Dave Stella

Former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds

David (Dave) Stella has more than 25 years of experience administering pension and other employee benefit plans and almost 40 years of experience in public administration, having served in state and local government in Wisconsin and Colorado. He served as the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds from 2007-2012, where he was responsible for leading the administration of twelve employee benefit plans, including the $98 billion Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS), which covers over 575,000 state and local public employees in the State of Wisconsin. In addition to providing overall leadership of the organization, he was responsible for directing 260 staff and managing a broad array of benefit plans. During his tenure with the Wisconsin Retirement System his titles included Deputy Secretary of the Department of Employee Trust Funds, Administrator – Division of Retirement Services, and Director – Retirement and Survivor Benefits. He previously served as Executive Director of the Denver Public Schools Retirement System (DPSRS).

Dave is currently state president of AARP Wisconsin and is a Past President of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR), a non-profit organization that represents over fifty public pension funds with assets exceeding two trillion dollars. He also served as a Trustee on the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, the agency charged with investing over $98 billion of assets of the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and other public trust funds. He currently serves as a Trustee on the Boards of the Wisconsin Education Association Insurance Trust and its subsidiary the Wisconsin Education Association Insurance Corporation which provide health, life, vision, dental and disability policies issued to public school teachers.

Dave holds Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and earned the designation of Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) through the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.