Interview by Ashley Kuzmech*
The Pension Boards interviews the Rev. Richard Walters, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), to discuss PBUCC’s top priorities with regard to climate change, human rights, and supply chain management.
Recently, Lan Cai, Deputy Chief Investment Officer for the Pension Boards-United Church of Christ (PBUCC), was a panelist at Pensions & Investments’ inaugural Emerging Markets conference in New York City. The featured discussion highlighted investment opportunities and strategies in growth markets such as China. As a follow-up to that conversation, the Pension Boards sat with Lan to highlight PBUCC’s long-term investing approach to emerging markets on behalf of its members’ portfolios in the Annuity Plan.
Annuitants receiving monthly annuity payments can now view the exact amount of their annuity payments through our bank, Northern Trust.
New York, October 4, 2019 – Brian R. Bodager, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Pension Boards-United Church of Christ, Inc. (PBUCC), today announced that the Rev. James Moos, Ph.D. will join the Pension Boards team on October 15 in the new role of Executive Director of PBUCC’s Faith and Finance Ministries. In this position, which reports to the President and CEO, Moos will oversee the organization’s Ministerial Assistance, Philanthropy, Communications and Church Relations, and Corporate Social Responsibility functions.
In the summer of 2019, I was given the opportunity to be a part of the Pension Boards’ first 2019 Summer Internship Program. I accepted this offer with great joy since I would get to expand my knowledge in areas pertaining to my skillset and future aspirations, while also helping an organization committed to improving the lives of their members through responsible investing practices.
When I first started working for the Pension Boards’ Finance department, I expected to perform typical tasks that revolve around finance and some basic budget analytics. But instead, we worked on analyzing data across a wide range of issues, including my favorite, actuarial analysis. For example, I had an opportunity to work on an annuity calculator with various retirement options by incorporating multiple variables stemming from mortality tables, salaries, employer and employee contributions. This work really helped shape my outlook on my field of interest since I am currently an actuarial science student at Baruch College. I am grateful to the Pension Boards for giving me a platform where I could grow my skills in this field. I have to say the experience went beyond my expectations.
With that being said, PBUCC is a good place to grow in a variety of industries, especially if you are someone that is intrigued by the world of finance and investments, and you want to grow the wealth of your future clients in a more ethical and responsible way. Aside from the hands-on learning experience, we were also paired up with a PBUCC mentor for the summer. They were extremely willing to help us at all times. In addition to the mentors, we were exposed to weekly presentations by department heads where we were able learn about their career journey through the sharing of personal stories. 
Lastly, we engaged in a lot of fun team activities throughout the internship such as bowling, an all-staff BBQ, a scavenger hunt, and serving the elderly at the Amsterdam Nursing Home.
In conclusion, this internship program checks-off every box available: educative, friendly working environment, an organization with a great purpose, and fun. It was definitely one of the best summer internship programs I’ve been a part of and certainly one that I would recommend to others.
*Reinaldo Cuni is a second-degree student at Baruch College in New York City studying Actuarial Science