PhillyInc

Our managing editor for the past five years, Anne Gordon, announced she's leaving The Inquirer for a private equity firm with interests in media and technology. Gordon says they're her interests as well. See story.

Not quite a victory for telecommuting, but notable nonethless. New York City-based Newtek Business Services said today in a press release filed to the SEC that it has parted ways with its chief financial officer, Michael Holden. Why? He apparently didn't want to commute to New York from his home in Pennsylvania (exact location undisclosed). "We understand his desire to work from home in Pennsylvania and anticipate that we will continue our professional ties in different ways," it says. "We are proud of our relationship with him and most thankful for what he has built." PhillyInc has called Holden's office but no response yet. The statement says he will become "an advisor" to the CEO, CFO and the chairman of the Audit Committee starting in October. Seth Cohen, the company's senior vice president for finance, will become the new CFO. - Jonathan Berr

Wawa Inc.'s former president gets new gig.

Last week, PhillyInc reported on the departure of Wawa Inc.'s president, There du Pont, and his appointment as CFO at drugstore.com. Now, Footnoted.org has ferreted out the fact that his package for the move to Washington state is notably less than drugstore.com gave its new CEO two years ago. Sometimes, a name carries value all by itself.

Two major law firms each announced they have snagged the services of a former Philadelphia city solicitor. Pedro A. Ramos will to go Blank Rome L.L.P. as a partner in its labor practice group and principal in government relations. Nelson A. Diaz will go to Cozen O’Connor and may focus on government relations and dispute resolution. Diaz had been at Blank Rome for 10 years before going into government.

Job title inflation "seems to go hand in hand with the flattening of the organization. People want to be distinguished in some way from everyone else, but in a flat organization there is less hierarchy and therefore less opportunity to be distinguished. One good thing about hierarchy is you can climb a corporate ladder. If there is no ladder, there is nothing to climb." So says Betsey Stevenson, Wharton professor of business and public policy.

Ok. Is this true at Kenexa? (Anybody at Kenexa care to enlighten us? PhillyInc has put in a call to its Chief Communications Officer for comment).

Here's what we really want: Actual examples of unusual, creative or absurd "Chief" titles in your Philly-area company or organization. We need some more real examples.

- Chief Business News Blogging Officer

When Vincent M. Melchiorre left Tasty Baking Co. (Nasdaq: TSTY) 13 months ago to run the Horsham-based $1.2 billion bread-and-roll business of George Weston Ltd. (TSX: WN), he said it was because the job was "too nice an opportunity" to pass up. So what's he doing leaving Weston already barely a year later? Pennsauken's J&J Snack Foods Corp. says it has hired Melchiorre, who worked for two decades at Campbell Soup Co. before going to Tasty, to become its executive vice president and chief marketing officer, effective Monday. J&J Snack Foods had $515 million in sales last year, less than half as much as Weston. We're told by somebody (who knows this business well) that Gerald B. Shreiber, J&J's hard-driving founder and chief executive, pursued Melchiorre relentlessly for months. Fair enough, but what's in it for Melchiorre? Is he a possible successor to Shreiber? Melchiorre did not return our calls today. Shreiber was in California and said by email would talk about it tomorrow. Stay tuned. - Harold Brubaker

We've heard from Vince (See previous post) and here's his take: "I wanted to go back to a company with a Philly connection." He said he enjoyed his time at Tasty Baking Co. for its Philly connections. Even though J&J Snack Foods is smaller than the operation he was in charge of at Weston, he said he'll be more involved with the sales organization and with R&D at J&J. "I grew up in South Philly. What could be better for me than selling soft pretzels?" - Harold Brubaker

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. have found a common interest: gay and lesbian travelers. Southwest has given the city-chartered nonprofit agency $125,000 to help it extend its "Philadelphia - Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay" marketing campaign, an award-winning effort to capture some of the $55 billion a year that gay and lesbian travelers say they spend on going out and about. The funding coincides with Southwest's own launch last month of a Web page aimed at this specialty travel market. The GPTMC's campaign is here. - Tom Belden

Courtesy Emory University

"... Robertson sees business schools as a 'force for good' in the world ... "

"... a highly successful fundraiser ..."

"... Tom Robertson brings a timely vision of international business education that is an ideal fit with the Wharton School's ambitious goal to be the leading creator and provider of management knowledge and education in the world. ..."

