Named as chair was Melody McDonald of San Francisco, managing director at RCM Capital Management LLC, a San Francisco investment firm. Her investment management and banking career includes 18 years at RCM and four years at Wells Fargo Bank, according to a PBGC news release. McDonald received a master of arts from the New England Conservatory of Music, a doctorate in music from Stanford University and a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Named as committee members were:

• Thomas Garrott of Memphis, chairman of the executive committee of National Commerce Financial (NCF) Corp., a retail bank where he served as chairman of the board until 2003. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. Garrott will represent the interests of employers in a term that expires in 2007.
• Betty Scott Ireland of Charleston, W.Va., president and CEO of Jackson & Kelly Solutions LLC, the enterprise arm of West Virginia’s largest law firm. She previously served as head of Jackson & Kelly’s employee benefits group and from 1998 until 2000 was executive director of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board. Ireland is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. She will represent the interests of employers until 2007.
• James Nevels of Swarthmore, Pa., chairman of the board of The Swarthmore Group, an independent investment advisory firm. Nevels earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science from Bucknell University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School of Finance. He will represent the interests of the general public until 2007.

The PBGC is the nation’s insurer of private-sector pension plans that receives its financing from insurance proceeds paid by covered companies and investment income.