WASHINGTON — Former Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum is President Obama's choice for director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

Gotbaum currently is an operating partner at New York-based Blue Wolf Capital LLC.

He served as Hawaiian's court-appointed trustee from July 2003 to June 2005 while the state's largest airline operated under bankruptcy protection.

Obama plans to nominate Gotbaum, a former chief of the September 11th Fund charity, for the pension agency post, the White House said today in an e-mailed statement. Gotbaum also served in the administrations of Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., created by Congress in 1974, backs up the pensions of more than 44 million Americans.

The agency reported in May a deficit of $33.5 billion, triple that of six months earlier, as it took over pension plans of companies that failed or faltered in the recession.

The agency's inspector general found in May that its former director, Charles E.F. Millard, had inappropriate communications with eight of 16 Wall Street firms that bid last year to manage $2.5 billion in assets. The resulting contracts were canceled in July.

Stanley Brand, Millard's attorney, claimed in July that Millard "sought advice from top professionals in a responsible and legal manner."