitiStreet as Manager of Pension Operations, and Director of Retirement Services Operations and Service, respectively. Ruth has a B.S degree from Rutgers University. She resides in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and enjoys baking, cooking, biking and spending time with her two children and countless nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.
Anna Ng joined the Pension Boards in 2018 as General Auditor, bringing nearly 15 years of risk management and project management experience. She began her career at Deloitte where she ran multiple external audits, and was a key member of a research team in a high profile liquidation engagement.
Prior to that, Anna held various roles within risk management in different capacities covering the first, second, and third lines of defense. She brings experience in compliance, internal and external Audit, front office risk and controls, and project management within the asset management and investment banking space. Most recently, Anna served as the Internal Audit Manager for YRF (YMCA Retirement Fund), where she and her team were collectively responsible for auditing YMCAs across the nation for plan compliance, and managing the internal audit program for a $7.5 billion pension plan.
Anna received her B.S. in Finance and Management Information Systems from SUNY Albany and obtained her CPA License (New York) in 2010.
Thomas J. ("Tom") Nolan joined the staff of The Pension Boards-United Church of Christ, Inc. in 2011. Before joining the Pension Boards, Tom served for five years as Chief Information Officer for Lighthouse International.
His previous experience includes Director of Information Technology for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Vice President, Director of Information Technology at TIS Worldwide and Vice President, Director of Distributed Architecture for Chase Mellon Shareholder Services. Tom served a number of years as a Staff Engineer at the world renowned IBM Thomas Watson Research Center. Tom also taught advanced computer science courses for 10 years as an adjunct professor at Mercy College.
Tom earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Technology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University. He holds a U.S. patent in the area of computing systems security, a number of patent publications, invention achievement and research division awards from IBM.
Tom and his wife Ellen, Director of Operations and Billing for a medical management company live in New Jersey. They are the parents of 4 adult children and have 8 grandchildren.
Walter A. Reyes joined the Pension Boards in 2018, bringing nearly 20 years of experience as a Human Resources leader with a proven track record of successfully leading change and transformation through influencing leadership and organizational culture.
He began his career at Goodwill Industries, where he was Director of Staff Development. As his career advanced, he accepted the role of Chief Administrative Officer and Human Resources Director for a large, affordable housing development corporation. Walter served as a change agent within the organization and championed strategies that impacted organizational-wide performance management. He oversaw culture change, compliance, and an array of talent management initiatives aimed at the best achievement of corporate goals. Most recently, Walter served as Director of Human Resources for Healthfirst, LLC, where he and his team were collectively responsible for delivering HR Strategies that impacted $9 billion revenue line of business with more than 1,000 employees.
Walter completed his BBA and MBA degrees at Hofstra University. He resides on Long Island and enjoys travelling the world and the richness of diverse cultures and perspectives.
Carolyn is a financial executive who joined the Pension Boards in September 2022, bringing more than three decades of experience. Weiss leads PBUCC’s financial activities and functions in support of the overall mission and vision of the organization and serves as a member of the organization’s Executive Leadership Team, reporting to President and CEO Brian R. Bodager.
Weiss received a BA in German from the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA in Accountancy from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. She is a New York State-licensed Certified Public Accountant, has passed Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Series 7 and Series 63 exams and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 examination.
Weiss comes to PBUCC from The New York Community Trust, where she served as Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer since 2014. From 2011-2014, she was Chief Financial and Investment Officer for FJC Inc., a public foundation that functions as a bank for non-profit organizations. Her prior experience also includes serving as CFO of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (2009-2011); CFO of Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey (2006-2009); Accounting Professor at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, and Centenary College in Xi’an, China (2002-2006); Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Latin American Equities for Deutsche Bank (1993-1999); and Audit Senior Manager in New York and Duesseldorf, Germany for KPMG LLP (1987-1993).
She has been a frequent speaker at numerous global conferences, on the topics of endowment and foundation investing; roles of consultants and fiduciaries; equity hedge funds; and employer/educator communications.
Bob Wild joined the Pension Boards in February 2022 as General Counsel, Chief Risk Officer, and Corporate Secretary. He also serves as a Director (ex officio) and Corporate Secretary for the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance, the Pension Boards’ philanthropic arm.
Bob advises the Board of Trustees and the Executive Leadership Team on all legal and governance matters and manages enterprise risk. He is engaged in initiatives to broaden and enhance the Pension Boards’ financial services offerings to serve its members and the United Church of Christ.
Prior to his current role, Bob represented the Pension Boards for several years as its engagement partner in his law firm practice.
Bob was a corporate and securities partner in the Chicago offices of Mayer Brown, Katten, and Krieg DeVault. For over 30 years, Bob advised companies on public and private stock and debt offerings, mergers, acquisitions, asset sales, SEC reporting, and corporate governance. He focused his practice on clients in the financial services sector.
Bob has written and updated for several years a federal securities law compliance treatise published by Thomson Reuters; he wrote numerous client alerts on securities laws developments; and guest-lectured classes on mergers and acquisitions at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law and DePaul College of Law for almost a decade.
Before law school, Bob practiced tax accounting at a predecessor of EY and earned an MS in Taxation from DePaul University. He graduated from Loyola University Chicago with an undergraduate degree in accounting and a law degree.
Bob and Lisa, his wife of over 30 years, have a son and daughter in college and a daughter in high school. They are members of St. Pauls UCC in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and Bob serves on its Finance/Investments Committee.