Sean Harrigan, President
Appointed Commissioner

On July 26, 2007, Commissioner Harrigan was elected to serve a second term as Board President.

Commissioner Harrigan retired in January 2006 as the Executive Director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Western States Council, a position to which he was elected in November 2001.  He also retired at the same time as an International Vice President of the UFCW International Union. 

Currently, the Commissioner is the Vice President of the California State Personnel Board; he has served on this Board since being appointed by Governor Gray Davis in July of 1999.  He was elected in December, 1999 by the Board members to be the SPB representative on the CalPERS Board of Administration.  He served as the CalPERS Board President for two years before leaving the CalPERS Board in January, 2005.

Commissioner Harrigan has a long history with the retail industry that dates back more than 30 years.  For 7 years, he worked for Safeway in various capacities before joining Richland Retail Clerks Local 1612 as its Union Representative.  He was elected President of UFCW Local 1612 in 1976 and, after a multi-local union merger in 1980, became President of UFCW Local 1439 in Spokane.

In 1991, he was appointed Executive Assistant of UFCW Region 8 – Western, and in 1993 he became Assistant to the Director of Organizing in Washington D.C.  In 1994 Commissioner Harrigan returned to California to serve as International Vice Present and Director of UFCW Region 8 – Western.  In 2000 he became Special Assistant to the International Union President and was responsible for coordinating all UFCW activities relating to the 2000 national presidential election.  He then served as Director of Field Operations, focusing on engaging UFCW members in the political and collective bargaining processes.

Mr. Harrigan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Whitman College in Washington.  In addition to his duties on the State Personnel Board and the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension Board, he is a Board member of the Global Reporting Initiative.  He also provides various consulting services related to investment and financial activities.  He resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Kathleen.  He has two children and two grandchildren.