Courtesy Wharton School

For what it's worth, Gutmann used the word "entrepreneur" twice, "administrator" once and "academic" four times. Her memo said the search committee chose Robertson over 142 other candidates based on six criteria: 1) an uncompromising commitment to academic excellence, 2) an experienced administrator, 3) an able and energetic fundraiser, 4) a collaborator with a global and interdisciplinary outlook, 5) a demonstrated strong commitment to diversity in all its forms, and 6) a special passion for the Wharton School and the preeminent role that it plays in international business education.

Wharton says its endowment fund a year ago had a market value of $548 million. The fund has grown at a healthy clip. Last year it was up about 26 percent from its June 2004 value of $436 million. That was about 17 percent higher than its June 2003 value of about $372 million. The current endowment value is not disclosed. But if Robertson can keep up a growth rate of even 15 perecnt, he could become Wharton's "Billion-Dollar Dean" within four years.

All this makes us wonder about the priorities. Can a focus on fund-raising detract from, or sometimes conflict with, a business school's academic rigor and value to students? What do you think Wharton, specifically, needs most from its new dean?

- Thomas Ginsberg

Just happen to notice this: Steven D. Levitt, author of bestseller Freakonomics with Stephen J. Dubner, says on their blog that they have an actual international fan club. It has two members (not counting Levitt's mother) named Janice and Carole Szelich. It turns out the Szelichs live in Trenton. Go figure, a hotbed of maverick economics.
- Thomas Ginsberg

Winning a jury verdict for $78 million in back-pay for 186,000 current and former Pennsylvania employees of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Sam's Club for off-the-clock work and missed breaks has put Philadelphia lawyer Michael Donovan, of Donovan Searles L.L.C., in the running to be named 2007 Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Public Justice Foundation, a Washington group which promotes public interest law. Last year, the group's nominees included Merrill G. Davidoff, Peter Nordberg and David F. Sorensen of Philadelphia’s Berger & Montague P.C. And in 2004, the group honored a team of lawyers for going after DuPont over its chemicals in plastic containers. This year's award ceremony is on July 17 in Chicago. Donovan's Wal-Mart case is one of eight in the finals. Wal-mart vowed to appeal the October 2006 jury verdict.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

- Thomas Ginsberg

- Joseph Galante

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"You cannot use good meat. It has to be fatty and stringy. The Four Seasons serves a cheesesteak. Under no circumstances should you eat one there. ... You cannot use real cheese. It doesn't get into the nooks and crannies of the fatty, stringy meat. You have to use Cheez-Whiz."

The governor then referred to a so-called Philly cheesesteak he ate in Seattle. "When he took off the onions from the grill, he actually drained off the grease."

- Michael Klein

Nothing like covering the auditions for American Idol to reaffirm how powerful people's workplace connections are.
Tara DiOrio, 28, of Prospect Park, is the personal assistant to the executive of a local paint company. (She's the one singing "Walkin' After Midnight" in Philly.com's video) Her boss is paying her to try out. Joel Correa, 18, of Northeast Philadelphia, works at a local Circuit City store. "My managers are so stoked and they want all the nitty gritty," he said.
Jenn Jewell, a senior bank teller in York County, said, "When the radio comes on and there are no customers in there, we all stand and sing." Arleen Alexander works in a Home Depot in the Detroit area. Her co-workers made a good luck banner for the break room and if she gets any further in the process, they've promised a banner outside the store. "It's a great feeling to know everyone's on my side."

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Did you see the previous item about Klaus Besier's new job? The current chief executive of Neoware Inc. (NASDAQ:NWRE) in King of Prussia will become Vice President, Thin Client Business Unit at Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ:HPQ) once H-P's acquisition of Neoware closes, perhaps later this year.

You gotta love his job title! Thin Client.

If that's not brilliant marketing ploy, we don't know what is. Wonder if there's a weight limit. Oh yeah, baby, you're thin, please buy my laptop. Probably harder to bring revenue into the Tubby Client Business Unit. That's the real challenge. If Besier were really good, they'd put him in charge of the Tubby unit -- let him turn that one around.

OK, now that we've had a lot of fun with the term "Thin Client," one of our tech-heads (my boss, paid the big bucks to be smart) provided a definition. It's a computer that is functional only when connected to a particular server. Therefore it's "thin" as in meager, as opposed to "thin" as in svelte. However, it is also svelte because it has fewer inner gizzards. The computer is the "client" of the server.

Do you have any wonderful business terms you love? Send them in -- see if you can beat "thin client!" Include two definitions -- whatever wacko, yet printable, and somewhat plausible one that is inspirational to you, and the real one. Please distinguish between the two. Sometimes the absurd is more real than reality, as we all know.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

___________________
From: Brady, Tom
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 2:06 PM
Subject: Tom Bradys of the world, Unite!

