Finally, A Business Leader Steps Up…
Finally, A Business Leader Steps Up…
…In Los Angeles. But a new face on the Philly school board provides hope that private sector expertise might be on its way
May. 22, 2018
For the longest fourth dimension, our business community has chosen to lead from backside, to resurrect an old Obama-era complaint. While other cities—like Atlanta—avowal an engaged CEO grade that dictates economic growth policies to elected officials, we've become more of a co-operative-office town, with a timid Chamber of Commerce representing executives who—far from lending their expertise to local government— defer to elected leaders who seem committed to doing just enough to get through the next election.
Last calendar month, I brought you lot the story of i business organisation mover and shaker in our midst who has had the temerity to stick his head higher up the go-along-to-become-along pack. Jerry Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust , has put together a various coalition to lobby for revenue enhancement reform that would simultaneously see him pay more in taxes while fueling job growth throughout the city. Information technology's the kind of bold thinking we see far too seldom from our siloed private sector machers .
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Don't get me incorrect: We are brimming full of business leaders who are philanthropic, and who crave of their charges that they exercise actually practiced works. Only they shy away from getting their hands messy in the muck that is local politics and regime. We demand more than of them to stride upward and lend their strategic and managerial expertise to the plodding ways of urban center government.
"In the Boy Scouts, in Church, there were people making you amend, serving yous," says Walker. "When you've been served past others, it means you besides have to serve."
That'southward what happened in New York nether so-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who went exterior the educational institution and hired corporate lawyer Joel Klein to turn around the city's schools and who recruited Bob Steel, former Wachovia Bank CEO and Goldman Sachs vice chair, to be his Deputy Mayor for Economic Evolution; past the end of Steel'southward tenure in 2013, he'd streamlined ten mayoral agencies and the city had set a record for task growth.
Earlier this calendar month, Los Angeles' elected school lath named Austin Beutner superintendent of the nation'south second-largest school district. Like Klein, Beutner brings fresh eyes to the too-oft insular world of education. He's a former investment banker and the former publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times. He has also served every bit deputy mayor in LA, so he has some political experience to go with his widely respected financial apprehending and negotiating skills.
Buetner was an out-of-the-box pick because, as i school board member put it, "If y'all e'er do what y'all've ever washed, you lot always get what y'all always have gotten. The status quo is not adept plenty for our kids. We don't accept the luxury of waiting."
To his credit, Mayor Kenney'southward mitt-picked school board doesn't contain the usual suspects, the politicos and the donors and the hangers-on. When the list offset became public, I scoured it. It was, at outset chroma, a promising group—well-pregnant, earnest local patriots. Just was there anyone who had demonstrated the ability to set up a vision and transform large-scale organizations? Someone who had succeeded by thinking strategically, by managing a bureaucracy, by coming together payroll and motivating underlings to be better than they'd ever imagined?
No 1 jumped out, not at first…but, then, what was this?… who was this?…some dude named Wayne Walker? President of Walker Nell Partners, an international business concern consulting house focusing on corporate governance, turnaround management, corporate restructuring and bankruptcy matters. Uh, that sounds kinda perfect. He'd spent 15 years as senior counsel at the DuPont Visitor in Wilmington, Delaware. He was Chairman of the Board of Habitat for Humanity International, and currently chairs National Philanthropic Trust, a public charity with $6 billion in assets that has distributed over $1 billion around the globe.
Holy crap. I had one question for Wayne Walker when he picked up his phone on the starting time band: "How come I've never heard of you?"
He laughed heartily. "Well, there are about six million people in the Philadelphia metro region," he said.
Turns out, Walker, 59, initially declined to serve on the reconstituted school lath. But Stephanie Naidoff, the quondam urban center commerce director and a strength of nature in her own right, refused to take no for an answer. In her capacity as one of the nominating committee members, Naidoff had been on a mission to notice some individual sector heft. In search of candidates with financial and strategic expertise, she combed through the records of accounting clan and legal community reports, making cold calls.
"I didn't even know her," Walker recalls. "Merely I was flattered and humbled by the interest."
When Walker turned her downwards, Naidoff kept calling. Sounds similar she stalked y'all, I offer, and at that place'south that laugh again: "I gauge you could say that."
Nosotros are chock full of business leaders who shy away from getting their hands messy in the muck that is local politics and authorities. We need more of them to step up and lend their strategic and managerial expertise to the plodding ways of urban center authorities.
Ultimately, Walker says, he came to run into that his skill set met the moment. "My groundwork in corporate governance and turnarounds will be helpful," he says. He's not an academic, and won't pretend to be. Instead, he'll exist doing what is almost needed: "Establishing strategies, empowering the CEO, holding staff operationally answerable."
Sounds like a much-needed plan. Superintendent William Hite by and large receives good marks for his stewardship of the Commune in turbulent times, but when boxes of unused textbooks are establish in shuttered schoolhouse basements and when the individual company hired for $34 1000000 to provide substitute pedagogy to 75 percentage of classrooms only managed to practice so for xx percentage , it'south clear that management is not his strongest suit.
Here's hoping, also, that Walker's instance helps encourage others to similarly serve. Walker calls his Board service "my take a chance," recognizing information technology as the natural extension of a life committed to putting his skills to use beyond the enrichment of his ain bank account. Walker grew up in Macon, Georgia; his begetter was a welder, and his female parent worked at an auto parts visitor, eventually rising to supervisor.
"I didn't grow upwardly with a silver spoon in the traditional sense," says the commencement generation college graduate. "Simply I had a hamlet. My mother had an unshakeable delivery to education. Before breakfast and afterward school, she'd sit down with my sister and me, running through flash cards and our spelling words. In the Male child Scouts, in Church, there were people making you lot improve, serving you. When you've been served past others, it means y'all likewise have to serve."
Walker is just getting to know his fellow Board members and he waxes enthusiastic about their various strengths, instant camaraderie and shared commitment. He calls the public the Board'southward "shareholders," and the notion of public officials feeling a fiduciary responsibility to citizens seems similar a refreshing change.
Markets are neither expert nor bad. They tin can punch above their weight; it's what you exercise with that power that matters. Maybe something is happening here? Hither'due south hoping that the openness in LA and New York to public service past those with individual management experience is starting to catch on here. After all, we accept Sweeney shaking things upwardly, while condo king-turned-Councilman Allan Domb's recent questioning of the city's financial stewards has revealed that the urban center hasn't reconciled depository financial institution statements in years and has misplaced millions of dollars.
And now we'll have Walker—a great find—coming out of the C suite, using market expertise to exert public good. We don't need more ideologues. We need people with the skills to make Philadelphia efficient again.
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/finally-a-business-leader-steps-up/
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