Michelin US Pension Plan

Michelin US Pension Plan

Michelin US Pension Plan launched in 1958 as a non-contributory defined benefit scheme for the tire maker's American workforce. The fund operated under the direction of Michelin North America executives such as former Chairman James M. Micali and retired CEO Dick Wilkerson. In 2017, Michelin froze the defined benefit plan for new accruals and shifted employees to the Michelin Retirement Account Plan, a defined contribution vehicle, while continuing to fund the original pension's wartime liabilities. Investment activity reflects a mature plan focused on meeting legacy obligations. The fund maintains an active separate account relationship with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, sourcing commercial real estate exposure in New York. Alongside its direct real estate allocations, the broader Michelin US retirement complex includes the Michelin 401(k) Savings Plan Assets, which holds employee-directed balances. The plan's geographic center of gravity is its headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina, with oversight provided by Deputy CIO Justin Pinckney. Team size and total assets are not publicly disclosed. The investment office operates from Greenville, with no additional satellite offices on record. The plan's governance is embedded within Michelin North America, whose retired leaders — including Dick Wilkerson — also steward the Michelin North America Foundation. The foundation represents a separate philanthropic vehicle and is not commingled with plan assets. No external club memberships, such as Tiger 21 or R360, are noted for the investment staff. Unlike many US corporate pensions that have outsourced their entire investment function to an OCIO provider, Michelin retains an internal CIO structure. This hybrid — an in-house team managing legacy defined-benefit assets while a newer defined-contribution plan runs in parallel — creates a dual-mandate dynamic. The plan balances the conservative liability-matching needs of a frozen pension against the more flexible participant-driven allocations of the 401(k) plan, a structural tension that shapes its deployment cadence more than a traditional single-mandate corporate plan.