When last you heard from me on a personal level, I was writing about how tough it was being named Tom Brady when some guy of the same name was quarterbacking the New England Patriots to a win against our beloved Eagles.

Well, the other day, lo and behold, I received a letter here. I began reading and thought Whoa!, why is this person talking about school matters to me of all people? I'm not the interim CEO of Philadelphia schools just as I'm not the once and present New England quarterback.

Finally, I took a closer look at the address. Sure enough, it was addressed to Tom Brady, interim CEO of the Philadelphia School District. I decided that it might be nice to forward the letter to the newest TB on the block, whose office after all is right next door in what was originally built as the TV Guide Building at 440 North Broad St. A number of Tom Bradys had worked in this very building over the years, including one TB who had driven a truck here while pursuing a career as a fine artist.

Here in its entirety, is the letter I wrote to the chief executive officer:

Dear Tom Brady,

I must admit I feel I've known you all my life. I'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood. The enclosed letter was mistakenly sent to me next door at the Philadelphia Inquirer. My colleagues have been telling me that I can now look forward to receiving your much larger salary. Wish it were so. By the way, good luck in Monday's game against the Bengals.

Best Wishes,

Tom Brady

Now I'll just relax and await the arrival of the next Tom Brady to make use of my good name.

We recently got wind of the fact that Wharton's new dean, Thomas Robertson, has shared ownership of a Cape Cod vacation house for more than two decades with ex-Wharton marketing professor L. Scott Ward, the convicted (and now sentenced) pedophile. We were in the process of checking it out when Philadelphia magazine ran this piece last week. It includes Robertson's statement that he is "appalled" and had no idea that his old friend was leading some kind of double life. Robertson says he first learned about Ward's other life in 2006, when Ward was arrested for the last time. Robertson was named to the Wharton job in June 2007. Nothing illegal, of course, in co-owning a house with a colleague who has an arrest record. And as far as we can tell, the friendship was nothing that should have disqualified a highly qualified person like Roberston for a high university post after an apparently exhaustive (see p.2 of of Gutmann's original announcement) search. After all, Lots of people at Wharton knew and were friends with Ward, too, during the whole period. Not sure where all this goes. But there it is, for now.

- Thomas Ginsberg

David L. Cohen's day job is executive vice president at Comcast Corp. But he has been adding other big titles at an impressive clip. Last Thursday, the National Urban League and Comcast said in a joint statement that Cohen would join the New York-based NUL's board of trustees. It's part of a new community-building partnership between the organization and the cable corporation. It accompanied Comcast's induction into the NUL's "Five Million Dollar Hall of Fame" for big donors, although unclear if the moves were linked. Back in October, Cohen was picked to become the next board chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on boards of University of Pennsylvania and Comcast itself.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Clinton O. Price Sr. had retired just this past month as chairman and CEO of John Middleton Inc. a privately held tobacco firm with facilities in King of Prussia and Limerick that was sold in November for $2.9 billion to Altria Group Inc., parent of Philip Morris U.S.A.

Price died Dec. 22 from injuries sustained in an automobile crash Dec. 20 in Upper Merion Township. Price had planed to play an advisory role during the transition. Price was 65 and lived in King of Prussia. He started as factory worker and worked his way to company chairman. Price is credited with developing the production process for the Black & Mild brand cigar, which has a blend of pipe and cigar tobacco.

- Sally Downey

Three men from the region's business and economic development communities have been tapped for three-year terms on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. An honor, yes, but anyone serving on the nine-member board is in a position to throw in their two cents about economic conditions and try to influence monetary policy. The new board members are:

* Keith S. Campbell, chairman of Mannington Mills, the flooring maker in Salem, N.J. (His local paper has a lot of background here);

* Ted T. Cecala, chairman and CEO of Wilmington Trust (NYSE:WL) , the big Delaware bank;

* Jeremy Nowak, president and CEO of The Reinvestment Fund, the Philadelphia organization that finances neighborhood revitalization.

Philadelphia commercial real estate lawyer Robert D. Lane Jr. has joined fast-growing Stevens & Lee P.C. to "help build the firm's real estate and project finance practice" around Philadelphia. Lane will reprise his earlier role building similar practices at Morgan Lewis (1998-2005) and Pepper Hamilton (1989-97) before detouring to join onetime Philadelphia GOP mayoral candidate Sam Katz in an attempt to build a Chinese infrastructure development company. The partners had set up deals in Fuzhou and Tianjin, but were unable to convert them into paying propositions, especially after a 2006 Chinese law restricted international joint ventures. Lane said the partners did develop "relationships with major global real estate companies and equity funds," which Lane expects will prove useful in representing corporate tenants in "diverse transactions." Lane's past clients include Albert Einstein Healthcare, Amoco, Forest City, IBM, McDonald's, and Towers Perrin, among others.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Here on The Inquirer's business news desk, we like to play a game that I call "Stump Mike." It happens when a reporter or editor encounters some local firm we've never seen or heard of before. The head-scratching journalist then approaches Deputy Business Editor Michael W. Armstrong.

