Jeff Clay '75
A graduate of Houghton College in Upstate New York (1975, B.A.
History, Summa Cum Laude) and Dickinson School of Law (1978,
J.D. Magna Cum Laude), Mr. Clay is currently the Executive
Director of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School
Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), headquartered in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Executive Director supervises and
manages one of the larger public pension funds in the United
States. With assets in excess of $60 billion, a staff of 301
employees and plan membership, both active and retired, in
excess of 450,000, PSERS is a well-diversified and mature
pension fund, which has faced and continues to face many of the issues
that confront public funds today.
Prior to being selected as the Executive Director of PSERS by
PSERS’ fifteen-person Board of Trustees, Mr. Clay was PSERS’
Deputy Executive Director. Mr. Clay has also served as Chief
Legal Counsel, not only to PSERS, but also to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) and the
Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (PMRS). In addition,
Mr. Clay also acted as Chief Counsel for the Commonwealth's
qualified deferred compensation plan under Section 457 of the
Internal Revenue Code. This multiple legal representation of
state public pension plans was unique to Pennsylvania and
presented its own fiduciary and ethical challenges.
As Chief Counsel to the three Systems, Mr. Clay supervised a
staff of 35, including 18 attorneys, and through them provided a
wide range of legal services to the Systems, including
assistance, advice and counsel in the areas of investments,
fiduciary duties, tax issues, benefits administration,
transactional matters and litigation.
Prior to his tenure at the Pension Systems, Mr. Clay was a
judicial law clerk at Commonwealth Court (intermediate appellate
court) and then spent 10 years in private practice with the law
firm of McNees, Wallace and Nurick, in Harrisburg, specializing
in real estate law and appellate litigation.
He currently resides in Mechanicsburg, PA with his wife Connie,
and they attend New Covenant Fellowship Presbyterian Church (PCA).
Mr. Clay has one daughter, one son, and one granddaughter, with
another grandchild on the way.
Mr. Clay was our guest on April 13, 2007.
Click here for his remarks.
The monthly Guest Executive Dinner series is sponsored by
Houghton's business department for the purpose of increasing
student exposure to marketplace professionals from various
fields and service opportunities to be both salt and light after
college.
