Speakers
Mark Poerio, Paul Hastings LLP (Moderator); Christopher D. Sheaffer, Paul Hastings LLP; Damian A. Myers, Paul Hastings LLP; Henry Charles Eickelberg, General Dynamics Corporation
Mark Poerio / Paul Hastings LLP (Moderator)
Mark Poerio is a partner in the Employment Law Department in the Washington D.C. office of Paul Hastings LLP and is a member of the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel. For 25 years, Mr. Poerio has been in private practice with a focus on executive compensation and employee benefit matters, especially from a business, governance, tax, and securities perspective. He works regularly and globally with every Paul Hastings office, and has significant pro bono representations relating to not-for-profit governance, executive compensation, and tax matters. Mr. Poerio is also an adjunct professor with the Georgetown Law School. He earned a J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Christopher D. Sheaffer / Paul Hastings LLP
Christopher Sheaffer is of counsel in the corporate practice at Paul Hastings in the Chicago office. His practice is focused on representing private equity firms in leveraged buyouts, minority investments, add-on acquisitions, divestitures and recapitalizations. In addition, he provides general corporate counseling to their portfolio companies from initial investment through liquidity event, advising on executive compensation, equity incentive plans, corporate governance and other general transactional matters. He also regularly represents public companies, closely held businesses, entrepreneurs and senior management teams in connection with mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions.
Mr. Sheaffer earned a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law and a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame.
Damian A. Myers / Paul Hastings LLP
Damian Myers is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Paul Hastings, where he focuses his practice in all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation law. Mr. Myers advises clients with regard to tax-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, and equity-based compensation programs. A large portion of Mr. Myers' practice involves assisting private and public companies with a broad array of employee benefits-related matters in the context of mergers and acquisitions, such as the assessment and allocation of benefits-related liabilities, post-closing benefit structure, and securities law compliance issues related to executive compensation.
Mr. Myers earned an LL.M. in Taxation, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center, a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law, and a B.S. from the University of Georgia.
Henry Charles Eickelberg / General Dynamics Corporation
Henry Eickelberg is currently General Dynamics Corporation's Vice President for Human Resources & Shared Services. At General Dynamics, he is responsible the corporation’s shared services center that performs a variety of payroll, payroll tax, travel expense reimbursements, and accounting functions. Mr. Eickelberg is also responsible for the design, administration and compliance of General Dynamics' numerous defined benefit pension plans, 401(k) plans, and health and welfare programs. In addition, Mr. Eickelberg has oversight of the company’s occupational health and work-safety programs. In the area of mergers and acquisitions, Mr. Eickelberg has been directly responsible for the negotiating the benefits and administrative aspects of over 50 major acquisitions and divestitures that General Dynamics has conducted during Mr. Eickelberg’s tenure.
Mr. Eickelberg is a frequent writer and speaker on a variety of human resources-related issues. He is an adjunct professor of law in the LL.M. program at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches classes graduate level classes on a various employee benefit topics, including mergers & acquisitions and litigation.
Mr. Eickelberg is a fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Council. He is a member of the American Benefits Counsel (ABC) and also serves on the Board of Directors of the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC). He has chaired the American Benefits Council's Legal Affairs committee and is currently on the executive committee for the American Benefits Council. Both ABC and ERIC are dedicated to a secure and financially sound retirement system. Mr. Eickelberg is a member of the Board of Directors of Deallawyers.com, which is a website dedicated to the lawyers in corporate mergers & acquisitions.
Mr. Eickelberg has testified before the United States Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee on Select Revenue Matters concerning pension security and funding. His testimony was given on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Financial Executives Institute, the Business Roundtable, the American Benefits Council, the ERISA Industry Committee and other related organizations.
Prior to joining General Dynamics, Mr. Eickelberg was an ERISA partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Eickelberg also spent nine years as a benefits consultant with William M. Mercer, Inc., a world-wide benefits consultancy. Mr. Eickelberg is licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois and the District of Columbia.
Mr. Eickelberg earned an LL.M. and a J.D. with distinction from the John Marshall Law School, a B.S.C. in Accounting & Personnel Management from DePaul University, and became a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Illinois in 1980.