Press Release

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December 5, 2014

IMRF Awarded 2014 Silver Award from Illinois Performance Excellence

Naperville, IL – (December 04, 2014) Illinois Performance Excellence announces Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund of Oak Brook, IL is a recipient of the 2014 Silver Award for "Progress toward Excellence" for demonstrating effective, systematic, well-deployed approaches that respond to the multiple requirements to most of the Criteria. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund will be formally honored at the 20th annual award recognition ceremony, “Saluting Excellence," on March 26, 2015, held at the Abbington Banquets located in Glen Ellyn.

Our members deserve the best and ILPEx is helping us to meet that challenge.
- Louis Kosiba, IMRF Executive Director

"Congratulations to Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and all of its employees for its commitment to an on-going journey to excellence," says Darcy Davidsmeyer, President and CEO of Illinois Performance Excellence. "IMRF is taking the lead in its industry to address organizational performance and process/resource alignment with the outcome for better efficiencies, focus and overall results."

Recipients of the ILPEx Silver Award go to those organizations which have demonstrated effective, systematic, well-deployed approaches that respond to the multiple requirements to most of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.

The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) was created by the Illinois General Assembly. Since 1941, IMRF has partnered with local units of government to provide retirement, disability and death benefits for public employees. With a funded status of 96.7 percent and $33 billion in assets, IMRF is well-funded and sustainable. Today, IMRF has about 400,000 members and retirees, and serves nearly 3,000 different units of government, including towns and villages, libraries and park districts, and counties and school districts (non-teaching personnel). The average member who retired in 2013 had 22 years of service and received an annual benefit of about $16,500.

"For any organization committed to excellence by improving the products or services it provides its customers, clients or members, the task of identifying and implementing the best approach can appear daunting. There are innumerable books and videos on the best management practices. The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund has found the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence as implemented by ILPEx to be the most successful and comprehensive approach for developing the culture and infrastructure necessary for meeting our customer service goals. Our members deserve the best and ILPEx is helping us to meet that challenge. IMRF is honored to be recognized for its progress toward excellence as it receives a Silver Award. This recognition and the feedback report support and reinvigorate our efforts to become a world class organization," said Louis W. Kosiba, Executive Director, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.

About Illinois Performance Excellence (ILPEx)

ILPEx was founded in 1994 to nurture, develop and highlight excellence by bringing individuals and organizations together, to learn from each other, to share best practices for organizational change and process improvement. As a 501 (c)(3), ILPEx's mission is to advance Illinois organizations’ capability and knowledge of performance excellence by delivering consultation, instruction and assessments within the framework of the Criteria for Performance Excellence.

For more information on how your organization can benefit from services provided by Illinois Performance Excellence, visit www.ilpex.org, or call (630) 637-1595.

For more information on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige/.