"Yo, Mike. You ever heard of this outfit?"

Almost always, Mike answers with a confident yes. Often, he'll go on to name several board members and the companies they work for, plus any challenges the enterprise faces in the marketplace or the courts.

He hardly ever draws a blank. It's really quite stunning. I've been working with Mike for most of the nearly 10 years he's been here, and while I've probably seen more than a hundred efforts to stump him, I've seen him stumped just once. I'm pretty sure that outfit turned out to be a scam.

As his formal title implies, Mike's job is to keep the business editor -- that would be me -- from injuring himself or others. Mike is very good at his job.

So, I felt like I was shooting myself in the foot when I asked him to consider doing something completely different. He agreed, and this week he began trying his hand at that new role: full-time writer of this blog and the PhillyInc column that appears on the front page of The Inquirer's weekday business sections.

Since the blog and column debuted in May, they have been under the direction of Assistant Business Editor Tom Ginsberg. Tom has done a great job of giving PhillyInc an entertaining and provocative voice, even as it reflected the many different voices of the newsroom's business staff and other contributors.

That's a lot like herding cats.

Tom and I began to understand why people say that a blog needs a single voice. And we immediately thought of Mike Armstrong, a walking Philadelphia business encyclopedia with a sense of humor and a relentless dedication to accuracy. Tom, an award-winning journalist who has reported from around the globe and was our pharmaceutcal industry reporter before taking on PhillyInc, will now oversee our Sunday and Monday business sections.

The good news for me is that while Mike is making PhillyInc his own, he'll still be close enough to keep me out of trouble.

Right, Mike?

Mike?

-- Tony Gnoffo, Inquirer Business Editor

True Product ID Inc. , a tiny Philadelphia company working on anti-counterfeiting technology, has hired as the head of the China Trade Center of Philadelphia.

KeKe Wang, 47, who organized the first two trade missions for the city of Philadelphia to China in 2001 and 2006, will be president of True Product. A regulatory filing says he will earn no less than $150,000 per year.

Wang founded the China Trade Center in 1992, according to the document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also helped start Pennsylvania's first trade office in China in 1993 and was appointed in 1996 to represent the state in Tianjin, China's fourth-largest city.

- Mike Armstrong

Don Gayhardt, president of Dollar Financial Inc. , will resign as of May 31.

The Berwyn operator of check-cashing stores said that Gayhardt, who's been an executive there since 1990, will be pursuing "opportunities in the private equity industry."

In a news release, Dollar Financial CEO Jeff Weiss says:

"While it is with great regret that we announced Don's resignation, I look forward to continuing to benefit from Don's counsel on company matters relating to corporate strategy, acquisitions, and regulation."

Weiss says he and Gayhardt built Dollar Financial from a small chain with $14 million in annual revenue to one with more than 1,400 locations and revenues of $409.9 million for its fiscal year ended June 30.

Gayhardt, who will also step down from the board of directors, will not be replaced. A filing with the SEC says that he will be paid "an amount equal to his base salary" and contribute to the cost of his health insurance premiums for one year.

According to Dollar Financial's most recent proxy statement, Gayhardt earned a salary of $475,000 for its most recent fiscal year.

Shares of Dollar Financial were down about 3 percent, or 84 cents, to $22.23 shortly after noon.

- Mike Armstrong

Another Philadelphia-area company that named a new CEO is TargetRx Inc.

The Horsham company tapped Craig H. Scott as president and CEO, succeeding Michael J. Luby. Scott had been president of the Catalina Health Resource division of Catalina Marketing Corp. He left following the $1.7 billion buyout of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina in October.

Catalina Health has offices in Blue Bell.

Luby, who founded TargetRx, will remain on the board of directors and a full-time employee.

The small privately held company has developed a database to help pharmaceutical companies better under how physicians prescribe drugs. Drug companies use the information in an effort to make their sales and marketing programs more efficient.

Since June 2000, TargetRx has raised $37 million in venture capital from New Enterprise Associates, Domain Associates L.L.C., Acacia Venture Partners, Quaker BioVentures, Montagu Newhall Associates and Wasatch Advisors.

- Mike Armstrong