The 2025 Crystal Globe Awards honored two of the architects of an innovative plan to bring pension benefits to thousands of new food processing workers, as well as a legend in the Labor Movement revered for her service to working people. 

Mark Lauritsen, director of the food processing, packing and manufacturing division and international vice president of the UFCW International Union, and Matthew Lovell, head of labor relations at JBS USA, were presented with Crystal Globe Awards for their work to create a bold new pension plan for more than 25,000 JBS workers.

“It’s humbling to be able to achieve this, as a former packing house worker, because the work that goes on inside those meat packing plants is physical, hard work,” Lauritsen said. “Those people deserve that pension.”

“We had to take that first step in order to understand what was possible,” Lovell said about the long journey to making the plan a reality. “That’s the heart of how we got here. At some point, everyone involved was willing to consider something outside of the box, even if it seemed like that solution was unlikely.”

Jason Russell, senior vice president and actuary at The Segal Group, said in his introduction that this visionary new plan would not have been realized without the hard work of Lauritsen and Lovell, and hopes it is a roadmap for pension plans at other employers.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was honored with a Crystal Globe Award for her incredible legacy of fighting for the 1.8 million members in her organization in their struggle for fairness and dignity.

Weingarten was introduced by CORPaTH Managing Director Ellen Anreder, who praised her ability to effect change and advocate for the workers who have such a tremendous role in shaping our society.

“This is part of the social covenant we should have in this country,” Weingarten said about the need for defined benefit pensions. “If you work hard and play by the rules, in retirement you shouldn’t have to go back to work when you’re 80 years old and your body can’t do it. That’s why CORPaTH is so important.”

Prior to the awards ceremony, Secretary General/CEO of PensionsEurope Matti Leppälä delivered a keynote speech detailing how pensions cover nearly person in his home country of Finland, which is often ranked at the top of lists of “happiest countries.”

“It’s actually about trust,” he said. “Trust in other people and trust in institutions like pensions. That’s basically what this happiness is based on. Good health care, good education and good pensions.”

Summit

CORPaTH Executive Director Ron Auer greeted attendees at the start of the 2025 Summit and thanked them for their work to advance and promote pensions in the past year.

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 President Ted Pappageorge welcomed CORPaTH back to Las Vegas and gave an update on his membership and its appreciation of retirement benefits. Some Local 226 members were on strike and active on a picket line at the time of last year’s conference.

Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW 8-Golden State and chairman of UFCWTrust, gave an update on the continued progress of CORPaTH.

“We have managed to introduce the new defined benefit plans to more than 100,000 participants,” he said. “That is huge. That is turning the tanker around in an era when everyone said we are waving goodbye to the defined benefit pension.

“We’re introducing defined benefit plans to more workers in more industries, and we’re addressing getting these plans to those who work in the more volatile gig economy,” he continued. “We are making strides on all fronts.”

Loveall also shared the story of Monica Hudson, a mother of two daughters who suddenly and unexpectedly needed to rely on the pension benefits of her husband Zach, who died in 2022 from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Hudson took to the stage with her daughters at the Summit to thank the pension defenders in the audience for their continued work and urged them to keep fighting for the families and caregivers who are able to live dignified lives because of pension benefits.

Michael Scott, Executive Director for the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP), kicked off the summit with a presentation on the efforts his organization has made to help multiemployer defined benefit pensions thrive in a highly regulated, and increasingly unpredictable, environment.

“Day by day, the foundations on which we have relied are becoming unmoored,” Scott said. “It is quite possible that the next significant crisis is not driven by the decisions of private actors, but instead by the conscious decisions of the government. The traditional analytical framework for investments must now thoughtfully consider the impact of a range of new federal decisions that, for generations, were previously taken as a given.”

The Trustees Panel, moderated by Ron Lind, featured John Frahm of the UFCW & Employers Northern California Pension Fund; Brent Lewandowski of the Cook County, Illinois Pension Fund; Sandra (Sandi) Ryan of the Alaska Retirement Management Board; and Patrick Velasquez of the Nevada Contractors Association.

The panelists discussed how creative approaches to pension benefits enables them to cover members at both small and large employers, how counseling members can help ease the transition from working life to retirement, and how open collaboration between union and employer trustees is crucial to the overall health of the funds.

The Consultants Panel, moderated by Ron Auer, featured Tim McCusker of NEPC; Stephanie Sorg of Meketa Investment Group; and Nick Trella of Segal Marco Advisors.

Panelists on the Consultants Panel focused on the myriad forces affecting investments in 2026, from shifting government policies to the widespread use of A.I., as well as the pros and cons of a low-risk portfolio and waning shareholder power under the current administration.

The CORPaTH Summit concluded with a VIP reception for program participants and sponsors at the Champion Level and above.

The CORPATH Crystal Globe Awards and Summit are set to return to Caesars Palace Las Vegas on Dec. 15, 2026.