Staff


E
xecutive Director: Dennis Simmons

Dennis Simmons is the Executive Director for CIEBA, the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets.

Prior to joining CIEBA in 2017, Dennis was a senior Principal with Vanguard, working with the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based investment firm for over 20 years. At Vanguard, Dennis served in many policy-making and leadership roles, including heading Vanguard’s retirement savings legal and government policy efforts for the Vanguard International Division, heading Vanguard’s ERISA Legal and Fiduciary Services Group, and the Vanguard Strategic Retirement Consulting Group. Dennis also served as lead counsel on several employee benefits committees responsible for the design and administration of Vanguard’s global retirement and health and welfare programs.

Dennis has served on various committees for important retirement savings industry groups over the years, including serving as Chair of both global and US retirement savings and pension committees. Dennis is also a past member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council, the council established under federal law to give recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Labor on important policy issues that affect retirement savings and health and welfare plans.

Dennis earned a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in business administration from Roanoke College. He also earned his J.D., cum laude, from Widener University School of Law.

 

 Associate Executive Director: Gigi Combe 

Gigi Combe is the Associate Executive Director for CIEBA, the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets. She works alongside Dennis Simmons managing all issues that impact CIEBA members, including logistical coordination and membership communication.

Prior to joining CIEBA in 2019, Gigi was the Refining Account Manager for a precious metals company in the Philadelphia area called Pyromet. In addition, just after college graduation until 2016, she worked for a high-level executive search firm called Empire International as an Executive Search Consultant.

Gigi graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. (B.A.) in Classics in 2013.

 

MichaelGeneral Counsel: Michael Kreps

Michael P. Kreps is a principal at Groom Law Group, where he counsels employers, plan sponsors, financial institutions, trade associations, and coalitions on retirement, health, tax, and employment matters.  Mr. Kreps specializes in issues relating to public policy, fiduciary responsibility, and plan funding and restructuring.  

Previously, Mr. Kreps served as the Senior Pensions and Employment Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from the 110th through the 114th Congresses.  In that role, he managed all aspects of the Committee’s retirement agenda and had primary staff responsibility for pension legislation, including the pension investment provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the funding stabilization and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reform provisions of the MAP-21 Act of 2012, the Pension Relief Act of 2010, and the CSEC Pension Flexibility Act.  He also led the Committee’s oversight of regulatory activities involving employee benefit plans.