Empower Names Joe Smolen as President of Workplace Solutions

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 21, 2026--

Empower today announced the promotion of Joe Smolen to President of its Workplace Solutions business unit, a role in which he will oversee strategy, growth, relationship management and product for America’s second largest retirement services provider.

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Smolen brings extensive experience and a strong track record of leadership to the role, having previously served as Executive Vice President and head of Empower’s Core & Institutional Market segments.

“Joe is a proven leader who consistently delivers results while keeping clients and partners at the center of everything he does,” said Rich Linton, President and Chief Operating Officer of Empower. “His deep understanding of the workplace retirement landscape, combined with his ability to lead high-performing teams, makes him exceptionally well suited to lead our Workplace Solutions business as we continue to innovate and grow.”

Empower’s Workplace Solutions business encompasses service to more than 61,000 employer-sponsored retirement plans and over 18.8 million plan participants; assets under administration are approximately $1.9 trillion, as of Sept. 30, 2025. Workplace Solutions serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans; small, mid-size, large and mega corporate 401(k) clients; nonprofit 403 (b) entities and private-label recordkeeping clients. The business offers defined contribution, defined benefit, non-qualified and consumer-directed healthcare plans as well as stock plan services.

A Colorado resident, Smolen is a long-serving Empower leader, having joined the company as a regional sales director in 1999. Following a progression of increased leadership roles, he took the reins of the core markets in 2017, adding Mid-Market in 2024.

A graduate of Kansas State University, Smolen has been an active leader outside of Empower. He recently completed a tenure as Board Chair for the Society of Professional Record Keepers and Asset Managers (SPARK) and serves on the board of the Children’s Diabetes Research Foundation, where he and his wife were recognized for their lifetime achievement in 2023. Smolen also serves as a volunteer with the Tim Tebow Foundation.

As part of this leadership transition, Ken Munro has been appointed Executive Vice President and head of the Core & Mid-Market segments at Empower, succeeding Smolen in the role. Munro will be responsible for advancing the segment’s strategic priorities and supporting continued growth and service excellence. He joined Empower in 2006 and was appointed to his current role as SVP, National Sales Director in 2021.

“Ken’s experience, operational expertise, and commitment to our clients position him well to build on the strong foundation Joe established,” Linton added. “This transition reflects the strength of our leadership bench and our continued focus on developing talent from within the organization.”

Reporting relationships will remain unchanged: Smolen will continue to report to Linton, and Munro will continue to report to Smolen. These changes are effective immediately.

Empower’s Core & Mid-Market segments work closely with advisors to serve and administer plans with assets up to $150 million, including start-up plans, pooled employer plans (PEPs) and multiple employer plans (MEPs). In total, the segment provides services to more than 44,000 retirement plan sponsors, encompassing more than $360 billion in assets under administration on behalf of more than 4.8 million plan participants, as of Sept. 30, 2025.

About Empower

Recognized as a leader in retirement services and wealth management, 1 Empower administers approximately $2 trillion in assets 2 for more than 19 million individuals through the provision of workplace and individual retirement plans, advice, financial planning and investments. Connect with us on empower.com, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.

Empower refers to the products and services offered by Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries. “EMPOWER” and all associated logos and product names are trademarks of Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America.

The information contained herein is being provided for discussion purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell securities. All visuals are illustrative only.

©2026 Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America. All rights reserved RO5138754-0126

Learn more:

To learn more about how we’re empowering plan sponsors and their participants to be more engaged in their retirement plans than ever before, call us at 800-719-9914.

Joe Smolen has been appointed president of the Workplace Solutions business at Empower. Empower’s Workplace Solutions business encompasses service to more than 61,000 employer-sponsored retirement plans and over 18.8 million plan participants; assets under administration are approximately $1.9 trillion, as of Sept. 30, 2025. Workplace Solutions serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans; small, mid-size, large and mega corporate 401(k) clients; nonprofit 403 (b) entities and private-label recordkeeping clients. The business offers defined contribution, defined benefit, non-qualified and consumer-directed healthcare plans as well as stock plan services. A Colorado resident, Smolen is a long serving Empower leader, having joined the company as a regional sales director in 1999. Following a progression of increased leadership roles, he took the reins of the core markets in 2017, adding Mid-Market in 2024.

HONOLULU (AP) — A former flight attendant accused of posing as a pilot and working airline employee fooled three U.S. carriers into giving him hundreds of free tickets over a span of four years, federal authorities say. But precisely how he is alleged to have done it — and why the airlines wouldn't have caught on sooner — has industry insiders scratching their heads.

Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday following his extradition to the United States. His federal public defender declined to discuss the case.

According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fraudulent employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three other airlines. Court documents contained no explanation of why, in an industry focused on flight and airport safety, the airlines would not have recognized the credentials as invalid.

The indictment did not identify any of the airlines involved but said the U.S. carriers are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. A spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines said Wednesday the company does not comment on litigation. Representatives for United Airlines and American Airlines did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press.

One Canadian carrier based in Toronto, Porter Airlines, said in an emailed statement it was “unable to verify any information related to this story.” Air Canada, which is based in Montreal but has a major hub in Toronto, said it had no record of Pokornik working there.

John Cox, a retired pilot who runs an aviation safety firm in St. Petersburg, Florida, called the allegations surprising, considering the cross-checking that airlines are able to do to verify the employment of a crew member seeking to fly on another airline.

Airlines generally rely on databases of active airline employees maintained on third-party websites to check whether someone is actually an employee.

“The only thing I can think is that they did not show him as no longer employed by the airline,” Cox said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Consequently when the checks were made at the gate, he showed up as a valid employee.”

Passenger airlines typically offer such free or steeply discounted seats, when available, to their own crew members or those of other carriers — a courtesy that makes the whole industry function better, by getting crew members where they need to go. The seats, which can include “jump seats" with shoulder harnesses in the cockpit or in the cabin, can also be offered up for leisure travel.

Crew members who need to travel to another city for work go through airport security by scanning a “known crew member” card linked to a database that has their photo, said Bruce Rodger, an airline pilot who owns an aviation consulting firm. They also present an employee badge and government-issued identification.

Using the known crew member process for leisure travel isn’t allowed, he said.

For leisure travel, crew members can purchase discounted standby tickets or request a jump seat. With a standby ticket, a crew member reaches the gates via normal airport security screening. It’s possible to have a standby ticket but request a jump seat, which allows the employee to fly for free.

A jump seat for an off-duty pilot in the cockpit must be approved by the plane’s captain. The pilot riding in the jump seat must show the captain a pilot’s license and medical clearance, Rodger said. Those documents aren’t required for flight attendants riding in a jump seat in the main cabin, he said.

In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later told police he had been struggling with depression. A federal judge sentenced that man to time served last November.

U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik requested to sit in the cockpit's jump seat — typically reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Honolulu declined to say.

Years ago, the airline industry tightened up the standards for the flight benefits employees receive after the famous case of Frank Abagnale, whose exaggerated 1980 memoir, “Catch Me If You Can,” described posing as a pilot to fly for free, among other cons. His story gained additional fame when Steven Spielberg made it into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002.

Additional restrictions on who can get aboard a plane and inside a cockpit were imposed by the airlines and FAA after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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AP transportation writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.

This story has been corrected to note that Air Canada is based in Montreal, not Toronto.

FILE - A sign for the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Federal Building and Courthouse is displayed outside the courthouse on Jan. 22, 2024, in Honolulu. (AP Photo/Jennifer Kelleher, File)