New York Life Retirement Announces New Execs

September 15, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - New York Life Retirement Plan Services has broadened its senior leadership team by appointing Patrick Murphy Managing Director and Head of Sales, Rachel Rice Managing Director and Head of Marketing, and Lynda Abend Managing Director of Product Development.

These executives report to CEO David Castellani.   

According to a press release, Murphy, who led the firm’s Northeast sales practice for most of the last eight years, will now manage a team of 17 sales directors representing all of New York Life Retirement Plan Services’ product platforms, including bundled corporate 401(k) plan services, stable value investment only, DB pension management, Taft-Hartley, and executive benefits. Chris Messina, formerly in small-plan 401(k) sales, will be moving to fill Patrick’s Northeast sales role.   

Before joining New York Life, Murphy served in senior sales and client service positions at American Express, Putnam Investments and Diversified. He is a graduate of Brown University. 

Rice joined New York Life in April 2010 as Director of Web Strategy, managing the firm’s e-platform strategy and solutions. Rice, who has more than 13 years in the financial services industry, was previously Founder of Ringel Rice LLC, a strategy and Web consulting firm and spent more than a decade at Fidelity in marketing and channel management leadership positions. She also worked in a marketing role at Upromise.com and as a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting. 
  

She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in finance and marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. 

Abend has been with New York Life for nearly 13 years, with responsibility for product development at New York Life since April of 2011. Her addition to the senior leadership team represents an increasing focus at New York Life Retirement Plan Services to develop and refine retirement solutions for today’s changing retirement marketplace.  Previously, she held consulting actuarial roles at Mercer and George Beram & Company (now DIA).  
  

Abend has a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Massachusetts. She is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and she is an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA. 

Murphy replaces Mark Strazzeri, who managed corporate defined contribution and defined benefit sales and retired from the firm at the end of August. Rice is taking over for Deanna Garen, who also left the organization August 31.

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