News

The North Atlantic States Carpenters Benefits Fund (NASCBF) has announced the hiring of a new executive director for the collectively bargained employee benefit plans serving 46,000 active and retired members and their beneficiaries. Nicola Favorito has accepted an offer from the NASCBF board and will begin his tenure on January 8, 2023.

Nicola (Nick) Favorito currently serves as a deputy treasurer for retirement services in the Office of the Massachusetts Treasurer & Receiver General. In this capacity Nick has been the executive director of the Massachusetts State Employees’ Retirement System (MSERS), a defined benefit retirement plan, since February 2003. The MSERS is administered by the Massachusetts State Retirement Board (MSRB), a multi-generational and diverse department of more than ninety employees. The MSRB supports more than 85,000 active members and more than 68,000 retirees & beneficiaries, annually issuing more than $2.75b in benefits.

Favorito also oversees the Commonwealth’s Deferred Compensation Plans Division and is Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s designee to the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement Board, the State Retiree Benefit Trust (OPEB) Fund Board, and various other boards and committees. He has served as the Commonwealth’s Social Security Administrator related to coverage questions for public employees.

Prior to joining the MSERS, Favorito practiced with the law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP where he specialized in public employee retirement law, and education & special education law. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Suffolk University Law School.

As executive director of NASCBF, Favorito will lead day-today management of staff administering union member health, pension, annuity, and vacation plans. The funds are established through collective bargaining between the union and signatory employers. There are more than $11 billion in combined assets under management by staff and a board of trustees representing the union and employers.

The NASCBF established a search committee to identify a new executive director following the announced departure of Rich Monarca. It included five members of the board of trustees as well as senior staff. A national executive search consulting firm worked with the committee to solicit applications from across the country and received responses from a diverse group of highly experienced and capable individuals.

“Following careful review and several rounds of interviews, the committee identified Favorito as the candidate best positioned to join the organization to support and further our goal of providing best-in-class benefits to our participants,” said Tom Flynn, who chaired the committee.

Favorito stated, “I am tremendously grateful for the opportunity conferred by the NASCBF Board, and I am excited to get to know and work with the highly regarded women and men of the NASCBF who professionally serve the region’s hard-working carpenters. We look forward to enhancing the NASCBF’s tradition of providing valuable and competitive benefits for all concerned, while striving for improvements where possible.”