Speaker Biography: Bill Brees

Bill Brees, Employer Services Liaison Officer

Social Security Administration (Regional Office, San Francisco)

Phone 510.970.8247/ fax 510.970.8101/ e-mail Bill.Brees@SSA.gov

Bill is the Employer Services Liaison Officer (ESLO) in the Social Security Administration’s San Francisco region.  He is the primary SSA contact for W-2 issues for employers in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and U.S. Territories in the Pacific (American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).  Bill has filled this role since 1982, first as Regional Magnetic Media Coordinator and now ESLO.

Bill also sits on an interagency government committee with Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Labor, and State government agencies to improve wage reporting.  Vice President Al Gore presented a Hammer Award to the committee in 1997 to recognize and honor the value of their innovative efforts.

He maintains a “customer” list of over 8,000 companies, including

• employers who file W-2’s electronically or who mail magnetic tapes or diskettes

• software vendors, payroll services, and “third-party” agents for employers

• organizations of payroll professionals and the payroll press.

Bill is a frequent speaker at employer association meetings.  He also participated as an invited member on a “Workplace Investment Committee” sponsored by American Payroll Assn. to prepare materials that educate and encourage employees to supplement Social Security and company pension with private investments.

Bill describes himself as both a

• “translator” between government customers and SSA, helping them understand annual wage reporting requirements, and

• facilitator, helping users and customers achieve “win win” annual wage reporting with federal and State agencies.

Outside the office, volunteer activities keep him busy, too.  Bill’s a retreat leader, small group facilitator, and trains other leaders in both of those.  For the past five years, he’s also been the Donations Head for AIDS Walk San Francisco, recruiting and training other volunteers for that annual event.  But for pure fun, you’ll find Bill playing with his three grandchildren or outdoors white water rafting, jet skiing, or back packing.  And once a year, he plays Santa Claus, handing out presents donated by the American Payroll Assn. Mid-Peninsula Chapter to children at the Homeless Women’s daycare center in the San Francisco tenderloin.