Ronald H. Williams, long-time treasurer for the city of Suffolk, has been named to the board of trustees of the VACo/VML Pooled OPEB Trust.

Williams was elected at the annual meeting of participants in the trust on Sept. 9 in Richmond.

The VACo/VML Pooled OPEB Trust manages the assets invested by political subdivisions to fund retiree health insurance and other post-employment benefits.

Local governments that invest in the OPEB Trust reduce the long-term cost of providing benefits by as much as 40 percent. Founded in 2008, the trust currently manages $837 million in assets, the largest of its kind in the nation.

Williams was elected Suffolk’s treasurer in 1981. He has been re-elected, without opposition, to eight successive four-year terms since 1985.

Prior to his election as treasurer, Williams served as a banking executive for 11 years. As a banker, he attended executive development programs at the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut.

Williams is a member and past president of the Treasurer’s Association of Virginia and has received multiple awards for his leadership, including Virginia’s Treasurer of the Year in 1997.

He is a member of the Virginia Association of Local Executive Constitutional Officers, the Virginia Government Finance Officers Association, and Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

He serves on the State Non-Arbitrage Program Advisory Council, and was a founding member of the Board of the Virginia Investment Pool of VML/VACo Finance.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science with an emphasis on state and local government from Old Dominion University and is certified as a Master Governmental Treasurer by the University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.