TSP board chooses new executive director
The Federal Retirement Thrift Savings Board has selected Gary Amelio, a former PNC Bank official, to serve as the organization's executive director.
Amelio, who most recently served as senior vice president and managing director of the Retirement and Investment Services Department at PNC, will start on June 1. According to a press release announcing the decision, Amelio spent 14 years at PNC, and prior to that, seven years in the tax department at Mellon Bank, N.A.
"The other board members and I enthusiastically chose Gary because he had exactly the qualities and background we were looking for; however, we are also very grateful to those other candidates with extraordinary qualifications and experience in both the public and private sectors who participated in this process," Thrift Savings Board Chairman Andrew Saul said in a statement. "Their strengths made the selection highly competitive, which will ultimately benefit the plan participants whom we serve."
The board spent five months searching for a new executive director to fill the vacancy left by Roger Mehle, who resigned in November. Mehle, who served as executive director for nearly nine years, filed a lawsuit against the board in January, accusing its members of ousting James Petrick, his hand-picked successor. The lawsuit is pending. Petrick, who took over as acting executive director in January, may return to his former position as director of the board's Office of Benefits and Investments. Petrick declined to discuss the matter on Monday, referring all inquiries to the board's spokesman.
The 401k-style TSP is on track to unveil in a few weeks a long-awaited computer system, that would give its more than 3 million civilian and military members more flexibility in managing their retirement accounts. The new system will provide more options for withdrawing money and provide online service for loans and withdrawals. The new system would also show account balances in shares as well as dollars and update shares daily. Under the current system, the value of TSP accounts is updated monthly and some transactions take several weeks to process.
The TSP board is still embroiled in lawsuits with American Management Systems over the company's costly and failed efforts to get the computer system up and running. The Fairfax, Va.-based company was hired in 1997 to modernize the TSP computer system, but after several delays and $51 million in expenditures, TSP board members fired AMS in July 2001. The thrift board then sued AMS, asking for $350 million in damages. AMS filed a $60 million lawsuit against the board for breach of contract. The lawsuits are pending.
The board brought in Materials, Communication & Computers Inc., of Alexandria, Va., to finish the project and has since spent another $32 million on the project.