Press Release

ARA Announces Senior Management Leadership Changes

Issued by American Retirement Association [ARA]

Jan. 11, 2021

The American Retirement Association today announces some key reassignments among its senior management team. 

Allison Wielobob, General Counsel of the American Retirement Association, will take on the additional role of Executive Director of the American Society of Enrolled Actuaries (ASEA), effective Feb. 1. She assumes that responsibility from Martin Pippins, who has announced his retirement from the organization. Taking on Pippins’ other role on retainer — that of Director of Regulatory Policy — will be Kelsey N.H. Mayo, Lead Employee Benefits Attorney at Poyner Spruill LLP. 

Wielobob has been with the ARA since January 2019, and has been instrumental in crafting a number of the organization’s responses to the surge in regulatory proposals, rules and guidance over the past two years. She joined ARA from the Washington, D.C. office of international law firm Eversheds Sutherland, and before that she spent a decade as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor, where she was on the staff of the Office of Regulations and Interpretations of the Employee Benefits Security Administration. Wielobob also served as a legislation counsel for the Joint Committee on Taxation of the U.S. Congress and as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service. 

Mayo, who has been at Poyner Spruill LLP since August 2008, has been a significant contributor to the association’s Government Affairs Committee in recent years, and an active member of the IRS Subcommittee of the ARA. She routinely represents clients before the IRS, Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and has extensive experience in virtually all aspects of employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements. Mayo also brings her background in accounting as well as her study for the actuarial exams to bear for the benefit of her clients, including the ARA. 

“While we are sorry to lose Marty to retirement, we are appreciative of the significant contributions he has made both to this organization, and in furthering the cause of Americans’ retirement security,” noted American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff. “We’re fortunate to have a deep bench of professionals such as Allison to expand on her already significant contributions to the organization—and to be able to tap into the support of the association’s volunteer membership organization for expertise like Kelsey’s at this critical time. Their combined experience on the Hill, familiarity with the regulatory environment, their knowledge of our members’ concerns, and their passion for strengthening American workers’ retirement will be essential in the months ahead. The importance of the nation’s private retirement system has never been more evident, and we anticipate an even higher level of retirement policy activity in the months ahead.”

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