Judy Freyer

Judy FreyerJudy Freyer recently retired from The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) where she worked for over three decades. Judy joined the Board in November 1988 as Assistant Treasurer and, in 1990, was promoted, becoming the first woman in the role of Treasurer. She was named Vice President of Investments and Treasurer in 1990 and Chief Investment Officer in 1999. She was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2016. 

 

When Judy arrived at the Board of Pensions in 1988, the Balanced Investment Portfolio was valued at around $2 billion. At the end of 2019, the portfolio was valued at more than $10 billion. Over more than 30 years, the Defined Benefit Pension Plan provided benefits of more than $6 billion to Benefits Plan members, retirees, and their families. 

 

Beginning in 1990, Judy served as the Board of Pensions staff representative to the Presbyterian Church Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI), which implements the policies of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) on socially responsible investing. She has participated in corporate engagement matters involving supplier standards, bank lending practices, equal employment opportunity in the workplace, water use in the manufacture of computer chips, Israel-Palestine issues, human trafficking, climate change, environmental racism, and environmental degradation. 

 

Prior to joining the Board of Pensions, Judy worked for 12 years at UGI Corporation, a public utility and energy company in Valley Forge, PA.  As a member of the treasury department, she was responsible for financial planning , pension plan investment portfolio management, and investor relations. From 1973 to 1976, she worked for the U.S. Department of Defense in Nuremberg, Germany. She received her undergraduate degree from Manhattanville College, M.A. in Economic History from the University of Pennsylvania, and M.B.A. from Boston University. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in history and economics and is a CFA charter holder. 

 

Judy serves on a number of other governing boards, including the Children’s Scholarship Fund of Philadelphia, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Lantern Theater, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board (MMBB) of the American Baptist Churches USA, the William Penn Foundation Investment Committee.  

 

Role: Trustee

Elected to the Board: March 2021

Class Term: 2025

Term Limit: 2029

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.